News of the Krugle Enterprise appliance product announcement making it to the "Top Stories" list on InfoWorld left me scratching my head. Like many of you, I knew Krugle to be a search engine for code snippets from open source projects. As it turns out, what I had previously thought was "Krugle" is really "Krugle Public".
"Krugle Enterprise" is a commercial offering targeted at enterprises. (Who knew??) While Krugle Public is largely targeted at finding code snippets, Krugle Enterprise does this and focuses on defect management and component development across projects, teams and developers. The Krugle Co. website states: "Turn your company's code and related development assets into a searchable, shareable asset."
Watching the demo, I could definitely see companies adopting Krugle Enterprise into their development process. Some things that caught my eye:
[1] Impact Analysis:
- Figure out which functions, classes, files and projects will be impacted by a change
- Add notes to code so that the developer who owns the code is informed and can make the fix
[2] Learning & Fixing:
- Use searching to determine what the code is doing and (where the error is coming from)
[3] Finding Code via Related Info:
- Search code by metadata, developer name, SCM checkin comments, etc.
I really like how Krugle Co. has differentiated Krugle Public from Krugle Enterprise. This is an example of my proposed solution to the challenges inherent in the open source business model. The solution? Serving non-paying users with a free (and open) base product and serving paying users with a (not free and possibly closed) super-set product.
PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."
Posted by Savio Rodrigues on July 8, 2008 04:00 AM
