JIRA is a Java cross platform bug tracker. The name is actually a truncated form of the legendary Japanese monster Godzilla. You may well wonder how. Well, in the Japanese tongue Godzilla is pronounced Gojira, and in an office comprised of the obligatory geeks, the in-house term for computer software that was being developed jumped from Bugzilla, to Godzilla to Gojira, and eventually the Go just got up and was gone. Et voila; we have a monster munching name for a bug munching software programme. All frolicking aside, most of the techy bits and bobs that we take for granted such as jpeg and blog have innocent beginnings as pet names for applications that many geeks never thought would see the light of day. JPEG came into being as an acronym for the Joint Photographic Experts Group, a small division of ultra-geeks that were; well; into their image programming.
They never thought that the humble JPEG would take off, and after a while, and a bit of usage, it just stuck. The same is true of the common blog. It seems every man and his mother and brother is writing their own internet diary in the form of a blog, which is in its self, is an abbreviation of Web Log. And suddenly the world makes a bit more sense, and maybe it isn't all crazy geeky jargon that mere mortals can't get their head around. Monsters in the closet of software development is a bit of a rarity and in the case of JIRA, it is probably the most exciting story in the world of naming a software baby. Geeks and monsters often go hand in hand, although not in the hard wired world of reality, but to non geekoids, the world of software development is considered is a black hole of virtual space.
Trying to understand the world of subversion and the use of crazy software like JIRA can seem like entering into an episode of Doctor Who. Who, incidentally is an incredibly famous geek that is often involved with monsters. Subversion basically works on controlling directories within computer network systems, allowing sharing, back up and copying without the risk of losing the files if the system gets a glitch. This automatic retrieval and copying of directories can pose a problem when using large files, but the benefits of the system, which also works off line, far outweigh the pitfalls.
The technology behind this software is under continuous development to iron out the gremlins in the system. The point of open source software is so that it can be shared, improved and redistributed. Rather than having a closed system where major faults have to occur before a patch is developed, an open source network allows patches to be applied and shared as problems arise. It is possible for anyone using the system to update the way it works, on the spot and kick those gremlins into touch. This means that the development of these systems is faster than closed systems and results in a more reliable platform.
So it seems that JIRA eats up those dastardly computer bugs the way that Gojira ate the population of Japan. And although it is the geeks that have saved the day, it is the monsters that catch our imagination; I just can't imagine breaking out the popcorn to watch a software system. |
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