November 2007 General Meeting
Program Review:
SIG Night

by Chris Novell

There is no doubt that the DACS SIG leaders like their SIGs. Each came to the meeting well prepared to explain what draws them to the subject matter.

Open Source SIG

John Lansdale spoke with enthusiasm about the Open Source projects underway in this SIG. He first distinguished between a website and a web application. A website, he explained, is static in character, most likely written in HTML, and consists of one or more web documents in a hierarchical structure.

A web application is a program that resides online, that is designed and intended to be dynamic, and still be conveniently accessed. This contrasts with a desktop based application, which is housed physically on a person’s personal computer. There are generally three parts that make up a web application. The first tier is the web browser level. The next level of the structure, which makes it possible to have the dynamic character, is provided by programming languages such as ASP or PHP, which John said is the fastest growing. The third part is the database, which changes based on the interaction of the other two segments. John offered Yahoo!, Google, and eBay as examples of web applications.

John encouraged the audience to take a look at the write up on Wikipedia for Content Management System. Two CMS’s that the Open Source SIG have worked on use Drupal and Joomla!, both written in PHP. In fact, John commented that the SIG could just as easily be called the Web Application Tool Kit SIG.

Linux SIG

Drew Kwashnak’s theme for his presentation was “This ain’t your Father’s Linux.” With most versions being free and considered to be a very secure operating system, Linux is actually the kernel, with the Open Source software wrapped around it for a particular purpose. Drew expressed the opinion that it is good that there are many distributions of Linux, in a manner similar to the benefits of there being many different types of vehicles: many choices for many purposes.

Drew explained that Linux can be run several different ways. One way is to either single or dual boot. Another way would be to run it on a virtual machine. Still another option would be to use a LiveCD or LiveDistro. This last method enables the operating system to be available upon booting, without installation on a hard drive. He pointed out that using a LiveCD would ease concern of exposure to infection from using someone else’s machine.

Historically, Linux has been most employed on servers, where its low cost reliability has been satisfactory and its lack of graphical user interface has not been a liability. Linux has found a home embedded in video gaming devices and mobile phones, and there are some versions that present through a semblance of a graphical user interface to the desktop user, even if, in reality, input is really occurring through the command line.

Today there are Linux versions of many well known popular commercial programs.

Macintosh SIG

A self-proclaimed “Macoholic,” Richard Corzo shared with the audience why there is much to admire about “Tiger,” version 10.4 of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. He pointed out that every application does not need its own menu bar: a Mac user can look forward to a familiar interface each time out. Firefox fans can use that browser on a Mac, or they can choose to use a basic one called Camino, specifically created for the Mac environment. Still others may opt for Safari, a browser initially available on Macs and Apple’s iPhone, but now available for Windows XP and Vista as well. Be on the lookout for the next version of the Mac OS, Leopard, which was released in late October.

There was some amusing irony at the meeting when the raffle took place at the end of the evening. Richard was the winner of the raffle prize, Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 (for Windows). Demonstrating good sportsmanship and political correctness, he accepted his prize graciously.

ASP.Net and C# and VB.Net SIGs

First, a bit of translating for the uninitiated…the ASP stands for Active Server Pages. ASP, together with the .Net, represent Microsoft’s web application framework offering. The C# is pronounced “C Sharp,” and VB stands for Visual Basic, another Microsoft offering which has prominence in the business world.

While these SIGs are counted as two, the content of each is closely related. Chuck Fizer’s SIGs focus on the middle part of the typical web application structure, where the programmer has the opportunity to meld together a software framework that constitutes the application logic as well as the page appearance. It is a place where the product may consist of both new and reused code.

What appeals to Chuck is the process of translating the idea into a program. This is especially wholesome in the Microsoft Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The IDE hosts the ability to visually structure the application's web pages. Both the GUI component as well as the C# or VB programming code that renders the functionality to the web page are directly programmable in the IDE. In addition, The IDE has a myriad of associated tools, such as a database explorer, that help in the fabrication of the application's web page. Much of this technology is used and discussed in the SIG meetings.

The earlier ASP.Net SIG, 4 to 6 p.m., typically focuses on a web application or some component of the application. Many of the examples are derived from real life projects that present real life programming issues. For example, how to validate user input and why is it done. Recently, this SIG has discussed ZipBack, an AJAX type of component Chuck developed before it was fashionable to talk AJAX. ZipBack/AJAX is a strategy that adds a richness to the user's experience with the application's web page. It also facilitates user data input validation!

The C# and VB .Net SIG is the 7 to 9 p.m. segment. Here, either the web page discussions continue or the topics skew toward programming in C# and/or VB. The .Net technology embodies an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) mind set. This is evidenced with programming classes that are fundamental in the programming of OOP applications. The IDE and .Net are supported by hundreds of classes supplied with the Visual Studio environment. You can think of these a foundation classes. The programmer adds custom classes to the mix to form a program. In the SIG segment we explore various classes and discuss how they are turned into objects and stitched to the programmers custom program code written using either/or both C# or VB programming language.

For either SIG, we are anxious to address the attendees’ questions. Answering questions is most beneficial to both the questioner and the answerer. More often than not both come away with a better understanding of the issue.

What had appeared to be a rather random seating of the audience took on some definition during the evening, as it became apparent through the surfacing of some good natured jibing that some attendees had selected their seats by a sense of affiliation with aficionados of the same operating system.

Many thanks to all the SIG leaders who presented at this meeting, and thanks to Jim Scheef for being available to present as well.

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