Re: two UROPs on categoricalData project

[Scott Morrison]

Hi Ganmani and Disari,

nice to meet you.

I'm very happy to help out while you're getting started --- let me
know if you need any assistance!

* You are welcome to use our existing mercurial repository to store
code, which is at <http://code.categoricaldata.net/categoricaldata>.
I've just sent you invitations via bitbucket (where the repository is
hosted), which should give you write access. If you haven't used
mercurial before, there's a good intro at http://hginit.com/, and I
can help. (We're pretty low-key about the repository; feel free to
push changes to master, or to work in a branch, according to your
preference and experience.)

* Given that you're planning to start by rendering some JSON
graphically in a browser, you'll probably be writing HTML+javascript
at first (although correct me if you have other plans already!). One
good way to do this would be to put your work somewhere under
/src/site/ in the repository. Everything there becomes the website at
http://categoricaldata.net/, although at present only David and I can
push updates there. If you put your work there, you can test it using
your browser to load local files, and we can push it to
http://categoricaldata.net/ whenever is appropriate.

* The existing JSON API is available under
<http://categoricaldata.net/metaphor/>, and has a very rudimentary
index of the available functions at
<http://categoricaldata.net/metaphor/help/>. Whenever you feel you
need more functionality available via this API, just let me know. I
can add it myself or explain to you how to do it yourself, as
appropriate. One thing you'll definitely want at some point is the
ability to save and load data to the server. This used to work, but
seems to be broken, and is on my TODO list.

* Speaking of TODO lists, at present we just use trello.com to track
issues and projects. (If anyone feels we've reached the point a real
issue tracker is useful, I'll turn one on.) You can see the board at
<https://trello.com/board/categoricaldata/4ee26fce0192ba64be08a8d7>
and I've just sent you both invites so you can make changes. Trello is
very nice, and I encourage you to use it as much as possible to plan
what you're doing, and to ask for assistance on anything; that also
allows David and I to keep tabs on progress and jump in when needed.

* I don't know if I'd call the first four example of ontologies at
<http://categoricaldata.net/metaphor/help/> a "good set"; presumably
David intends to add some more. Since we don't have a good mechanism
for loading and saving data through the web interface yet, I assume
he'll "hard-code" these in Scala then tell me where they are and I'll
add them to the API.

best,
Scott

On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 6:49 AM, David Spivak <dsp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Scott,
>
> I'd like to introduce you to two UROP students who are planning to work on
> the user interface for the categoricalData project. Their names are Ganmani
> and Disari, and they are in the US at MIT for just this semester. Ganmani
> and Disari, please meet Scott Morrison from Australia, who wrote 99% of the
> code for this project and knows much more about computers than I do.
>
> Scott, neither Ganmani nor Disari has worked with JSON before, but they know
> Java and are familiar with Eclipse. The first part of the project is for
> them to take the JSON code for an arbitrary ontology and display the
> associated graph in a browser. If there's time, they'll attach a database to
> that graph.
>
> Would you help me get them up to speed? Do they need push-privileges for the
> repository? I've shown them the categoricaldata.net link, and I promised
> them a good set of example ontologies (G&D, find those in the first four
> bullet points here).
>
> Anyway, I'm excited to have them on board. Perhaps we should set up a google
> hangout for some time later this week to get things rolling.
>
> Best,
> David

[Scott Morrison]

Oh, one more thing. There's a mailing list at
categor...@googlegroups.com. I'd encourage you to sign up to it,
and then CC project emails there. It makes an easy place to keep track
of conversations, and is also occasionally helpful for getting someone
up to speed when they're interested in the project.

best,
Scott