In this episode, our host Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Christoph Langer and Thomas Stüfe about SapMachine, an SAP-distributed version of OpenJDK. Christoph and Thomas explain what SapMachine is, how it came to be and evolved, and why SAP contributes to the OpenJDK. We also learn about the difference between SapMachine, OpenJDK, and SAP JVM, and how to best get involved.
In this episode, Karsten Hohage talks with our guests DJ Adams and Jens Haley about the Open Documentation Initiative, an initiative to make the documentation of SAP Business Technology Platform content collaborative and interactive. DJ and Jens explain the project's current status, where it’s heading, and what makes it so unique. We also learn how to get involved and what the different types of collaboration are.
In this episode, our host Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Jack Schueler and Sebastian Wolf about Watcom, a spinoff of the University of Waterloo from the 1980s. Jack, who is one of the founding employees of Watcom, talks about how the Watcom C/C++ project came to be, how it evolved over time, how it was open sourced in 2002, and what it is today. He also shares his personal journey and how he ultimately came to work at SAP. Along the way, we learn a lot about programming over the past five...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Mladen Droshev and Fabian Tempel about the Fundamental Library, an open-source library created to help application developers align the user experience based on any web application framework with the SAP Fiori Design. Mladen and Fabian talk about their own Fundamental Library journey, explain the benefits of using it, and how to best get started.
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guests André Borrmann and Philipp Degler about Rust, a programming language that was open-sourced from the start. Philipp and André talk about Rust’s evolution, explain its growing popularity within the community, and explore the possibilities it offers. We also learn why a strict compiler is better than a friendly one and why working with Rust can sometimes feel like raising a child.
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Marika Marszalkowski and Frank Essenberger about the SAP Cloud SDK, an NPM library which helps develop web applications on SAP’s Business Technology Platform. We learn about the evolution and benefits of the SDK, the differences and similarities of its Java and JavaScript flavors, SAP’s decision to run it as an open source project, and the challenges and benefits associated with all this. Marika and Frank also explain how to best get started ...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with Dobrinka Mladenova and Janaka Bohr about how the license compliance processes for open source at SAP evolved over the past 20 years. By, for example, implementing automation, tools, and standardization, SAP now has a developer-friendly approach and at the same time addresses crucial customer concerns. Dobrinka and Janaka speak about OpenChain, the international standard for open source compliance, and discuss SAP’s involvement in ClearlyDefined. We wil...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Holger Streidl, Corporate Open Source Officer at Carl Zeiss AG and Peter Giese, Director of the SAP Open Source Program Office. They address many of the questions that arise for an enterprise when establishing an OSPO and talk about the commonalities or differences of the OSPOs and their approaches at ZEISS and SAP – for example, when creating policies, building a legal framework, ensuring license compliance, or setting up training and educat...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Michael Bernhardt and Artem Smotrakov about Fosstars, a java-based framework that allows you to define various ratings for open source projects. The name “Fosstars” is a combination of “FOSS” for “Free and Open Source Software” and the concept of rating products or services with “stars”. It helps software engineers and architects to quickly assess various aspects of open source components, such as their security, maturity, etc. It is often di...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Klaus Häuptle and Florian Hoffmann about the importance of having a readable and maintainable codebase to ensure sustainable development. Klaus and Florian started an internal repository with best practices for maintainable and readable ABAP code. Through info sessions with many hundreds of participants, intense discussions, and great contributions, SAP colleagues helped turn this into a treasure trove for modern ABAP’ers. Many developers ask...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Andreas Kunz and Peter Muessig about OpenUI5. OpenUI5 is a JavaScript-based web user interface framework. One that specifically targets enterprise use cases, but can be used for any type of application. Andreas and Peter explain how OpenUI5, SAPUI5, and SAP Fiori are related and how OpenUI5 became an open source project. They elaborate why the modular structure of this probably largest open source project from SAP is an optimal fit for a comm...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Krasimir Semerdzhiev and Valentin Vieriu about project „Kyma”. Kyma is an open source project built on top of Kubernetes that provides a platform to build extensions for cloud applications. Krasimir and Valentin talk about all the investigations, challenges, and learnings that come with such a project. We learn how and why Kyma got started, where the strange name comes from, and why it is an advantage for contributors that Kyma is based on Kub...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guests Vasu Chandrasekhara and Tim Usner about project Gardener. Today, Kubernetes is the natural choice for running software in the cloud. More and more developers and corporations are in the process of containerizing their applications, and many of them are adopting Kubernetes for automated deployments of their cloud native workloads. There are many open source tools which help creating and updating single Kubernetes clusters. However, the more clu...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guest Fabienne Haag about the Open Source Outbound Process at SAP and how it was implemented. During the last few years, SAP has been actively initiating and maintaining its own open source projects. Many SAP employees contribute to these projects or to completely different ones. This led to the need to have a simple and transparent process in place. The new Open Source Outbound Process enables developers to easily and quickly start new open source ...
In this episode Karsten Hohage talks with our guest Michael Picht about InnerSource at SAP and why it should be the default development model at SAP. InnerSource is the practice of applying methodologies and best practices from open source projects to in-house software development. In an InnerSource approach, projects are open for contributions from other teams. This implies that they accept and build on these contributions – just as an open source project would. The major difference are the bou...
SAP collaborated very closely with the German Government, Robert Koch Institute, Deutsche Telekom, and other partners to develop the Corona-Warn-App in an open source approach. The app warns the users, if they have been in close proximity to someone diagnosed with COVID-19. This helps to trace chains of infection and provides guidance to people who have tested positive. The decentralized approach and pseudonymization ensure the highest level of security and data privacy. In this episode, our hos...
SAP is the 9th largest commercial contributor to open source projects. Mostly known for proprietary software, almost all of SAP’s solutions touch open source in one way or another. The Open Source Program Office, founded in April 2018, has the mission to nurture and support the open source approach to software development inside and outside of SAP. Listen to our host Karsten Hohage why Open Source is important in a global enterprise, why it is a triple win for customers, developers and SAP, and...
