Category Archives: Posts

Blog Post 3

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/permissive-and-protective-software-licenses/

For this blog entry I’ve decided to dig into the world of software licenses. In class we went over quite a few different licenses like GPL, MIT, and Apache, but just looking through the https://www.tldrlegal.com/browse site, it’s clear we only scratched the surface. That’s not even including the fact that from what I understand anyone can make up their own license with a word doc and lawyer, and the list of different licenses just grows. Yet despite that all licenses have a common goal, which is to explain who can do what with somebodies work and what they can do with it. This is a very important aspect to software development, which I never really considered as something I would have to think too deeply on, mainly because legal matters aren’t really my expertise. Because of that I wanted to find a blog post that could break things down in a way even someone like me could understand.

In my search I found How Do Open Source Licenses Work? Permissive and Protective Software Licenses Explained written by David Clinton. In the post David broke the types of licenses into two categories, permissive and protective.

On the permissive side we have licenses like MIT and Apache. With these types of licenses they basically let people do almost whatever they want. The article puts it pretty clearly: permissive licenses “give you the right to use the software for any purpose – including commercial purposes – and the right to modify the software to suit your needs.” For someone like me who prefers simple, straightforward rules, this one seemed the one I’d be most compatible with.

Then we have protective licenses, which David also referred to as restrictive licenses. These are the copyleft licenses like GPL that we went over in class. Similar to permissive licenses they give the users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software, but with the extra conditions that said software must remain free and open source now and forever. Considering this I can understand why David would call these types of licenses restrictive, but at the same time a part of me understands and appreciates someone who would choose this type of license.

After reading this blog post I definitely got a better understanding of the different types of licenses and David did a good job in breaking it down to the essentials. The thing though is that while it answered the question on how licenses work, I am now posed with the question of which type I’d choose. On the one hand I like the flexibility of permissive licenses and the fact that you can either share or sell your work. On the other hand protective licenses seem to prioritize “the little guy” and keeping improvements in the open, which I like, but I also know if I put in the work of making improvements I would like the option to get paid, though I guess that says more about me. So much too think about.

From the blog CS@Worcester – CS Notes Blog by bluu1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Blog Post 1

https://github.blog/engineering/engineering-principles/how-we-use-github-to-be-more-productive-collaborative-and-secure/

Since we’ve been going over GitHub and how and why we use it in class, I decided to pick an article right from the source. In the blogpost How we use GitHub to be more productive, collaborative, and secure, Mike Hanley describes how the staff at GitHub use GitHub themselves as well as how they’ve made new additions with developers in mind. A neat thing I thought as developers themselves working on GitHub I’m sure they thought “wouldn’t it be nice if…” then realizing “oh wait we can just add that”. One of those features that the blog mentions is the “new code search and code view”, which allows for a more quick and easy way to sift through multiple lines of code.

Another point in the blog was about productivity and under that Codespaces. As we had used Codespaces during the GitKit Chapters, it felt well integrated, so I was pretty surprised to find out that it was something that they had only recently implemented and started using (they started using Codespaces in 2021 and the article was written in 2022). Based on the article, this allowed what once took 45 minutes on local hardware to 60 seconds on much faster hardware then most would have on hand. This alone struck me as a sort of equalizer, allowing for more inclusivity in the fact that you don’t need to spend a lot of money on hardware to be on the same “playing field” as other developers.

The last main point in the blog goes into GitHub’s stance on security, which I guess isn’t to surprising as Mike Hanley’s current role in GitHub as well as his previous role was being in charge of security. Anyways, too often is cybersecurity put on the backburner until an inevitable data breach occurs, then it’s all “we value our customers security and privacy” and “security is our number one priority”. Mr. Hanley also seems to see things the same way, as he mentions how they were “still pleading with organizations to implement multi-factor authentication…”, something I consider to be pretty bare-minimum in terms of keeping ones accounts safe. Due to this stance on security I was glad to see that GitHub actually enforces multi-factor authentication with security keys. Another method of keeping things secure is their use of CodeQL. According to the article, in the same open-source spirit that GitHub was founded with, CodeQL queries are also open-source where either GitHub or other developers can share vulnerability patterns. This allows for not just “one set of eyes” to pinpoint possible exploits but instead the entire community.

Reading this article has given me a better sense of how the tools and practices we’re learning now actually look in a professional environment. On top of that seeing GitHub’s own team use features like code search, Codespaces, and built-in security tools shows how even though it feels like we’re leagues apart we’re still on even footing.

From the blog CS@Worcester – CS Notes Blog by bluu1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Intro Post – CS-348

Hey this is my introduction post to CS Notes Blog

This blog will be for me to post about the different things I’ll be learning about in CS-348.

The current use of this space is to fulfill the course objectives, if I find it helpful I may continue to use it. We’ll see.

From the blog CS@Worcester – CS Notes Blog by bluu1 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.