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minutes-20010108.txt
Minutes of meeting 08/01/2001 @ 2pm
Location: UKC Computer Science Meeting Room
Present: ab11, ajm4, pjm2, tdb1
Absent: None
The meeting began in an enthusiastic manner, with all group
members eager to get on - not what you'd expect for the
first Monday of the Millennium!
First, a review of work done, if any, over the Christmas
break. Paul was first to state that the "historal clients"
he's been doing (web based) are a lot harder than they first
seemed, but they are coming along very well. Tim reported
that he had put a queue into the central point of the
server, and added a few features (eg. javadoc generation) to
the makefiles. Ash told the group about his work on the
host, and plans to restructure it to aid porting to C++.
AJ was pleased to report back that it had been lovely and
sunny in Teneriefe, in constrast to the snow in the UK, and
that he'd had some 'ideas'.... the group sighed :)
Initial discussions started with what needed to be done this
term, and when by. It was agreed that there were probably 10
weeks at the most to get everything finished, and everyone
was happy with the notion that it should be completed
*before* the start of project week. A target of around 5
weeks was set to complete the majority of the coding, giving
us the rest for documentation, testing and review. More
precise goals may be set in weeks to come.
AJ mentioned that a "text based" client could be useful, and
likened it to the "top" program found on raptor
(/usr/local/sbin/top). This would display basic information
in an easily digestable form, and would be quick to load.
This is something that the customer has requested.
AJ also brought up an idea suggested by Tim a while back,
the restructering of logging in the server. The idea was
that the log messages would be sent to a logging unit, as
they do at present, but that this logging unit would pump
these messages back into the filter system for delivery to
clients. This would remove the single logging console
(although it could still log to a file), and allow any
client to view the current status of the server.
This brought on the discussion of how these would pass "un-
filtered" through the system, which then led to the similar
issue with heartbeats. This would be looked into by Tim,
although no work would be done on the logging setup at this
stage. More emphasis was placed on making the server
'complete', which entails fixing the heartbeat problem.
Next it was decided what would be done in the immediate
future. Paul requested doing the command line client after
completion of the historical clients, which should be
completed in around a week. The group agreed on this.
AJ said he had ideas for a GUI client, and would work on
this. Ash said that a rewrite of the host was required to
make porting to C++ easier. He also said work on the C++
host was to begin soon.
Tim is to complete the functionality in the client interface
part of the server, and patch up other areas that needed
fixing (eg. heartbeats). The aim is to "complete" the server
at this stage.
Finally, it was pointed out that the server needs to be
brought to a stage where it can be released and set running
on raptor. This is required so the group members working on
hosts and clients can test their setup is complete.
The next meeting will be on Wednesday afternoon after the
meeting with Ian. Meeting room is booked 3pm to 5pm.