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