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I've been thinking for several years of beginning development of an open source calibration database/automation program.
It would be something like this:
MySQL database with a PHP front end. (Of course, it doesn't have to be PHP. There are many programmers out there that could much better evaluate PHP vs. other stuff and maybe there is something much better.)
I don't yet have any great ideas as to what would be used for procedure automation.
Of course, I'd like to have cross platform functionality. This is most applicable to calibration automation.
Are there any developers on here that would be willing to begin collaboration on a project like this?
There are lots of calibration packages out there; some good, some not so good. I think in an open source environment, over the course of a few years, we could develop a truly awesome calibration package.
Long term, I'd like to turn this into a true community project. As such, an automated procedure repository could be created that anyone could contribute to. I think we'd see very quick response to new instrumentation on the market, and probably some pretty good procedures.
It would be something like this:
MySQL database with a PHP front end. (Of course, it doesn't have to be PHP. There are many programmers out there that could much better evaluate PHP vs. other stuff and maybe there is something much better.)
I don't yet have any great ideas as to what would be used for procedure automation.
Of course, I'd like to have cross platform functionality. This is most applicable to calibration automation.
Are there any developers on here that would be willing to begin collaboration on a project like this?
There are lots of calibration packages out there; some good, some not so good. I think in an open source environment, over the course of a few years, we could develop a truly awesome calibration package.
Long term, I'd like to turn this into a true community project. As such, an automated procedure repository could be created that anyone could contribute to. I think we'd see very quick response to new instrumentation on the market, and probably some pretty good procedures.
But it would be nice to have something that everybody can contribute to and freely exchange ideas, be evaluated and validated by peers, be able to modify to fit different needs, etc., much in the same way open source mathematics packages are done (e.g. GNU Octave, Scilab, NIST Dataplot, etc.) Once upon a time Fluke had a "User contributed procedures" section for their MET/CAL software, but hardly anybody contributed to it, as MET/CAL developers tend to be secretive about their procedures and don't want to give away their hard work for nothing, which is unfortunate, as many labs are forced to "reinvent the wheel" every time, especially when budgets are too tight to "buy" someone else's work.
