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User Contributed Bug Fixes

We are currently developing procedures to allow interested developers to contribute bug fixes and improvements back into the JSim code base. We expect to have this procedure operational by late Feb 2007. Please check back then if you are interested.

Access to source code will allow many new eyes to examine JSim for bugs and possible new functionality. Contributing such changes back to the central development team will, hopefully, allow JSim as a whole can improve faster than that it might otherwise. However, incorporating user contributions without properly secured rights to use can be problematic. When a user contribution is rolled into JSim, it is common for additional JSim functionality to be built on top of it. If the contribution must later be removed due to rights issues, this can trigger a disabling cascade of functionality that could, potentially, cripple JSim for months until it is resolved.

To avoid such problems, we must establish safe guidelines for incorporating user contributions into JSim. Two common scenarios to be avoided are:

  1. A user contribution is absorbed into JSim, but NSR fails to secure legally binding rights to use the code. At a later time, the user (or his employer) decides to rescind permission to use the contribution.
  2. A user contribution makes use of patented algorithms or code libraries with licenses (e.g. GPL) that are incompatible with the JSim distribution terms.

We recognize that many (most?) programmers are not intimately familiar with software intellectual property issues, and don't particularly wish to be. We are currently defining a process that will (hopefully) be simple, transparent and workable for the everyday contributor, because we hope to encourage as many contributions as possible. More details will become available in the next few weeks.

[This page was last modified 03Mar08, 3:11 pm.]

Model development and archiving support at physiome.org provided by the following grants: NIH/NHLBI T15 HL88516-01 Modeling for Heart, Lung and Blood: From Cell to Organ, 4/1/07-3/31/11; NSF BES-0506477 Adaptive Multi-Scale Model Simulation, 8/15/05-7/31/08; NIH/NHLBI R01 HL073598 Core 3: 3D Imaging and Computer Modeling of the Respiratory Tract, 9/1/04-8/31/09; as well as prior support from NIH/NCRR P41 RR01243 Simulation Resource in Circulatory Mass Transport and Exchange, 12/1/1980-11/30/01 and NIH/NIBIB R01 EB001973 JSim: A Simulation Analysis Platform, 3/1/02-2/28/07.