Using Optisystem software for simulation - installation

I am using Optisystem software to simulate a project and the project browser of the software is inactive or disabled, where I can't access the component properties when creating graphs for report purposes. Can anyone help on that problem?

You could try the user forum at the vendor's site: http://optiwave.com/forums/
You won't have any luck posting questions on software usability on stackoverflow.com. The site is dedicated to coding issues, and other topics tend to get downvoted and sent elsewhere. You may have better luck posting questions like these on another stack-exchange site: superuser.com.

Related

Is there a simple Bugzilla/Trac client for use by non software folks?

I'm aware this isn't exactly a programming question, but it directly impacts our developers and the code we're assigned to write. If there's another SO-like forum where this could be better posted, please let me know and I'll take the question down from here & post it there.
Our work environment is a couple of developers creating (20-30%) and maintaining (lion's share) legacy software for factory production floor and test workers to use to calibrate or test the equipment the company sells. We've implemented a very simple Google form based bug reporting page, but we're already running into problems of scale (approx 40:1 them:us and lots of old-old buggy software that we didn't write). The company has tried using Bugzilla before my arrival with little success, the factory folks were apparently intimidated by it and wouldn't use it. However, they seem to like the simple Google form and the wizard-like steps to file a bug or request a feature. We're currently manually cutting & pasting their bug/feature requests from the Google form spreadsheet into Trac, and manually tracking the bugs/feature requests on a white board with magnetic bug cards. We're only a few weeks into this system and it's already showing it fragility and lack of scalability.
Ideally we'd have a Windows >= XP web or desktop client that would provide:
Simplified bug reporting, a Wizard like approach seems to work well
Customizable for our software packages (like drop downs for each)
Bugzilla or Trac integration
Standard bug tracking features developers and management can use
I've found the winners of the "Make Bugzilla Pretty" contest, but coming from a pure software house where we just used straight Bugzilla out of the box, I'm unclear on how to configure and install these skins. Obviously I can figure this out but don't want to go down that path if it's not going to solve our basic problem which is non-technical people reporting bugs.
TaskCompiler, found on the Bugzilla wiki site seemed like a candidate because it talks to both Bugzilla & Trac, but their sales page is offline and the site hasn't been updated since 2012 and I'm unsure as to their viability.
I'm certain we're not the first production facility to run into problems like this, I'm looking for recommendations to help solve both our scalability as well as-ease-of-use problem.
Another thought that occurs to me is a GAS script to push our current Google forms based bug reports into Trac or Bugzilla.
Edit: The decision between Bugzilla/Trac seems to have been made for us. I'm exploring options for using Trac here if you want to follow along.

Regression testing on Apple WebObjetcs GUI

I have recently started a new job in a company that depends heavily in an application developed with Apple Web Objects.
It happens that this company does not have a way to make automated tests whenever a new update is received, weather with bug fixes or new features.
We have no access to the code since it is a proprietary application.
My idea is to develop a suite of test cases to allow us to do regression testing through the GUI.
I have looked for tools for this, but could not find anything capable of "seeing" which components are in the GUI.
Before I arrived to the company, other people had already tried with HP LoadRunner with no success. I tried with AutoIt 3.0 just to check if it would recognize the fields, but also without success.
Anyone with experience testing such kind of application?
Which tools do you think that could fit for this purpose?
I appreciate your opinion.
Thank you!
Bruno
After some research I found a few good solutions for such problem. I came down to two solutions. Both of them are image based "which means it can "see" the user interface, just as the human eye does".
Proprietary solution
http://www.testplant.com/
Open source solution
httpp://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/sikuli
Hope this can help others in the future.

Developers' Social Networking

I am new here, and interested in collaboration and social networking sites. I wonder if any of the available social networks falls down under the "Developers' Social Networks" umbrella, if there are any.
And what makes us believe that they are developer's SNs ? How do developers use them?
I would consider github the ultimate social network for developers (... though you can fork me even if you don't know me).
Stackoverflow could be considered a developers social network as well. We unwittingly group ourselves under the tags we answer questions under and ask questions under, and a very visible heirarchy emerges thanks to the the karma system.
Yep... Stackoverflow is a socialnetwork, and Jon Skeet is /root .
What about
OpenSocial
Open Social is Google’s new collection
of application programme interfaces
(APIs). APIs are used to develop
nearly all social network sites. At
OpenSocial you can browse the
application gallery and get started
creating or modifying your own APIs.
SNetBase.com
It provides a forum for professionals
involved in all aspects of programming
and Web development to share ideas,
tips, and resources.
Facebook.com
As a programmer, you can contribute to
the site by submitting idea or code
for an application or widget.
and read an article by Scott Hanselman
Social Networking for Developers
I think the social networking features of stack overflow are fantastic.
However, while stackoverflow is great for getting answers to highly specific questions, there is still a lot of really useful information on the web in the form of blogs. Often these blog posts are more general in nature and will answer questions you will have needed to ask in the future but will never have to. (a kind of prevention vs cure)
The comments people add to blog posts often add much value. I've noticed some tech/developer blogs with 'post comment using facebook profile' features. This feature is good in that you would be using the same username for every blog that you post a comment to. It also means all of your blog comments all over the web can be aggregrated to a single place (facebook). However, I would be very hestitant in using my facebook profile to post a comment on a public blog because I wouldn't want my tech comments being posted in my friends news feed as they would be completely irrelevant to 95% of my friends (and people might think I'm a total bore!)
Ideally there would be a version of facebook that is purely for developers. It would have a a feature similar to 'facebook connect' and every tech blog would implement this 'facebook connect' feature.
I'm sorry i've gone against the grain of stackoverlow and not actually answered the question that was posted. But the overall problem is highlighted in that I'm not sure where the best place is for this kind of discussion.
My opinions are a bit different. They are not social networking sites but I suggest that a developer should play more on these sites than Orkut, Facebook etc. I don't think there can be one single option for this answer. If you are a die hard developer then you have lots of choices.
Stack Overflow (Obviously)
It has all the features of a social networking site (most importantly, it is almost addictive).
CodePlex
I consider it a platform for developer collaboration. Most important aspect of CodePlex (and Sourceforge) is that they have very little noise.
CodeProject
I love its lounge.
Note: I visit Facebook and Orkut just to see what they are doing technically because they are almost masterpieces of work. I can get a lot of ideas and inspiration from these sites.

How to manage project for free? [closed]

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I was asked to manage and develop a project. The client does not really care if I hire people who would do it or I do it myself. Thus, I've decided to be more manager than developer.
Are there any (free / low cost) web projects that could help me to communicate with each "sub-developer" outta there on Internet?
What I expect is to have similar project as basecamp, however sub-developers wouldn't know about each other because I would be communicator between them. It's possible that basecamp includes this kind of service, but I am not going to pay to every possible similar service to know this.
If you have some real-life experience with this kind of problem I'm about to encounter, please, write it here.
Thank you
As many open source projects found, trac is a good fit - lightweight project management with integrated subversion interface:
Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. Trac uses a minimalistic approach to web-based software project management. Our mission is to help developers write great software while staying out of the way. Trac should impose as little as possible on a team's established development process and policies.
It provides an interface to Subversion, an integrated Wiki and convenient reporting facilities.
Trac allows wiki markup in issue descriptions and commit messages, creating links and seamless references between bugs, tasks, changesets, files and wiki pages. A timeline shows all current and past project events in order, making the acquisition of an overview of the project and tracking progress very easy. The roadmap shows the road ahead, listing the upcoming milestones.
Both trac and subversion can be used from anywhere on the Web, using one of the free or low cost providers (for some references, see TracUsers).
I'd set up sharepoint if i were you. It's perfect for handling projects and talking to members. Also set up a couple of mailing-lists where you all can easily communicate.
Good Luck
I would suggest looking at Assembla, it has issue tracking, version control and Trac support all in it - and it's free.
It is possible that you can do this with the free version of AceProject.
There are quite a lot of software available to manage projects easily, here I'd suggest you to check out ProofHub - https://www.proofhub.com (heads up - I work there). It allows you to capture both the full picture and a detailed snapshot of your plans and progress. The Gantt charts and task management feature provide clear picture for you to understand what is being worked on and what needs to be done. You can track task dependencies on your Gantt chart to see the progress of your projects. Here's how it looks:
ProofHub Overview

Twitter for work updates [closed]

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If you are sending work/progress reports to the project lead on a daily or weekly basis, I wondered if you would consider using Twitter or similar services for these updates.
Say if you're working remotely or with a distributed team and the project lead has a hard time getting an overview about the topics people are working on, and where the issues/time consumers are, would you set up some private accounts (or even a private company-internal service) to broadcast progress updates to your colleagues?
edit Thanks for the link to those products, but do you already use one of it in your company too? For real-life professional use?
Try Laconica: An open source Twitter-like system you could run on your own servers.
Look at http://www.yammer.com for a corporate version of twitter.
Maybe try campfire or basecamp.
We use Laconica on my team, it's very useful for those updates that you want to send to the whole team but aren't really worth wasting an email on.
Since only my team is using the installation of Laconica that we have, I take the RSS for the public feed and I integrated that into SharePoint.
So while the developers and PM's on our team use Twhirl to manage sending and recieving updates, management is still able to see the updates directly on our team site.
It's quite transparent in that nobody actually has to go to the Laconica instance I have setup to do anything except initially register.
Check out this post for information on how I integrated Laconica with SharePoint: How can I integrate Laconica update stream into SharePoint?
What about confidentiality and information security? I'm certain a company run IM service would be a better alternative.
I've viewed Twitter and similar services to be used as marketing tools to engage customers and prospects.
Or, the layer above Laconica called Identi.ca There's a good talk with the founder of Identi.ca about such usage over at IT Conversations.
Many of my colleagues are posting work updates on Twitter, being careful not to disclose company confidential information. From those working on open commercial development projects, I've even seen Twitter updates indicating which work item they were working on. Coolness.
I can see the appeal of using twitter in this way. Where I work, we send a daily project "snapshot" to basically everyone else in the company. As the company grows (we are nearing 35 employees now), this is becoming a bit of a burden to read through (or at the very least file/delete) all the status emails as they arrive. I don't know that I could see Twitter replacing these emails, however, because these emails are not necessarily supposed to tell someone when something is completed, but rather to tell someone what it is I'm working on today, and what my upcoming projects are in the future.
I guess most of our project updates are actually done more frequently in person. For larger projects, we now employ what's referred to as a "burndown". This basically means we gather for a quick re-estimation of how much work is left on a project, which then results in a nice graph that should show whether the project is on track or not.
We do also throw in the occasional email when there's something more immediate, or if someone isn't available for discussion/notification.
I would consider what the reports were meant to accomplish, and then discover a solution that accentuated that objective without being a logistical nightmare :)
Twitter might only be appropriate if the updates had a short shelf life, and if scattering them among other updates wasn't destructive.
There's also a question of confidentiality on any 3rd party service like this.
Check out https://presentlyapp.com/
The Prologue theme for WordPress was designed with this in mind.

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