Open Source Organization: Trying out BORG

As an attempt to work out two birds with one stone I went looking on SourceForge.net for a Java Project which could do something beneficial to my own personal needs. While browsing the many Java libraries, programming assistants, converters and games I happened across an interesting project known as BORG Calendar, a Java based simple self contained organization calendar. In my ongoing search for a simple way to keep track of my activities in this bustling, ever changing world, I felt it a good opportunity to try something applicable to my current organizational needs.

According to the program's official website, the way that BORG Calendar works can be run from a thumb drive, making it useful for situations where I need the schedule but do not wish to boot my laptop when there are computers at my workplace already available. With this convenience in mind I installed it locally on my laptop to see how it would function in the basic environment of Windows Vista Ultimate.

Installation was simple enough, downloaded from SourceForge directly, double-clicked the friendly java installer and ran through the setting to get it onto my computer. After installing onto the drive I took a look at what it had been added to the program folder. A list of simple files leads me to believe this install is very light, and with some future testing I will see if it can be used as I believe it might. For now I continue with my testing to make sure it can be used as I want to without any issues.

At this point I look back at the Three Prime Directives which Professor Johnson gave us to consider for anything we do or evaluate. These directives are based on the idea of good open source programming for both the user and the developer, keeping things in mind that will appeal to both. Keeping them in mind I started to evaluate the system I was dealing with.

The first directive is that, "the system successfully accomplishes a useful task." When considering what program I wanted to try, this directive constantly floated in the back of my mind. Yes, a game is useful to those who need stress relief, and what programmer wouldn't want another library tool to help them with their code, but I wanted to try something more practical. BORG Calendar fulfills my wishes and this idea by being an organizational planner style tool for easy use on almost any computer with Java.

When considering directive two, "an external user can successfully install and use the system,"
I found the installation very easy to go through and ended without any misunderstanding. Unlike the modern commercial installers there were no signs of ads or backward statements trying to get you to click something unnecessary.

The use of the program on the system was where things were not as star-studded. The system seemed simple enough, buttons were given pop-up tooltips to assist in what each button does and menus were well labeled, but once I went into adding things is where things were a bit questionable. I attempted to add in my work and school schedule, but was found a couple areas were unspecified, an area marked properties had bubbles but no immediate way of knowing what the classification was. Luckily the help file was available and provided a lot of information about the use of the system, not the most user-friendly environment but it was clear it was programmed with a certain style in mind and held to that. I found it was rather easy to add things in but lack a certain amount of refinement to the style, in one instance they give the option to repeat the addition of an event but it was limited to day choices and how many times it would last; this requires counting weeks rather than specifying time period. In the end it did what was provided and had not cause major glitches or issues, fulfilling the second Prime Directive.

The last of the directives, "An external developer can successfully understand and enhance the system," was where things can get a little shaky. While SourceForge has a developers section where one has access to the code and files which form the system, the lack of any documentation or file map make it difficult to understand the big picture over the small functionality that can easily been seen in the files themselves. The programs open availability makes it open to enhancement and/or customization of options within the system but the lacking documentation or at least easily found documentation makes it difficult to work with as a developer.

In total the program does rather well, I can't say that everyone would like the program, but it does what it needs to for the user, and with enough time a developer would probably map and modify parts of it freely. While I don't know if I'll keep to using it overtime, I find it a program that could be used by anyone wanting a simple planning tool to keep around.