Here are some resources to keep you in touch with ongoing FDS-SMV development:
1) The FDS-SMV Wiki Pages are a great resource for new, interested, or current developers and collaborators. Here, you can find supplemental FDS and Smokeview compilation instructions, FDS and Smokeview research road maps, tips and guides on contributing to the verification and validation suite, instructions on how to access the subversion (SVN) code repository, and more. So, which SVN revision number should you be working with? How can you quickly gauge the status of development versions of FDS? That brings us to the next item…
2) The Firebot Build Status Wiki Page provides a performance snapshot of the latest FDS-SMV code revisions. Here you can see the status of the nightly FDS-SMV build (e.g., if a given revision was successful, had warnings, or had any other code issues). The nightly Firebot testing process is the driving force behind the continuous integration system in place for FDS-SMV. This process is described in detail in the FDS Configuration Management Plan. Essentially, the Firebot process involves a full suite of nightly tests that compile debug and release versions of FDS and Smokeview, a full run of almost 400 FDS verification cases, scripted generation of figures via Smokeview, plotting and statistical output of verification cases using Matlab, and generation of the latest FDS-SMV documentation/manuals. You can always view the latest FDS-SMV manuals via the next item…
3) The nightly FDS-SMV manuals (linked on the top of the Firebot status page) provide a way for collaborators to view the latest documentation related to FDS and Smokeview. The FDS User, Technical Verification, and Validation Guides; FDS Configuration Management Plan; and Smokeview User, Technical, and Verification Guides are built each night during the Firebot testing process. The resulting manuals can be accessed via the above link. For example, after reporting an issue with the documentation, you can verify the corrected results the very next day by viewing the nightly manuals. Important note: The content of the “unofficial” nightly manuals can change often! So, when reporting an issue with the nightly manuals, be sure to refer to the SVN revision number and date on the front pages of each guide.
These are just a few of the tools to help collaborators work with the latest versions of FDS and Smokeview. We hope that these resources make it easier for students, collaborators, researchers, beta testers, etc. to work more closely with the FDS-SMV development team. And we highly encourage those working with or planning to work with FDS development, verification, validation, etc. to contact the FDS-SMV development team early on via email or the FDS-SMV Discussion Group.
