Category Archives: CS-348

How to Effectively Manage Software Licenses

There is no doubt that licenses are incredibly important in a world where knowledge is being shared and compiled on a global scale. However, there is also no doubt that licenses can be incredibly complex. For this reason, organizations have designed systems to manage software licenses that help make the often convoluted licensing world easier to understand and follow.

Michelle’s blog, Software License Management Best Practices, defines software license management as, “The process of tracking, controlling, and optimizing software licenses within an organization” (Michelle). Through such a system, businesses can more easily maintain legal compliance, reducing unnecessary expenses that results from licensing conflicts, thereby maximizing the value of their software investments.

So how can one create an effective software license management system? Well, just as it is true for all solutions to a problem, here requires a clear and defined strategy.

An effective strategy can take on many forms, and it often varies from company to company depending on the specific circumstances. However, the key is that the strategy must be clear. It should outline the purpose and responsibilities for the organization’s license management system, establishing clear license usage policies and guidelines that are communicated to the executives and developers alike.

Another way to effectively manage licenses is to determine the usage of different software throughout the company. This can be done by cataloging and organizing the software inventory, as well as conducting regular software audits to identify and rectify any software uses are in non-compliance. Having an organized inventory will also help companies keep their licenses up to date, which will allow them to avoid temporary access disruptions and any service fees that may occur from mismanagement.

While many of strategies mentioned above can be done manually, it becomes more and more difficult to manage for larger companies that work with dozens of different software associated with different licenses. For this reason, it is recommended that in such cases, companies use software that utilizes license management tools, which can facilitate the license management process. Of course, it is always better to automate, when possible, to decrease the chances of error.

Software license management is a side many software developers would rather ignore, but it is a necessary aspect of software development that cannot be overlooked. Though I have never developed software that required strict licensing, I will be working on my capstone project next semester, which will require a good understanding of software licensing. For this reason, in addition to learning about the different licenses and how they operate, I also decided to research more about how licenses can be effectively managed to better prepare myself for my capstone project and later in the future when I enter the professional software development field.

Source: https://tangent.com/blog/software-license-management-best-practices/

From the blog Stories by Namson Nguyen on Medium by Namson Nguyen and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

JavaFX: First Touch

Hello to all 3 people who read my blogs. Today I want to share with you the most recent reasons for my ever-so-constant headaches, JavaFX. JavaFX is a powerful framework for building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in Java. The main reason why I’m dedicating time to it is that I need to hone my skills to make one of my projects more user-friendly and a tad bit more professional and appealing.

One of the first challenges I faced while beginning to work with it was the actual setup. Many different IDEs require a different set of requirements to be installed or added before using a specific language or module. In my personal case, setting up JavaFX with my preferred IDE which is IntelliJ proved to be a little more challenging than usual as the video tutorial I was following had an older version of both JavaFX and IntelliJ which had fewer options than my versions which made it hard to find the correct “buttons” to set everything up, but nevertheless I made it work.

When the time came to actually create the interfaces I’ll admit that I was a little overwhelmed as I did not even know where to start, but following free online tutorials helped me a lot to create my first interface. Here is a sample of what JavaFX code looks like.

// Sample code for creating a simple JavaFX UI

public class MyJavaFXApp extends Application {
public static void main(String[] args) {
launch(args);
}

@Override
public void start(Stage primaryStage) {
    primaryStage.setTitle("My JavaFX App");

    Button btn = new Button("Click me!");
    btn.setOnAction(e -> System.out.println("Button clicked!"));

    StackPane root = new StackPane();
    root.getChildren().add(btn);
    primaryStage.setScene(new Scene(root, 300, 200));

    primaryStage.show();
}

}

This code creates a new window that has a single button that says “Click Me!”

It may not look like much but after spending close to three hours just setting everything up, ending with this feels like a great achievement.

Unfortunately, the project that I am working on requires far more functionality as it is meant to do something meaningful and useful (Stay Tuned for the project blog), so my next milestone into the JavaFX journey is going to be adding this functionality and handling the different user-oriented events that will be in the framework of my project.

In conclusion, learning about JavaFX has been a very enlightening experience. I have only scratched the surface of what this framework can do but needless to say, I’m happy with my progress and far more excited about learning more in the future. If any of you fellow students are interested in GUI programming with JavaFX, I highly recommend giving it a try as there are a lot of possibilities with it and apparently, the learning curve is very rewarding.

Till next time. Ano out.

From the blog CS@Worcester – Anairdo's WSU Computer Science Blog by anairdoduri and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Best Practices For Software Documentation

For this week’s blog, I decided to research a bit about documentation standards. I recall working on a lot of documentation for a project in the summer so I wanted to find any blogs that can help me write better documentation. The blog that I found to be particularly helpful is “Software Documentation Best Practices” by David Oragui. In his blog he touches on what software documentation is, types of software documentation, the benefits of creating it, and how to write effective documentation.

Software documentation provides information about software products and systems. The several categories and types will depend on the audience and intended use of the software. The types of software documentation that were discussed were those for end users, developers, as well as system administrators, and other IT professionals. The documentation for end users provides step-by-step instructions for common tasks and describes the features and capabilities of the software. The documentation for developers and other technical stakeholders provides technical information about the software like its API, data structures, or algorithms. The documentation for system administrators and other IT professionals includes installation guides. The breakdown of what each audience would need is very helpful to gain a deeper understanding of the topic. 

The section that explained the benefits of creating software documentation aided in my understanding of its importance. The benefits that were mentioned are improved user experience, enhanced collaboration, increased efficiency, and improved quality. Improved user experience is an obvious benefit but I didn’t think about the other benefits that were mentioned. Now that I’ve read the blog, I understand how it makes the development process consistent and helps developers work more efficiently because the necessary information is easily accessible.

I also found the section about writing effective software documentation extremely helpful. The tips that were included are: (1) Prioritize Documentation in the Development Process, (2) Identify Your Target Audience,  (3) Define the Scope and Goals, (4) Develop a Content Strategy, (5) Create a Style Guide, (6) Write Clearly and Concisely, and (7) Review and Revise. The additional best practices that he included at the end were extremely useful as well. The tips for including examples and exercises, using a consistent structure and format, and ensuring inclusivity and accessibility are very important. I found many of the tips to be familiar. While working on software in the summer, the team I was working with made sure to follow a style guide and include examples. After we split up to write the documentation for different tools, we made sure to have another set of eyes for review. We also used tools to detect gendered and biased language.

Although I am somewhat familiar with software documentation best practices, reading through useful information on the topic helped solidify what I already knew and provided me with new knowledge to put into practice. 

From the blog CS@Worcester – Live Laugh Code by Shamarah Ramirez and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Week-10 Post

This podcast by All The Code discusses the use of GitHub and GitLab APIs for managing software development projects. The host of the podcast conveyed his disdain for GitHub’s API when he was involved in a project that utilized GitHub to share images and video links. Users had to request access to the repository in order to access the content, which the speaker did not like. He emphasized that requesting access on GitHub isn’t user friendly to someone who isn’t experienced with the site. When the hosts talked about GitLab, they described the platform as “amazing” and its ability to do “wonderful stuff”. Additionally, The speakers compared both GitHub and GitLab’s documentation and found GitLab to be the all around better platform documentation wise. Lastly, the podcast hosts argue that GitHub is ideal for large companies as GitLab is suited for smaller companies/teams. I chose this specific podcast because I have worked with both GitHub and GitLab in this class and can’t seem to prefer one over the other. I will say that I was more comfortable with traversing GitHub compared to GitLab. Although GitLab is considered to be easier to navigate, I often find myself struggling to access projects and repositories in different groups within GitLab. I’m hoping as time comes, I will get more comfortable with navigating the platform. This podcast has changed my view on GitLab, knowing that GitLab is more user friendly with documentation is extremely important to consider when choosing which platform to use mainly. Of course, companies will expect their teams to use the same platform to prevent any conversion issues. Having solid documentation in your software development projects is vital so new developers/users can easily understand the project and its goal. Going forward with this information, I will experiment with the various features GitLab has to offer regarding documentation. For example, GitLab has a feature called GitLab Flavored Markdown (GLFM) which gives you the ability to render certain text with a style. GitLab Flavored Markdown allows you the change the color of text, add emojis, create detailed lists, and more.

Selected Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsRZiWPPiEQ&ab_channel=AllTheCode

From the blog CS@Worcester – Computer Science Through a Junior by Winston Luu and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Git and Game Development

     A subject that has always been near and dear to my heart is video games. Throughout my life I have always been deeply enamored with games and the process of their creation, from the intricacies of 3d modeling to the various game engines in use. Despite that, I would not say I am an expert in modern game development by any means. As my classes have progressed however, I have begun to understand more about the inner workings of software development and how teams are managed. This led me to investigate how game developers use these tools to manage projects and keep everything orderly. After doing some research, I found that many game engines are compatible with git and have no issue being stored on GitHub. Not only that but prominent game engines like Unreal Engine even have their source code up on GitHub, available for anyone to fork and clone. This was done to allow developers to modify the game engine itself, for whatever purposes they need. Godot is a free open-source engine that uses the MIT license and is also entirely up on GitHub. Of course, even if an engine does not have their code on GitHub or Gitlab that does not mean you cannot just host your code in an online repository. Thanks to what I have learned this semester, I can now make use of GitHub in the creation of repositories for any game projects I have. 

  It is not enough to learn about how game developers make use of git, project management is also a vital tool for game development. In terms of project frameworks, agile methodologies have seen widespread use within various industries, including the video game industry. Scrum is the most prominent of these methodologies and has been adopted by various companies. Due to the nature of video game development, there is a greater need for cross-disciplined teams comprised of developers versed in various skills. Game development can be effectively chopped up into tasks that fit nicely into each increment, for the medium itself necessitates a functioning step by step pipeline. Level designers cannot do anything without the assets created by artists and so on and so forth. The first couple sprints would work on creating functional assets like 3D models, textures, and game mechanics. The goal of each subsequent sprint would be to create a functional game section by section. I hope to one day make use of scrum and help create a game of my own.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue-on-github

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/production/agile-game-development-with-scrum-teams

https://starloopstudios.com/best-agile-practices-in-game-development/

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Git and Game Development

     A subject that has always been near and dear to my heart is video games. Throughout my life I have always been deeply enamored with games and the process of their creation, from the intricacies of 3d modeling to the various game engines in use. Despite that, I would not say I am an expert in modern game development by any means. As my classes have progressed however, I have begun to understand more about the inner workings of software development and how teams are managed. This led me to investigate how game developers use these tools to manage projects and keep everything orderly. After doing some research, I found that many game engines are compatible with git and have no issue being stored on GitHub. Not only that but prominent game engines like Unreal Engine even have their source code up on GitHub, available for anyone to fork and clone. This was done to allow developers to modify the game engine itself, for whatever purposes they need. Godot is a free open-source engine that uses the MIT license and is also entirely up on GitHub. Of course, even if an engine does not have their code on GitHub or Gitlab that does not mean you cannot just host your code in an online repository. Thanks to what I have learned this semester, I can now make use of GitHub in the creation of repositories for any game projects I have. 

  It is not enough to learn about how game developers make use of git, project management is also a vital tool for game development. In terms of project frameworks, agile methodologies have seen widespread use within various industries, including the video game industry. Scrum is the most prominent of these methodologies and has been adopted by various companies. Due to the nature of video game development, there is a greater need for cross-disciplined teams comprised of developers versed in various skills. Game development can be effectively chopped up into tasks that fit nicely into each increment, for the medium itself necessitates a functioning step by step pipeline. Level designers cannot do anything without the assets created by artists and so on and so forth. The first couple sprints would work on creating functional assets like 3D models, textures, and game mechanics. The goal of each subsequent sprint would be to create a functional game section by section. I hope to one day make use of scrum and help create a game of my own.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue-on-github

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/production/agile-game-development-with-scrum-teams

https://starloopstudios.com/best-agile-practices-in-game-development/

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Git and Game Development

     A subject that has always been near and dear to my heart is video games. Throughout my life I have always been deeply enamored with games and the process of their creation, from the intricacies of 3d modeling to the various game engines in use. Despite that, I would not say I am an expert in modern game development by any means. As my classes have progressed however, I have begun to understand more about the inner workings of software development and how teams are managed. This led me to investigate how game developers use these tools to manage projects and keep everything orderly. After doing some research, I found that many game engines are compatible with git and have no issue being stored on GitHub. Not only that but prominent game engines like Unreal Engine even have their source code up on GitHub, available for anyone to fork and clone. This was done to allow developers to modify the game engine itself, for whatever purposes they need. Godot is a free open-source engine that uses the MIT license and is also entirely up on GitHub. Of course, even if an engine does not have their code on GitHub or Gitlab that does not mean you cannot just host your code in an online repository. Thanks to what I have learned this semester, I can now make use of GitHub in the creation of repositories for any game projects I have. 

  It is not enough to learn about how game developers make use of git, project management is also a vital tool for game development. In terms of project frameworks, agile methodologies have seen widespread use within various industries, including the video game industry. Scrum is the most prominent of these methodologies and has been adopted by various companies. Due to the nature of video game development, there is a greater need for cross-disciplined teams comprised of developers versed in various skills. Game development can be effectively chopped up into tasks that fit nicely into each increment, for the medium itself necessitates a functioning step by step pipeline. Level designers cannot do anything without the assets created by artists and so on and so forth. The first couple sprints would work on creating functional assets like 3D models, textures, and game mechanics. The goal of each subsequent sprint would be to create a functional game section by section. I hope to one day make use of scrum and help create a game of my own.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ue-on-github

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/production/agile-game-development-with-scrum-teams

https://starloopstudios.com/best-agile-practices-in-game-development/

From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Week 10 choosing an Open Source license

Over the past few weeks, we have been learning about licensing and the different kinds and uses they all have. We have now even started to choose/implement our own inside our own group projects. In addition, the homework we did had to do with licenses.  With so much already learned about licensing why would I gain from learning more about this topic? Sometimes when doing work in a time-constrained environment you don’t absorb all the information and with this being at my own pace I can review and learn new things I may have missed or not seen. 

With all the information we have been learning about licenses you may think it’s hard to retain all this information but one key thing you should remember is that licenses can be split up into two categories copyleft licenses or permissive licenses. A copyleft license basically makes the modified open-source work be released under the same license. The original copyleft license is GPL (general public license) which means that any project using GPL must be open source as well. Another example of a copyleft license is LGPL (Lesser General Public License) is considered much more commercial-friendly than GPL because it has no requirements for software that only uses the license project. On the other side of the spectrum, there are permissive licenses that don’t put restrictions on people using a project. An example of a permissive license would be MIT which allows users to do whatever they want except they must contain the copyright statement and the original license. Even with all the possible choices for a license, you must ask yourself what your project needs and look at examples if ever stuck. Also, don’t forget to choose a license because this will cause much more harm you will restrict your code from being used by anyone except yourself.  

Reading this article allowed me to see licenses in a more simple and enclosed way instead of being bombarded with multiple different licenses. Being able to split up licenses into categories in a concise way allowed me to see how licenses weren’t as complicated as I thought. Now when I am shown a license I can automatically put it in a category and understand the major functions of what restrictions may it have. Also, it is easier to know the purpose of my project and be able to pinpoint the exact license I may need. I know I make it sound simple but the process in itself can be overwhelming having a foundation can make the process not as nerve-racking. 

https://www.codecademy.com/article/choosing-an-open-source-license

From the blog cs-wsu – DCO by dcastillo360 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Kubernetes Clusters: What they are, and why it may become the most in-demand skill in the 2020’s

To say that the use of containers has revolutionized how applications are designed and deployed would be an understatement. Gone are the days of applications being run on physical servers, as due to the issues with resource management, the alternative of using virtual machines to run multiple applications on a single CPU provides vastly more flexibility to developers. One downside of virtualization, however, is that these virtual machines are considered rather “heavy.” Each VM is a fully-functional machine, running a full OS in addition to whatever virtualized hardware is added on. In environments where each server’s CPU may have multiple virtual machines running, the same issue occurs; high resource usage.

To solve this problem, the use of containerized software has become common. Containers share the same OS instance as the host machine, as opposed to a VM, which has an entirely separate OS. This leads to a multitude of benefits, such as reducing image storage size. While a VM uses images multiple gigabytes large, container images are much smaller; often measured in megabytes. Additionally, containers are entirely independent, meaning they are much more easily portable, which leads to faster and easier deployment.

One major drawback to containers is the upkeep. Containers must have a specific amount of resources added to them, such as memory usage, while also, like anything else, can fail and need repair.

Enter Kubernetes; an open source platform designed to automatically conduct these maintenance tasks. Kubernetes uses clusters as the basis for their infrastructure, each containing nodes which run and manage the application. Control plane nodes manage scheduling, the API server, and other services. Worker nodes are where applications are actually run, with larger applications using more worker nodes than smaller ones.

If such a platform is so valuable, why are so many positions left unfilled? Because jobs working with Kubernetes are hard.

On the one hand, developing and maintaining applications with Kubernetes requires experienced engineers, and time. The nature of the environment simply demands developers have the knowledge and experience to implement it.

On the other hand, because Kubernetes is such a new technology, the field is rapidly evolving, requiring developers to evolve along with it. Each change requires testing and optimization, as well as programmers needing to continue to broaden their expertise.

Why is this problematic? In addition to creating a work environment prone to causing burnout among employees, engineers working in this field can outgrow their positions quickly. As they gain more experience and widen their skillset, many move on to positions that offer higher pay. According to Forbes, Kubernetes engineers spend an average of just 18 months in their positions before moving on.

This creates a cycle; engineers are hired to work on Kubernetes platforms, hold their positions for a short while, and either due to the intense workload, higher paying positions, or a mix of both, move on. This leaves an opening in their previous position, which must be filled by a new hire. Rinse and repeat.

Works Cited:

Budhani, Haseeb. “Council Post: Addressing the Kubernetes Skills Gap.” Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/05/10/addressing-the-kubernetes-skills-gap/?sh=2a1430223f42. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.

“Overview.” Kubernetes, kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2023.

Poulton, Nigel. “What Is Kubernetes, and Why Should I Learn It?” Www.pluralsight.com, 2 Jan. 2023, http://www.pluralsight.com/blog/cloud/what-is-kubernetes#:~:text=Kubernetes%20is%20notorious%20for%20having. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.

From the blog Butler Software Construction, Design, and Architecture by Griffin Butler and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Software Licensing

Software licensing is everywhere in the technical world, and for good reason. Without it, our current copyright laws would make it impossible to distribute software in ways that are both beneficial for the user and developer. Fernando Galano does a great job explaining what software licenses are and how they are used in his blog, “Understanding Software Licensing” (https://www.bairesdev.com/blog/understanding-software-licensing/).

What is a Software License?

In short, a software license is a legal contract between the developers of a software and its users. We, as users, have all been asked to check a box in the past agreeing that we have read and agreed to the terms and conditions.  These terms and conditions are called an end-user license agreement (EULA) and spell out the rights and liabilities of both the user and software provider.

What Does a Software License Cover?

EULAs are typically large documents that contain information on how the end-user may install, modify, copy, or distribute the software. These are the more common things to find, however, they are not limited to this.  EULAs may also specify time of use, pricing, and support. These documents are usually very large because of the extent of topics they cover. 

Different Software Licenses:

Public Domain License:

  • Software under a public domain license can be used, modified and distributed freely with little to no restrictions. Not all free software has a public domain license.

Copyleft License:

  • Software under a copyleft license may be modified and distributed providing the modified software is distributed under the same terms as the source code.

GNU Lesser General Public License:

  • Software under a GNU Lesser General Public License may have its code altered or used in other software and distributed under a different license. 

Permissive License:

  • Permissive licenses are open sources licenses with requirements on how users may modify, reproduce, or distribute. This gives developers control over what happens to their code.

Proprietary Software License:

  • Typically used for commercial software. Provides the greatest restrictions for users and typically are not allowed to modify, copy, or distribute. 

Using Software Licensing Moving Forward

Quoting the first line from the blog, “Your product could be phenomenal, but before you deploy it, you need to grapple with the legalities surrounding the distribution and usage of your software.” (Fernando Galano).  It is clear to see that without a proper grasp of how software licensing works, development of software can only get so far. The next step in being able to distribute work is to license it properly for its intended use.

From the blog CS@Worcester – CS Learning by kbourassa18 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.