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Visualizing Open Source Contributions

An anonymous reader writes "A student at UC Davis has created some stunning visualizations of open source software contributions, including Eclipse, Python, Apache httpd and Postgres. From the website: 'This visualization, called code_swarm, shows the history of commits in a software project. A commit happens when a developer makes changes to the code or documents and transfers them into the central project repository. Both developers and files are represented as moving elements. When a developer commits a file, it lights up and flies towards that developer. Files are colored according to their purpose, such as whether they are source code or a document. If files or developers have not been active for a while, they will fade away. A histogram at the bottom keeps a reminder of what has come before.'"

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  1. Open source help. by WarJolt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've received some requests to make the application open source so that people can use it on their own software projects. I think that's a great idea. Unfortunately the ad hoc code needs lots of cleaning and I will be busy with other things in the next few months. If I have time I will look into it. I don't have the authority to speak on behalf of all of us /.ers, but I will anyway. Give it to us and we'll clean it up for you. Unless you're using code you can't release I'd like to take a look at what you got.