8:00 – 4:00 VISIBILITY

• Looks like the PPM new features meeting will be here Tuesday or Wednesday of next week at 11:00
• PPM DB still growing and being used. After importing the data for Masha, no activity. Hmmm.
• Let’s see if I can get the Cygwin telnet functioning…
  • Yes, after flailing until 2:00. In the end, I deleted the current install and pulled the version from the gatech ftp mirror. I think that the version at vatech may be corrupted.
• Starting with the java user/telnet manager. I think it will need to do the following:
  • Create/Delete users. Note that this will have to be OS-specific.  In addition, in the case of cygwin on Windows, the user account will have to be added within cygwin as well by running mkpasswd as admin before the user can be logged in through telnet
  • Open a telnet channel on 127.0.0.1. Commands and responses go through this channel. For example “javac foo.java” is the command and error messages from the compiler are the responses.
  • Copy files from the client to the appropriate directory on the server (and with the correct permissions). This may require a pwd command to be run to determine where the user is. Or we do this all graphically (preferred), and keep track on the client
• Spent some time pondering how apps might deploy using dynamically created virtual servers. Looks surprisingly straightforward?
  • http://www.howtoforge.com/creating-virtual-machines-for-xen-kvm-vmware-workstation-6-vmware-server-with-vmbuilder-on-ubuntu-8.10

7:30 – 3:30 VISIBILITY

• For the record, I’d like to state that it is too damn cold.
• Fixed Masha’s data
• Had a conversation with Christine about PPM. It looks like they are going to need a new section to track “real-time” inflows and outflows of cash from projects. Head’s up, Dong! Working on scheduling a meeting to go over things in detail.
• Adding the Cygwin Telnet/Ftp server to my machine. So far, here are the steps (from http://www.wiley.com/legacy/compbooks/nilsson/InetdunderWindows2000.doc):
  1. Run “mkpasswd -l > /etc/passwd” at the Cygwin prompt.  This creates the passwd file which is similar in format and function to the Linux passwd file.  Run mkpasswd with no parameters for a usage summary.  You might need to add a -d parameter to grant domain users access.
  2. Edit /etc/passwd and delete everything but the accounts you want to have access permissions.  (In most cases, you’ll end up with only two lines in this file — your account and Administrator.)
  3. Make sure that your home directory (ie, c:cygwinhomephil.feldman) exists.
  4. Right-click “My Computer” and select Properties.  Click the “Environment Variables” button on the “Advanced” tab.  Add a new system variable…the name is CYGWIN and the value is “ntsec” (no quotes).  This tells Cygwin to use your Windows 2000 security.
  5. Add C:CygwinBin to the PATH system variable.  (Stick it at the end, separated from everything else with a semicolon (“;”)).
  6. Run “/usr/sbin/xinetd.exe –install-as-service”.
  7. Reboot!
  8. Well, that didn’t work. Started up the Windows Telnet server for now.  That’s just a matter of turning on the service.
• Looking at the apache.commons-net package as my telnet interface
  • The main project page: http://commons.apache.org/net/
  • An article about commons-net with an example of how to create and use a TelnetClient: http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=java&seqNum=40
  • JTelnet is old and probably not supported, but might be useful for reference: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jtelnet/
  • JavaSSH is less old and has more hits. Could also be useful: http://javassh.org
    • Their javadoc: http://javassh.org/download/source/index.html
  • Tom says that Telnet can be made secure by moving it to another port. Also that the xinetd application from cygwin is supposed to be secure.

8:00 – 4:00 VISIBILITY

• Spent some time with Brian on site this morning working out the details of what our server needs
• Looking at ways to deal with interacting with the shell as a way of dealing with the server. Developers write code as text files that are compiled using whatever tools we integrate. Files are saved as files with some kind of namespacing. The key to all this is to have some kind of workable interface to the OS that is essentially a terminal window. From there we load commands, parse results, use command-line debuggers, etc.
• Found a java telnet server that handles all the issues of sending commands to the OS and getting responses (and errors) back. It’s built around the same Runtime.getRuntime.exec() command that we are using in MavenAssist, just a lot more complete. It’s here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/pwts/. In addition to building a remote object around it, we should refit the version in MavinAssist.
• Talked to Anne about Masha’s data woes. Promised to take a look at it tomorrow

7:30 – 4:30 VISIBILITY

• Deployed Dong’s latest version. It still needs the following:
  • Appropriations Editor:
    • Needs Save/Don’t Save/Cancel for panel and appropriations closing
    • Columns should be wider. We have the room, and some of the text is falling off the edge. Also, add tooltips for cases wherethe text is too wide
  • User Management and Creation
    • Save/Don’tS ave/Cancel when panel is closed
  • Contract Management
    • Save/Don’t Save/Cancel when panel is closed
• Backed up PPM
• Talked to Mike about handling tooltips
• Talked to Dong about the web-based IDE. He decided that he’d rather do the DataManager, so I’m writing up the IDE concept.