Wabbitware

[size=25]FLOSS inspired Software Art piece seeks willing contributors. GSOH.
[/size]

http://wabbitware.garethfoote.co.uk
http://notfig.garethfoote.co.uk/wabbitware/

[img]http://notfig.garethfoote.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/wabbit-final-480.jpg[/img]

There are three aspects to the Wabbitware software project: the software itself, a website for distribution and collation of versions and most importantly the contributors.

Software:
EXECUTE / MODIFY / PRECOMPILE / COMPILE - visualised here http://wabbitware.garethfoote.co.uk/images/wabbitprocess_nostrokes.svg

When the software executable (binary) is executed it will distribute a copy of the source code onto the host machine. You are then free to make any modifications to the source code. After this the original binary can be used to pre-compile those modifications ensuring that they are carried forward to the next generation of Wabbitware. The final stage is to compile the software, creating the next instantiation/generation/version of Wabbitware.

The process is then looped ad infinitum. The software is therefore never complete or whole but always in process.

Website:
The website whilst acting as a code repository for the first version of the code also aggregates any newly submitted versions of Wabbitware. There are instructions in the Versions section of the Wabbitware site (http:://wabbitware.garethfoote.co.uk), which state that once a new instance of software has been created there is an option to attach and email your binary to the email address: [email protected]. This collection process is a simplified concurrent version system which enables the rhizomatic growth of Wabbitware.

Contributions: /*Comments*/
Although it may seem that, despite the forceful access to the software source code, there is a knowledge barrier for open contributions. In normal circumstances you do need to understand some of the grammar and syntax involved in programming to able to make functional code. However on the website there are step by step instructions for creating your own instance of Wabbitware. There is not however a guide on how to program software in general. For anyone who would like to contribute but doesn't have the programming experience you can simple add comments to the source code. A comment is a section of the source code which is ignored by the compiler in the process of making software. They are there to enable programmers to write notes to themselves and to other programmers who they may be collaborating with.

In many cases these are purely functional:


/* count the occurances of each $keyword (supplied with categories) in the given $cmt */

/* assuming you're in /usr/src/linux/ (and linux .c and .h are present) */


in other cases create a collaborative narrative or psychological snapshot of a programmers state of mind:


/* It looks like I can't do a simple tweak with this structure because the IRIX
* version is just *too* stupid. Ok, here's a new version of it..
*/

/* This is fucking braindead. There is NO WAY of doing this without
the CONFIG_SYSCTL unless you don't want to detect errors.
Grrr… –RR */

As you can see form these examples - which are all taken from the Linux kernel - a comment is started with a /* and closed with a */. Feel free to use this practice in Wabbitware.


One affordance of the Wabbitware project is that it has NO functional goals and NO beta release schedules. This is mainly due to its principle characteristic of being permanently incomplete or in a state of flux. The definition of the software does not end at its code, it continues into the social dynamics that are made up by the collaborative practice. The project is about the process as much as the code itself so any contributions are welcome and they do not need to be grand or well thought out.

Suggestions:
//a favourite piece of code
//a malicious piece of code - see http://runme.org/project/+forkbomb/ - (Feel free to right code that will break the software)
//pointless code - see http://runme.org/project/+highestnumber/

If you don't have a preferred piece of code then comments are just as welcome. You could add:
//prose, poetry, song lyrics, a quote, an insult, a link, a statement, a political message, a joke, etc, etc,etc

This is part of the We are All Transistors Graduate Exposition.
www.wearealltransistors.org.uk