Tag Archives: Open Source

Why you should open source your next pet project

Published May 20, 2013 | In Arduino, Random/Personal

After looking into my github account, lot of people used to ask me why I open source my pet projects, especially after looking at my streak at github (my current streak is at 52 days ;) ) the frequency of the question has increased.

I used to come up with an answer by combining these words randomly (passion, show off, free, rebel, linux, anti-Microsoft, license). But today, I realized that there is another (more important) reason why you should open source your (pet) projects.

Your project might have a longer shelf life than your interest in the project and in some cases longer than your life itself.

You might lose interest in the project, but if you have open sourced it, then there might be someone else who will continue to maintain it. But instead if you had just kept it in your hard drive, then it will just become part of the cosmic dust.

Abandoned projects

I have read about many examples where projects are continued to be maintained by other people, when the original creator has lost interest. _why is one famous example. When he suddenly went offline in Aug 2009 people immediately started creating mirrors of his projects and even though he is no more (in the online world) his projects are still being maintained actively.

None of this would have happened if he had not open sourced his code.

Arduino Makefile

Let’s talk about the project that thought me this.

Sometime back, I came across a post which explained how you can program Arduino from command line by using a makefile. I immediately got hooked and started using it when even I was working on Arduino sketches.

Soon I found out a couple of issues and submitted pull requests. Some of my pull requests were accepted and others weren’t. While browsing through the issues and pull requests of the project in github, I found that there were lot of other people who have also contributed various patches to the project. It also seemed that the original author has stopped doing any development or answering pull requests.

I started to consolidate all pull requests and patches from various forks into a common fork and even updated the readme file expressing my desire that one day all these changes would get into the main repo :)

Fast forward a couple of months.

Last week, I was surprised to receive an email from the original author, saying that he has lost interest in the project and whether I would be interested in maintaining the project going forward. I happily accepted and he transferred the repo to my account, after I merged all my changes back into the main repo.

None of this would have been possible if he didn’t choose to open source the project initially and also let go the project when he lost interest.

Thanks to Github

Ohh, by the way, I should also mention that some of it was possible only because of github. If github wasn’t there, then it would had been difficult for me to find and consolidate other forks and he also wouldn’t have noticed my fork or the effort that I was spending on the project.

Also, the recent addition of redirects by github made the repo transfer really seamless.

So remember to open source your pet projects by at least uploading them to github. Because you may lose interest in the project some day, but the project might still continue to live long after that.

Happy Open sourcing ;)

Posted in Arduino, Random/Personal | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Contributing to project hosted in Github

Published Jan 7, 2013 | In Unix/Server Stuff

As most of you know, I host most of my projects which I have released as open source in Github. I am open for collaboration and generally accept most of the pull requests that people send me.

Recently I noted that not all people who want to contribute are proficient with git or Github. So here is a small guide to help people who are interested in contributing to projects hosted at Github.

Before we proceed just keep in mind, that this is not the only way to do it. But if you are just starting out using git or Github, then this is a good starting point.

Fork the project in Github

The first step is to fork the project at Github. Go to the project that you want to contribute to and then click the fork button near the top right corner.
github-fork

Clone the forked project to your machine

When you fork the project, Github creates the forked project in your account. Once you forked the project, you need to clone it to your machine.

You can use the following command to do it.

git clone git@github.com:sudar/wp-irc.git

Replace it with your actual username and project name

Create a new branch

The next step is to create a new branch. You can use the following command to do that.

git checkout -b branch_name

Commit your changes

After you have made the changes, you have to commit them to the new branch

git add file_name

or

git add -p file_name

Then do

git commit -m "Your commit message"

Push the change to Github

Next you have to push the changes to Github. You can do it by using the following command.

git push -u origin branch_name

Send a pull request

Now go to Github and send a pull request, by clicking the pull request button in Github. The owner of the repo will be notified and he may choose to accept or reject the request.

Keeping your repo upto date

Once the pull request is accepted, you can merge the changes back to your repo by using the following commands.

git remote add upstream git://github.com/sudar/wp-irc.git

git checkout master

git pull --rebase upstream master

git push origin master

Posted in Unix/Server Stuff | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

10 more open source Android apps which every developer must look into

Published May 31, 2012 | In Android/Java

Sometime back, I listed top 10 Open source Android apps, which every developer must look into. It’s been quite sometime since I wrote it and now I am adding a few more to the list.

Ubuntu One

Ubuntu One is a cloud storage service by Ubuntu. They have released an Android app which allows you to upload files to the cloud from your mobile and also manage your Ubuntu One account from your phone.

You can learn how to upload files, make Rest API calls, store auth tokens, detect WIFI activation etc by browsing the source code.

Source code Url: https://code.launchpad.net/ubuntuone-android-files

Mixare

Mixare is an open source Augmented Reality Engine for Android. It is pretty well build and complete.

You will learn how to draw custom shapes on top of the live video feed captures by the camera by browsing the source code. You can also learn about creating Plugin models in Android apps.

Source code Url: http://code.google.com/p/mixare/

Desksms

DeskSMS is an android app that forwards all your text messages and call history to your GTalk, GMail, or a convenient website and browser extension. It written by koushikdutta.com, the author of Rom Manager

You can learn how to read, send and forward sms and call log by browsing the source code. In addition to the android app source code, checkout the other browser extension source code as well.

Source code Url: https://github.com/ClockworkMod/DeskSMS

Call Meter NG

Call Meter NG/3G is an Android application summing up your call and text logs.

You can learn how to read call logs, SMS logs, MMS logs and data logs by browsing the source code. In addition to it, you can also learn how to create variable length widgets, which is one of the cool things about the app.

Source code Url: http://code.google.com/p/callmeter/

Scrobble Droid

Scrobble Droid is an Android app, that keeps track of music you listen and sends the details to Last.fm

You can learn how to track music that is currently playing in Android by browsing the source code. In addition to it, you can also learn how to consume Last.fm API from ndroid.

Source code Url: http://code.google.com/p/scrobbledroid/

Gmote

Gmote is an Android app that turns your Android phone into a remote control for a computer, allowing users to run movies and music at a distance.

You can learn how to transfer touch and other gestures from phone to computer and also about music streaming between phone and computer by browsing the source code.

Source code Url: http://code.google.com/p/gmote/

Ema Personal Wiki

Ema Personal Wiki is a notebook with linkable pages for tracking your ideas, todo lists, tasks, bookmarks, brainstorms etc. The notes are stored in markdown format and can be synchronized using Dropbox account.

You can learn about using markdown and syncing files using Dropbox Api by browsing the source code.

Source code Url: https://github.com/janwillemb/Ema-Personal-Wiki

Chrome to Phone

Google Chrome to Phone Extension is a project consisting of a Chrome Extension, Android App, and supporting AppEngine server that enables users to send links from their Chrome desktop browser to their Android device using Android’s Cloud to Device Messaging service.

You will learn about using C2DM and sharing url from browser by browsing the source code.

Source code Url: http://code.google.com/p/chrometophone/

Android Tetris

It is a Tetris clone for Android.

You will learn about drawing on the canvas by browsing the source code.

Source code Url: http://code.google.com/p/androidtetris/

NFC Tic Tac Toe

This is a sample Tic Tac Toe game implemented using NFC.

You will learn about transfering data using NFC by browsing the source code.

Source code Url: https://github.com/iBadrinath/NFC-TicTacToe

Posted in Android/Java | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

10 Open Source Android Apps which every Android developer must look into

Published Apr 3, 2010 | In Android/Java

I used to read code from popular open source projects to see how others implement certain functionalities and also to learn from them. (I am a firm believer of the fact that you have to read good code to write good code)

Recently I have been following up a couple of good open source Android apps and thought of listing them here so that it could be useful for others.

Update: I have updated this list with a new set of apps, which have come out recently. Check out them as well.

Sample Apps by Android Team

Could there be a better way to start without looking at the code of the developers who developed the framework? ;) These are 15 different android sample apps created by the core developers of the Android framework. These include a couple of games, photostream, time display, home screen shortcuts etc.

url : http://code.google.com/p/apps-for-android/

Remote Droid

RemoteDroid is an android app which turns your phone into a wireless keyboard and mouse with touchpad, using your own wireless network. You can learn lot of things like connecting to a network, controlling user finger movement etc from its source.

url: http://code.google.com/p/remotedroid/

TorProxy and Shadow

TorProxy is an implementation of Tor for Android mobiles. Together with Shadow, it allows you to browse website anonymously from your mobile phone. You can learn about tunnelling socket connections, managing cookies etc by reading its source code.

url: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/code/svn/android-tor/ and http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/dtg/android/tor/

Android SMSPopup

It is an Android app that intercepts incoming text messages and displays them in a popup window. Apart from being a time saver, this app also shows us how to interface with the built-in app that manages SMS.

url: http://code.google.com/p/android-smspopup/

Standup Timer

Standup Timer is an Android application that acts as a simple, stand-up meeting stop watch. It can be used to ensure your stand-up meeting finishes on time, and gives all the participants an equal share of time to state their progress. You can learn how to use the timer functionality by reading the source code. Also this apps has clear distinction between view, model etc and has lot of util methods which we can reuse in our app.

url: http://github.com/jwood/standup-timer

Foursquare

It is a four square client for android. This app is basically divided into two components; Reading the source code you can find out how to make

url: http://code.google.com/p/foursquared/

Pedometer

The pedometer app tries to take the number of steps you take every day. Even though the count is not accurate, you can learn different things like interacting with accelerometer, doing voice updates, running background services etc by reading its source code.

url: http://code.google.com/p/pedometer/

opensudoku-android

OpenSudoku is a simple open source sudoku game. You can learn how to display things in a grid in your view and also how to interact with a website by reading its source code.

url: http://code.google.com/p/opensudoku-android/

ConnectBot

ConnectBot is a Secure Shell client for the Android platform. There are lot of good things about this app’s source code. Check it out for yourself :)

http://code.google.com/p/connectbot/

WordPress for Android

How can you expect a list of apps from me without mentioning WordPress ;) This android app is from the official WordPress development team. You can learn how to make XMLRPC calls (in addition to other cool things) by reading its source code.

url: http://android.svn.wordpress.org/trunk/

If you got any good open source android apps from which we can learn something, then do leave a comment and I will add them up here, till then happy reading :)

Update: I have updated this list with a new set of apps, which have come out recently. Check out them as well.

Posted in Android/Java | Tagged , , | 92 Comments