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Possible Ruby-centric NASA SBIR area

Bil Kleb

2/15/2006 3:02:00 PM

I've been asked to write a small topic area
for our SBIR (small business innovation research)
program, which is basically a method to fun small
businesses in $70k, $500k, and $2-3M chunks for
promising research topics. SBIR's premise doesn't fit
too well with open source, but I thought it would
be worth a try. For more information about SBIRs, see
http://sbir.gsf...

The following is a selfish, Ruby-centric draft of a
topic I threw together last night. Please pick it apart,
add to it, ignore it, or whatever, but to have an impact
on this go-around, I need your input by tomorrow morning
(Eastern US time).

Title: Tools to Support Agile, Scientific Software Development

The aim of this "software craftsmanship" topic is
to solicit tools that make it easier for software developers
in general, and scientific programmers in particular, to adopt
agile software development practices. Submissions will achieve
this by creating tools that are easier to learn and use than
the current Unix-style tool set, documenting these tools and
the practices they embody, and remaining readily extendable.
All tools should be portable across Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft
Windows, come with a complete set of automated unit tests, and
be implemented primarily in, or scriptable with, Ruby.

Examples of desired tools include testing frameworks for
Fortran 95, C, and C++ (unit, regression, performance, and
integration), CASE tools (Lakos analysis, calling trees, object
modeling and design, dependency analysis, cyclomatic complexity),
refactoring tools, API documentation tools (e.g., C++ and
Fortran 95 parsers for RDoc), a Textile-to-PDF converter
including embedded LaTeX mathematics and graphics or similar
way to get from simple markup to a typeset document, domain
specific languages, code release and request administration
systems, distributed continuous integration systems, templating
systems for Fortran 95, and novel systems for monitoring
simulations (e.g., Peep:A Network Auralizer or other ambient
means).


Regards,
--
Bil, http://fun3d.lar...
7 Answers

ptkwt

2/15/2006 6:47:00 PM

0

In article <dsvfnr$qqb$1@vilya.larc.nasa.gov>,
Bil Kleb <Bil.Kleb@NASA.gov> wrote:
>I've been asked to write a small topic area
>for our SBIR (small business innovation research)
>program, which is basically a method to fun small
>businesses in $70k, $500k, and $2-3M chunks for
>promising research topics. SBIR's premise doesn't fit
>too well with open source, but I thought it would
>be worth a try. For more information about SBIRs, see
>http://sbir.gsf...

I'm a little bit familiar with SBIRs; I was contracting for a company last
summer and my position was funded by an SBIR. My impression was that you had
to be well-connected to get an SBIR ;-)

>
>The following is a selfish, Ruby-centric draft of a
>topic I threw together last night. Please pick it apart,
>add to it, ignore it, or whatever, but to have an impact
>on this go-around, I need your input by tomorrow morning
>(Eastern US time).
>
> Title: Tools to Support Agile, Scientific Software Development
>
> The aim of this "software craftsmanship" topic is
> to solicit tools that make it easier for software developers
> in general, and scientific programmers in particular, to adopt
> agile software development practices. Submissions will achieve
> this by creating tools that are easier to learn and use than
> the current Unix-style tool set, documenting these tools and
> the practices they embody, and remaining readily extendable.
> All tools should be portable across Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft
> Windows, come with a complete set of automated unit tests, and
> be implemented primarily in, or scriptable with, Ruby.
>
> Examples of desired tools include testing frameworks for
> Fortran 95, C, and C++ (unit, regression, performance, and
> integration), CASE tools (Lakos analysis, calling trees, object
> modeling and design, dependency analysis, cyclomatic complexity),
> refactoring tools, API documentation tools (e.g., C++ and
> Fortran 95 parsers for RDoc), a Textile-to-PDF converter
> including embedded LaTeX mathematics and graphics or similar
> way to get from simple markup to a typeset document, domain
> specific languages, code release and request administration
> systems, distributed continuous integration systems, templating
> systems for Fortran 95, and novel systems for monitoring
> simulations (e.g., Peep:A Network Auralizer or other ambient
> means).

It'd be cool if you can get this. I'm not sure what I'd add. It would be nice
to have an open source MatLab alternative; it's a bit worrying that
a proprietary product is becoming essential in a lot of research.


Phil

julian.kamil@gmail.com

2/15/2006 7:23:00 PM

0

>The aim of this "software craftsmanship" topic is
> to solicit tools that make it easier for software developers
> in general, and scientific programmers in particular, to adopt
> agile software development practices

Add: "and support collaborative web application development."

By this I mean using a Wiki or Wiki-like platform to quickly develop
collaborative web applications. Examples of existing systems include:
Jotspot (http://www.jo...) which is Java-based and Trac
(http://www.edgewall...) which is Python-based--to name a
couple.

Of course my project, Pandora (http://pandora.rub...), is meant
to be such a development platform for Ruby, and I could really use some
funding to get it going... ;-)

Do you have the timeframe for proposal submissions?

Best,

Julian I. Kamil

Bil Kleb

2/16/2006 3:01:00 PM

0

Phil Tomson wrote:
>
> I'm a little bit familiar with SBIRs; I was contracting for a company last
> summer and my position was funded by an SBIR. My impression was that you had
> to be well-connected to get an SBIR ;-)

Here's your chance to write the connection!

Regards,
--
Bil
http://fun3d.lar...

Bil Kleb

2/16/2006 3:03:00 PM

0

julian.kamil@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Add: "and support collaborative web application development."

Done. Thanks.

> Do you have the timeframe for proposal submissions?

No, but the NASA SBIR site should: http://sbir.gsf...

Thanks again,
--
Bil
http://fun3d.lar...

Henrik Martensson

2/18/2006 3:46:00 AM

0

On Wed, 2006-02-15 at 16:03, Bil Kleb wrote:
<snip>
>
> Title: Tools to Support Agile, Scientific Software Development
>
> The aim of this "software craftsmanship" topic is
> to solicit tools that make it easier for software developers
> in general, and scientific programmers in particular, to adopt
> agile software development practices. Submissions will achieve

Project management support tools that are directly geared to supporting
Agile methodologies might be very useful. Agile methodologies are
related to Lean practises, and share the underlying process theory, the
Theory Of Constraints, with Lean. The management tools I've seen so far
are based on older models.

Agile developers and managers might want to have:

* A Kanban iteration planning tool, perhaps integrated in an IDE.
* A Theory Of Constraints based process simulation and visualisation
tool, for trying out various development strategies, and for
presenting them to more business oriented stakeholders.
(Check out
http://kallokain.blo...2006/02/variance-trap-p...
for an example of what such a tool can be used for. The blog entry
is about a very early prototype though.)
* A Throughput Accounting based tool to help make the right
economic decisions and produce the maximum return on investment.

When doing Agile, it is useful to understand how to optimize queue time
and wait time, as well as process time. Most tools today focus on
process time, even though the process time is only a small part (10-30%
or so) of the total time spent in software development projects. Tools
for this could help a bit.

/Henrik

--
http://kallokain.blo... - Blogging from the trenches of software
development
http://www.henrikmarte... - Reflections on software development
http://testunitxml.ruby... - The Test::Unit::XML Home Page
http://declan.ruby... - The Declan Home Page

Robert Love

2/19/2006 6:40:00 PM

0

In <dsvfnr$qqb$1@vilya.larc.nasa.gov> Bil Kleb wrote:
> I've been asked to write a small topic area
> for our SBIR (small business innovation research)
> program, which is basically a method to fun small
> businesses in $70k, $500k, and $2-3M chunks for
> promising research topics. SBIR's premise doesn't fit
> too well with open source, but I thought it would
> be worth a try. For more information about SBIRs, see
> http://sbir.gsf...
>

Is thre any way to produce a Ruby version of SciPy under this funding?
A set of ruby bindings to all the numerical libraries. It is a very
general goal that in turn would allow the development of tools for
specific purposes.

Bil Kleb

2/21/2006 4:47:00 PM

0

Robert Love wrote:
>
> Is thre any way to produce a Ruby version of SciPy under this funding?

I don't see why not.

Regards,
--
Bil Kleb
http://fun3d.lar...