Code Rush 01 - Close Souls, Open Source

This is the second last day of the coding week, the prototype rush by Megabug and me, sponsored by the Design department of Jan van Eyck Academy (many thanks!). The sun is shining and we would really love some walking in the bush, since the whole landscape is white and silver, and the snow has covered the country.
Where are we now? A first draft of the code is written, the first Meta Data set for the four substances are ready, Git is up and running, the database is now working in local and it will be online soon. A zip folder containing the pilot files I selected to start populating the database can be downloaded here. This is the current version of the Meta Data sets! This software will be divided in two small applications: soul, to check files and display existing souls, and ve, that will allow soul’s editing, which includes essence and aura.

In fact I decided to name the core part of the Soul, that is the Meta Data i initially named Kernel (which is, in informatics, a over used term), Essence.

Here is a definition of essence from Wikipedia:

In philosophy, essence is the attribute or set of attributes that make an object or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity.

Another important decision concerns the following: when a Soul is initiated by the file creator, he can set a password to protect the Metadata, to be the only person able to edit such part of the Soul. The Aura, on the other side, is by definition editable by anyone, because it is in fact generated by the interaction between body, spirit/essence, and world/others. This version of the software will feature the possibility to leave a Soul open, without any password. This can be handy, if, for example, the initiator of the Soul is not its creator, and if he does not have enough information around the file (for example when initiating a Soul just to create a DNA connection).

This alpha application is in Python, a dialoging command line utility :)

Future plans include the following steps: a stand alone (GUI) application (integrating ftp uploads and visual DNA mapping) and/or a Firefox add-on. Last but not least, and more complex, a web application.

Thus future is what, if not a projection?