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Topic: ORA:: Development discussion thread - page 9. (Read 13431 times)

member
Activity: 101
Merit: 10
July 03, 2014, 03:14:44 AM
#2
Hello to all.

I have agreed to lead the development of Kora.  I'm going to split this intro into three posts.  This first post will let you know some things about my experience and my development philosophy.  The second post will discuss the already-expressed concerns and questions I have read in the Kora forum.  I realize there are a great many questions about the road ahead, and to be honest, we are in the very early phases of this project, and a successful project is not just about sitting down in a dark corner and pounding out code.  There are a lot of discussions yet to be had, and a great deal of planning as well.
The third post will discuss in more depth the phases of the Kora project.

I have been in tech a long time, working for and with every type of company from corporations to small businesses, government and non-profit.  I have worn many hats, from IT manager to developer to lead developer to project manager to database admin, and much, much more.  I have worked in both Windows and Linux environs.  I have coded all manner of languages, compiled to interpreted.  I have led projects that lasted many months, and ones that lasted days.  I have experienced the thrill of delivering a significant development project, only to have the project cancelled on release day.  I have fixed bugs that were simple syntax or spelling mistakes that took a few minutes to find, and I have debugged distributed systems that required hiring teams of consultants and subject-matter experts, and taken months to complete.

My most recent projects involved writing a number of payment card industry interfaces, and leading a team through PCI-DSS and PA-DSS, which processes are heavily vested in forensic examination of code and the platforms on which they run.  To say the payment card industry is proactive with security is an understatement.  In addition, I have written a number of apps and interfaces in support of telephony initiatives, for third-party control of analog or digital phones.

My development philosophy favours simplicity and elegance over complexity.  I believe in starting small, but with big blueprints, and therefore I believe that the best apps are ones that provide a core function and do it well, but are architected such that they are extensible and scalable.

As for coding, I prefer code reuse whenever possible, up to and including cloning an entire cryptocoin codebase.  I see people all the time singing praises of some app that has an "original" code base.  That might be worth a brief price pump, but what does it really mean?   More often than not it means that someone spent an inordinate amount of time writing an original clone of an already finished product.  There is a time and place for that, but it pays to explore existing solutions.  And more importantly, there should be a very good reason or reasons to start from scratch.

If you go through the codebase of any coin, you will see that most code is not truly original in the aggregate.  Who is going to write a new java library when one already exists that is both optimized and free?  Why not use the boost libs in C++ instead of writing your own?  Or STL?  Even the web uses libs now.  Go to any modern website, and you'll see the prolific reuse of JQuery and hundreds of other JS libs that are free to use and customize.  This is not cheating - it's sensible.  When a civil engineer builds a bridge, he doesn't build a new kind of bridge.  Instead, he reuses best practices and designs that have proven themselves effective.

I am not a language purist or a language snob.  I don't have any opinion about what the best language is.  I have coded a number of them, some I guarantee nobody has ever heard of or ever will hear of.  The fact is, most modern high-level languages will get you where you want to go.  There may be business reasons to use a specific language, such as prevalence of people who know a language, or even client requirements.  It would be somewhat insane to code Kora in LISP unless there existed a huge pool of people who know the language, and who could be easily and cheaply recruited.  So, if I decide the way forward is in CPP and not Java, it does not mean that Java sucks.  It means that given the project requirements, CPP satisfies more business requirements than does Java.  And the reverse may be true.  I'm not saying that I have made any decision about language, this is merely an example.  What I am saying is when the time comes, I will choose the language based on the business needs of the Kora project.

Now that I've regaled you with a bit about myself and my development philosophy, the next stage will be to post something soon that answers questions from the main forum, and also a post that defines the project and its phases.

Stay tuned.

-nio
sr. member
Activity: 308
Merit: 250
July 02, 2014, 10:34:31 PM
#1
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CryptoFest



Welcome to the Kora development discussion thread!
Our lead developer, nioccoin, will use this thread to catalogue all relevant ideas & suggestions no matter how insignificant they may seem at the time.

Over time this thread will become the historical record for Kora development.

We welcome and encourage input from everyone interested in Kora, but we have made this a moderated thread to avoid getting bogged down in FUD and irrelevancy. We are very open to constructive criticism, and well thought out criticism of Kora will NOT be deleted, but from experience we have decided to reserve the right to delete any FUD and mindlessly negative posts to help keep this thread readable.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Mac Red & nioccoin for joining with me to start 'Kora', and I want to thank all those who have so far registered to be a stakeholder.

To date Kora has primarily focused on the task of creating a 'fair' and transparent initial distribution to bootstrap a community, and while that work will continue, it is now time to turn our attention to the other crucial task any new crypto currency MUST tackle - the technology!

I urge people to join with nioccoin in a constructive discussion about Kora technical development. nioccoin is our lead dev, but Kora is a decentralised community, and we are all stakeholders with valid opinions, so feel free to join in and have your say!

Will Kora end up being a straight clone of Qora, or will it fork into something new & unique? Let's find out together in this thread Smiley


edit: I love this qoute from nioccoin, says it all for me Smiley
Quote
What separates Kora from most other coins is that we are putting in place a formal and public project plan.  Most coins only open-source their code.  We are going a step further.  To put it differently, we are "crowd-sourcing" our project assumptions, project risks, and candidate solutions, so that the community - you - can help strengthen Kora with your input and ideas.  And like your instinct to protect your quid, or your yuan, or your dollar, Kora's first instinct is to guard stakeholder value.  I have some ideas on how to "build security in" to Kora.  Undoubtedly you do to, and that is what this thread is for.
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