What does open source mean for you, as a Transana user or developer? In summary, it means the following:

• You can get our source code.
• You are free to modify our source code in any way you want, except as prohibited by the GNU-GPL. (For example, you must not remove the notice that the GNU-GPL applies to the program.)
• You are free to distribute our program or anything you derive from it. You may charge a fee for this if you wish.
• We ask that you send us a copy of any changes you make so we can evaluate them for inclusion in the main Transana program. If you are not willing to share your work, then you shouldn't base your work on our work.
• There is no warranty for our software or source code. If you choose to offer a warranty on anything you distribute that is derived from our source code, do so at your own risk.
• You are not required to accept the terms of the GNU-GPL, but if you don't, you may not distribute this program or any deriviative works.
• If you distribute our program or anything you derive from our source code, your product must also follow ALL of the terms of the GNU-GPL.

Please see the GNU-GPL for more information and for the official legal language that applies to this program.

It is our goal to make Transana available for free to the extent that is legally possible. To that end, we are using open-source development tools and open-source software components wherever possible. For example, we are writing the new version in Python, an open-source programming language. We are writing Transana to work with MySQL, an open-source database program. We are seeking an open-source media player component that will work cross-platform, though we have not yet found one that is suitable to our needs.

Transana Development Issues

We are inviting interested parties to join in our development effort. Please feel free to contact the developers if you are interested or would like more information.

Here are a few of the goals of our current development effort:

1. We want Transana to be fully open-source. While we don't object to bringing in tools, components, or modules that will enhance the final program, it is our preference that what we bring in be free and preferably open-source itself. While this may not be completely possible, especially in the area of media players and codecs, it is our goal and we want to achieve it as well as possible.

2. Transana must be cross-platform. At a minimum, it must work on Windows and Macintosh OS-X. That means that if you submit a code modification that does not run on both platforms, it will be less likely to be incorporated into the release version than if you submit truly cross-platform code. Our early experience (December, 2002) is that wxPython is not fully functional on the Mac yet without some coding adjustments. We don't want to discourage people from contributing code if they don't have access to a Mac, but would appreciate it if you would let us know if your code has been debugged on OS-X when you send it in.

3. A small number of people want us to support Linux. That will only be possible if someone volunteers to do the work of integrating one of the Linux media players for us. (mPlayer and Xine look like candidates.) At this time, our resources are stretched so thinly that we cannot do the extra work that would be involved in supporting Linux for the small number of people who would use it.

4. Because our code will be open to the public, we must insist on good documentation in any code we include. No matter how brilliant and clear your code is, we won't include it if it is not clearly documented. We anticipate that a significant proportion of the contributors to Transana will be social scientists rather than computer scientists, so all documentation should be clear even to developers who are not very technically sophisticated.