Initializing MathSwe Ops Services (2024/09/15)

MathSwe Ops Services is a new server application that will provide all general-purpose web services to facilitate the General SWE processes involved in mathematical software.

While developing MVPs for MSW and MathSwe Ops, I found generic parts of the development process requiring automation. They enrich the general-purpose engineering process in MathSwe.

I will get this project started with one tiny problem I had. Then, I will add any services I need.

The first problem is about maintaining the version badge in the README.md documentation. For some generic badges, you can use some online services to generate them, like Shields.Io. However, MathSwe standards demand first-class support, more customized aspects, and new badge types.

Releases (PRs and commits) must be as efficient as possible to reduce any overhead burden or off-topic tasks that hinder the actual development.

The release badge is custom since it needs to know how to read the project version, and I got a standard for that (info.ts). Badges also need to be rounded, etc.

I needed to update an SVG file to each subproject MVP’s “public” directory so the README.md could read the badge from that URL, which requires updating the SVG manually before every release.

Therefore, the first service in MathSwe Ops Services will be an endpoint that reads a MathSwe project’s version and responds with the version badge.

The project will be a TypeScript Node.js modular monolith because of its versatile general-purpose production-grade design. The initial deployment platform will be Cloudflare Workers, like the Cookie Consent microservice.

Notice that MathSwe Ops Services is a “normal” production-grade software and not an MVP because it doesn’t aspire to the engineering grade, unlike MVPs.

Using Rust or microservices would be over-engineering, as said, due to the general-purpose objectives.

As per the license, MathSwe Ops Services is permissive BSD-3-Clause to widen the technical engagement about developing and deploying MSW.

I currently have some tickets and two PRs merged to services/dev. I initialized the project and designed two in-house libraries, mathswe-ts and mathswe-client, to start standardizing the usage of FP and TS projects and server tools, respectively.

I will publish the PR blogs after publishing this blog, that’s why the ticket is still in “Review.”

The last tasks involved an innovative way to apply general pattern matching in TS, which I figured out in about two days, and exhaustive communication tasks (i.e., publishing blogs). Following this, I will enable the endpoint for the version SVG badge, allowing for the release of well-documented projects with minimal overhead.

MathSwe Ops Services is a TypeScript Node.js (modular) monolithic application designated to satisfy all the general-purpose needs involving non-engineering-grade development and deployment of MSW.

As motivation, its initial endpoint will read a MathSwe project’s version to respond with its version SVG badge to remove the overhead when releasing projects.

The Services app will integrate any automation or service to support engineering processes extrinsic to MSW that are part of General SWE.