Professional Issues Part 03

Professional issues we faced during the development of the Maha Mangala Sutha (මහා මංගල සුත්‍රය) mobile app for the Android platform.

3.14. Maintain the integrity of data, being sensitive to outdated or flawed 

occurrences.

As I discuss in 1.06 and 3.03 Maha Mangala Sutha in the Public Domain. Though it is in the public domain we cannot any changes in the Maha Managala Sutha. It was one of great discourse of the Buddha and buddisht people have great respect to Thrpitaka Poth Vahanse. (ත්‍රිපිටකයේ ඛුද්දක නිකායට අයත් සූත්ත නිපාතයෙහි එන මහා මංගල සුත්‍රය බෞද්ධ සැදැහැවතුන් අතර ඉතා ජනප්‍රියය) . Normally this kind of religious things considered as the sensitive information. We have face the huge preasure from the society if we do wrong with  religious materials. So, we keep the completeness and integrity of data which include in the mobile app. As it is a popular discourse we donot have to consider about the outdated problem. 

6.04. Support, as members of a profession, other software engineers striving to follow this Code.

When we were continuing this project during last two months, once I was hospitalize for a week because of Dengu fever. Because of that I missed the basic discussion for the Implementation the app. Once I was recovered I felt hard to understand what is going on the implementation and what the things in the codes. But, my other two group members give a huge support by explaining the code, what is happen in it and what are the things remain. It helped me to carry my work and to give fully support to the project. As it is said in 6.04 in code of Ethics support as member of  a profession a great ethic in software industry.

6.08. Take responsibility for detecting, correcting, and reporting errors in software and associated documents on which they work.

As I mention in  previous posts we, Kalpa, Visal and me take the responsibility of the developing Maha mangala Sutha app. So, if anyone find a error in the content or app performance they can report us. Then we will definitely  correct them. We consider that the person who reports error to us a does a great help to us. Further more , after the development we gave this app to the usage of few our batch mates. Purpose of this relishing to check whether they can identify any errors.

7.08. In situations outside of their own areas of competence, call upon theopinions of other professionals who have competence in that area.

Our app is in 3 language. English, Sinhalese, and French. We felt our English knowledge is just enough for doing the work. But, in Sinhalese though it is our native language we have low knowledge in Palli  to Sinhalese languages domain. We get the help of our batch mate Shamika Disanayaka who did Sinhalese for the G.C.E A/L and we have sound knowledge in sinhala as well as Palli languages. In french our knowledge is like zero. So, we get the help of another batch mate, Dilruni Ganepola who have competence of several world languages. Because of her help we can handle the french language also. Our sincere thanks should go to every one who helped us lot. 

Those are main professional issues which I can derived form the Ethical Code of conduct relating developing our Maha Mangala Sutha app. 

Hope to give discuss further more professional life matters in future... :D

Until then Good bye... :D 

Professional Issues Part 02

Professional issues we faced during the development of the Maha Mangala Sutha (මහා මංගල සුත්‍රය) mobile app for the Android platform.

3.02. Ensure proper and achievable goals and objectives for any project on  which they work or propose.

These blog posts is created for Professional Issues assignment after development of Maha Mangala Sutha mobile app. Under the assignment we were given the freedom to address problem and come with solution with have 10 hours of development time. So, our first duty was to select relevant topic and establish our goals and objectives. First we thought to develop whole Maha Piritha for a mobile app with localization to Sinhala English and French. But, it seems to take huge time nearly more than 20 development time period. Because of that we realize the important of establishing achievable goals. That is how we decide to make implementing Maha Mangala Sutha  mobile app is our main goal. One of our great  objective is to popular the Buddhism teaching all over the world. Improve the Sinhalese content in android phone is another sub objective. Learning about android application development is another objectives which will be very useful to us in our future career.

Original version of Maha Prith Potha.

3.03. Identify, define and address ethical, economic, cultural, legal and
environmental issues related to work projects. 

We decide to put this mobile app under free android mobile app category. So we won't get any economical or financial benefits from this software.  It is not among our objectives we just implement this use our knowledge for some useful thing to Sri lankan society. This app is fully ethical and legal  because Maha Mangala Sutha is in the public domain. That means it is not under copy rights of some one.  Further more we use it good purpose that is to popular Buddhist teaching among the mobile users. So we can ensure our app is fully ethical according norms and values of Sri lankan  society. There is no environment issue relating to our app because it is simple mobile app.

3.06. Work to follow professional standards, when available, that are most appropriate for the task at hand, departing from these only when ethically or  technically justified.

At the begin of the implementation we don't have enough knowledge to build a android application in professional standards. So,  learn Android application development by using online materials as well as the video tutorials. After getting much knowledge we started the project. We follow the coding standards like putting the comments. code alignment standards, easily identifiable variable names etc.

Here is some example of using coding in XML file

Further more we keep regular  back ups. Used well organized file format including separate files of language Locales. It feels others standards helps us lot when we are working a group.

3.10. Ensure adequate testing, debugging, and review of software and related documents on which they work. 

Testing for the Android application is not easy task. So, we did it by using Android testing framework includes an integrated testing framework that helps to test all aspects of your application and the SDK tools include tools for setting up and running test applications. No matter whether we  are working in Eclipse with ADT or working from the command line, the SDK tools help you set up and run your tests within an emulator or the device you are targeting. For the user interface checking  we use UI automator viewer, a GUI tool to scan and analyze the UI components of an Android application. After finishing the developing we saw it our university friends and get some feedback about the app


It seems enough for this post.  Hope to discuss more in the next post.... :D

Professional Issues Part 01

Professional issues we faced during the development of the Maha Mangala Sutha (මහා මංගල සුත්‍රය) mobile app for the Android platform.

The Mangala Sutta (මංගල සුත්‍රය ) is one of the discourse of the Buddha on the subject of 'blessings' (mangala, also translated as 'good omen' or 'auspices' or 'good fortune'). In this discourse, the Buddha describes 'blessings' that are wholesome personal pursuits or attainments, identified in a progressive manner from the mundane to the ultimate spiritual goal. In Sri Lanka this is known as "Maha Mangala Sutta" (මහා මංගල සුත්‍රය ) and this sutta considered to be part of "Maha Pirith"(මහා පිරිත). You can lesson to the Maha Mangala Sutta from below link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXYFc3rkUkA

Our intend is to create a mobile application . So anyone can read the "mangala karunu (මංගල කරුණු) " at anytime like while travelling bus/train, in the leisure time etc.  The app is represented in 3 languages. English, Sinhala and French. We hope knowledge and spirit of the Buddhism can be shared with the world through this application and we would like mention that this the first time Maha Mangala Sutta presented in a mobile application.

So let us see some professional issues we faced during the implementation of the mobile app and how from the derived them from the software Engineering Code of Ethics.

 (Link : http://www.ics.uci.edu/~redmiles/ics131-FQ03/week08ethics/IEEE-ACM-Ethics.PDF)

1.01. Accept full responsibility for their own work. 

This Maha Mangala Sutha mobile app is develop by group Which consist of 3 students including my self. Other two are Visal Mudhalige and Kalpa Gunarathna. We all are 3 rd undergraduates at University of Colombo School of Computing. This app was developed from our own creative idea  and  so we 3 have the full responsibility of the content of the mobile app.We put our names in the software so anyone can identify who is responsibility for this app. Anyone can take legal  action for us if we have done something illegal regarding the app.At the same time we can take necessary actions if someone violate our copy rights. Further more we hope to put this app in the Google app store, then it gives legal responsibility to us from 3 rd party.

1.06. Be fair and avoid deception in all statements, particularly public ones,  concerning software or related documents, methods and tools.

Maha Mangala Sutha is publically using  discourse of Buddhism. Majority of people know what is Maha Mangala Sutha and what is its teaching. So we cannot just put Maha Mangala Sutha and its meanings.There are 38 "Magala karunu" (මංගල කරුණු) in Maha Mangala Sutha. We should have to confirm correctness of Sutha letter by letter with its meaning for all 38 statements. For avoid the deception in all statements, we refer the original version of "Maha Pirith"(මහා පිරිත). Maha piritha was written is Palli language. Sinhala meaning statements were added to it later.

Example -

8.  ගාරවො ච නිවාතො ච - සන්තුට්ඨි ච කතඤඤතා
     කාලෙන ධම්ම සවනං - එතං මංගල මුත්තමං

9.  ඛන්තී ච සොවචස්සනා - සමණානං ච දස්සනං
     කාලෙන ධම්ම සාකච්ඡා - එතං මංගල මුත්තමං

10. තපො ච බ්‍රහ්මචරියං ච - අරියසච්චාන දස්සනං
      නිබ්බාණ සච්චිකිරියා ච - එතං මං

We check the Sinhala translation and french translation with the help of our friends who have knowledge about these language.

Example French translation and its English meaning.

Verse 5

      Mata pitu upatthanam
      Puttadarassa sangaho
      Anakula ca kammanta
      Etam mangala muttamam

The support of mother and father,the cherishing of wife and children and peaceful occupations, this is Blessing Supreme.

We will discuss rest of things in next post. Until then keep in touch and follow my blog site.. :D