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Old 25-06-2017, 14:51   #1
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Call for Developers

Hello OpenCPN Friends...

This is a call for developers.

As you know, OpenCPN is Open Source software, released under the GPLv2 License. All development work is done by volunteers who freely contribute their time and expertise to the project. We are all very grateful for their continuing efforts to make OCPN great.

But, we need more...
There are more really good user-contributed ideas floating around than there are current dev resources to implement them.

So, let's ratchet up to the next level.

We currently have an immediate need for a person skilled in PHP/Web Server Design to build a high performance GRIB Server dedicated to OpenCPN users.

Server Initial Design Target:

1. The Server will periodically fetch a variety of GRIB files from various sources, including NOAA and Meteo France. The goal here is to always have the most recently available data on the server.

2. The server will respond to http: PULL requests to download a geographically and parametrically filtered subset of the target GRIB file. The API supporting these PULLs is undefined, but there are several examples to think about and possibly extend, including NOAA's "grib_filter" model.

3. Hosting strategy for the Server is undetermined, but there are various options. I anticipate that deployment of the Server will not be a problem.

4. Timeline: Start Immediately. Beta Test when possible. Production Release when ready.


So, there is the outline.
Any takers?

Thanks, and good luck to all

Dave
OpenCPN Lead Developer.
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Old 25-06-2017, 17:43   #2
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Re: Call for Developers

PM sent.
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Old 26-06-2017, 00:09   #3
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Re: Call for Developers

Quote:
Originally Posted by bdbcat View Post
Hello OpenCPN Friends...

This is a call for developers.

As you know, OpenCPN is Open Source software, released under the GPLv2 License. All development work is done by volunteers who freely contribute their time and expertise to the project. We are all very grateful for their continuing efforts to make OCPN great.

But, we need more...
There are more really good user-contributed ideas floating around than there are current dev resources to implement them.

So, let's ratchet up to the next level.

.................................................. ........
Hello Dave

Unfortunately, not all of us are gifted or able to do the stuff you programmers are able to do. However, I just want to thank you and the many other people who contribute/d to OpenCPN. Despite the fact that I also have and use several other navigation software packages, I am very grateful for OpenCPN. In particular, to the unselfish work of all the people making OpenCPN possible. Thank you!
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Old 26-06-2017, 01:29   #4
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Re: Call for Developers

Quote:
Originally Posted by bdbcat View Post
We currently have an immediate need for a person skilled in PHP/Web Server Design to build a high performance GRIB Server dedicated to OpenCPN users.
Why not C, C++, Java or Perl? Why specify an implementation at all, as long as it is supportable? Are there other servers in the OpenCPN ecosystem and you want consistency?

The important work is getting the interfaces right. Other than supportability who cares what's inside the box, as long as the input interfaces are implemented so that changes at the data source don't require a rewrite? What am I missing?

The P in LAMP was originally for Perl, not PHP, and Perl is GPL while PHP is not.
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Old 26-06-2017, 06:51   #5
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Re: Call for Developers

I wanted to add that it would be incredibly useful if the server could host historic grib files as well. I realize this will require many gigabytes of storage on the server, but would be very interesting to view historical conditions.
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Old 26-06-2017, 07:18   #6
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Re: Call for Developers

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Originally Posted by Auspicious View Post
Why not C, C++, Java or Perl? Why specify an implementation at all, as long as it is supportable? Are there other servers in the OpenCPN ecosystem and you want consistency?

The important work is getting the interfaces right. Other than supportability who cares what's inside the box...
The language and/or framework chosen for the server should be:
  • common or popular, so you have a good pool of talent to draw on, and the most options for deploying
  • performant (it runs gude )
  • maintainable
So, yeah it's important to discuss and specify implementation. Perl's not very common anymore as a back-end language.


I'm ok with just about any choice except Javascript for the back-end (node... yecch. Just my opinion)
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Old 26-06-2017, 07:22   #7
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Re: Call for Developers

you could use python with flask or something.

I want to support plugins written in python for opencpn in the future.
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Old 26-06-2017, 07:50   #8
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Re: Call for Developers

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Originally Posted by Lake-Effect View Post
So, yeah it's important to discuss and specify implementation. Perl's not very common anymore as a back-end language.
I agree it's important to talk about implementation in the context of what you and I have listed.

Compiled languages will run more gude (*grin*) than interpreted ones like Perl, PHP, and Python.

Don't tell Amazon Perl isn't very common anymore. *grin*
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Old 26-06-2017, 10:47   #9
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Re: Call for Developers

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Don't tell Amazon Perl isn't very common anymore. *grin*
Perl's not so popular in my market area, and others, and Amazon won't return my calls. So... yeah I don't see much demand for Perl these days. Not that it sucks or anything... just that it's not teh hawtness (aka fashionable).
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Old 26-06-2017, 10:55   #10
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Re: Call for Developers

PULL request? Do you mean a standard HTTP GET? Where do you get these grib files from currently? Is there a service that already does this or you want to roll your own? What kind of load would you be expecting?
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Old 26-06-2017, 11:02   #11
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Re: Call for Developers

Some recent background here:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...al-186334.html
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Old 27-06-2017, 14:26   #12
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Re: Call for Developers

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Originally Posted by boat_alexandra View Post
you could use python with flask or something.

I want to support plugins written in python for opencpn in the future.
From Wireshark experience with plugins, lua is easier smaller and IMO better.
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Old 27-06-2017, 14:54   #13
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Re: Call for Developers

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lake-Effect View Post
The language and/or framework chosen for the server should be:
  • common or popular, so you have a good pool of talent to draw on, and the most options for deploying
  • performant (it runs gude )
  • maintainable
So, yeah it's important to discuss and specify implementation. Perl's not very common anymore as a back-end language.


I'm ok with just about any choice except Javascript for the back-end (node... yecch. Just my opinion)
It doesn't really matter, at first you only need a small wrapper around external programs with a haproxy or something like that.

If it's too slow python could be the best for grib libraries integration , unless you want to write a grib format parser in PHP, javascript or whatever.

It's ETL stuff, admin and maintenance are the biggest issues. Extract setup are rarely constant and some are rather unreliable, did I say Météo-France? My guess is that they had no money for an Internet frontend so they reused their lan stuff, a great receipt for a disaster.

For testing we could get a POC running in a couple of days.
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Old 27-06-2017, 19:37   #14
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Re: Call for Developers

I'd help in some way!
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Old 05-07-2017, 05:09   #15
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Re: Call for Developers

Sean's suggestion for a historical repository has valudity because of the assault on the Epa websites, additionally, the data could be analyzed for changes with some future program.
I know that for Sean's Climatology plugin, we downloaded 32 years of NOAA data, totaling 138gb and compressed it to about 7mb using Sean's executible routines.
Nowadays, 138gb is quite readily available (it included all the climatology data types).

However the sensor data has increased with the addition of much more satellite data! I do not have an understanding of what magnitude it has increased. Perhaps someone else does.
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