How do you let others trust your code and use it? [closed] - language-agnostic

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I write hobby code from time to time. The thing is these tools, classes or tiny libraries of code end up in a flash stick with hopeless future! I would love to develop my projects further, and let other programmers trust them. If you were going to use something you found on the Internet, what is the most important thing you look for in that programming tool or small library? e.g. would you consider separate documentation a must?
Thanks for all contributers. I'll try my best to summarized what have been said. Feel free to modify the list. Corrections and additions are more that welcome :)
Start a blog and let others know you
are here.
Choose the most
suitable license. Possibly Open
Source licenses are the best for
hobby projects.
Put your project where people can
reach it. Consider google-code,
github, sourceforge or
other sites.
Use public version-control and
bug-tracker, So others can acquire the
latest source code of your project to
compile and use.
Write a decent documentation, beside
commenting your code clearly of
course. The documentation should
explain the purpose of the library
and provide at least simple examples.
Write tests if you are willing to provide real-world code.
If you are building a library, put a
lot of effort into designing a stable
interface.

Get a blog, release code through it. Explain why you wrote it, what problem it solves. And encourage others to improve upon it, keep the code posted as current as possible. If your tools are useful you will very quickly develop a following that 'trusts' your code.
Separate documentation isn't a must for small tools, but anything creeping into the framework world should probably have ample documentation and examples if you want any serious adoption from the community at large.

The most important thing is that the library is that it be open source, so I can read the code myself. If that is not possible then I insist on documentation.
Also consider using a project-hosting site (like google code or github).

Have a clear license with your code if you don't have one already
(preferably one which encourages modifying / improving / sharing your
code ...)
Have public version control and/or a public bug/issue tracker and/or a mailing list. There are a lot of good sites which offer these services for free.
Seperate documentation is not a deciding factor to me (if the code is well documented and the code quality is high).

Documentation explaining why you wrote it, when you started it, and it's intended function. Understanding where you're coming from will allow me to see future ideas as well as short coming you may not have seen.
Technical documentation explaining the API and some examples on how to implement it. Ideally, keep your documentation in the format that follows the language. For example C# tends to use the XML syntax for defining items. This allows me to feel at home when I'm reading it.
Clean code -- I can't stress this enough because far too many people write exceptionally ugly code. If you're code is ugly and/or unreadable, it may be easier for me to write it from scratch on my own. At the very least, make your code consistent. If I can't understand the code, I won't feel comfortable with it.
Historical records explaining your changes. Seeing how the project has grown allows me to plan better. It also allows people to see how you learn from your mistakes and get a sense of your skill level. Compared to a forum, you can get a feel for how fast things get fixed and then placed in to a new release.
Think long and hard on what kind of license you want there. Public domain? BSD? GPL? More restrictive?
A note on whether or not you mind being contacted and if there are any restrictions in this. For example, would you mind updates? Me explaining security holes? Or perhaps you might use a forum or wiki?
The ability for me to get your latest work and/or nightly builds. SVN or something. This is useful so I know if a bug I found is already fixed.

I think that documentation is a key point for your project.
The document must indicate:
what is the purpose of your library
what are the main features
a really short tutorial, to make it run in 5 minutes.
Many examples

I let people trust my code in a number of projects, but I urge people to make and maintain their own tests, and I make sure that I'm content with the unit tests.
Documentation is always good, but I'm very guilty of finding time to do as much as I would like. But having the author fairly contactable is helpful.

Posting it in an open source repository such as code.google.com or sourceforge.net is probably where to start...
Next to attract attention, document clearly and succintly the purpose of the library / application as outline in one of the answer above.
Finally, blogging and direct mail exchanges happen...

One reason documentation helps people trust your code, is that they know whether a given feature is something which you intended the code to do (and which you will, all else being equal, preserve in future versions of the code), or something that the current code just so happens to do, but which might change at any time as a side-effect of a bugfix or just a refactor.
Some people prefer find out what code really does by looking at it, and that's fine, but documentation tells you (a) what the code is supposed to do, and with any luck (b) what the next version of the code will do. If I want to use your code long-term, and take bugfix updates as you provide them, then I need to know that you've designed an interface that I can rely on and that you're willing to stick to. Documenting it is a strong hint that you're at least trying to do that.

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When should I release my code? [closed]

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I've been holding off on releasing a library I wrote because it is the first library which I'll be releasing publicly. Here are my concerns:
The library isn't complete it is in a very usable state, I'd say it is version 0.3, however it still lacks a number of features which I would like to at some point implement, and control how they're implemented (meaning not merging someones implementation).
I'm fearful of criticism, I know there are a few things which should be reorganized/refactored, but I wrote the initial class quickly to be functional for another project I am working on.
So when is the best time to release? Should I just throw it up on github and work on the issues post-release? Or should I wait until I refactor and feel completely comfortable with what I have written?
Most classes/libraries I see are always very elegantly written, however I have not seen any in very early release stages, are a lot of classes fairly sloppy upon initial release?
Release early, release often.
Criticism is a good thing as long as its constructive. Ignore the haters, pay attention to the folks filing bug reports and commenting.
The internal structure of the code matters, but it matters more if it works for its intended purpose. In general, refactoring will change how code works internally but will not affect how it is used. Same inputs and outputs.
You need to get something half-way
useful first, and then others will say
"hey, that almost works for me", and
they'll get involved in the project.
Linus Torvalds
Linux Times (2004-10-25).
It depends on why you are doing this. If it's to provide something useful and it's useful and has benefits that no other library has, then go for it. Just list the status and what's coming next.
If you are doing this to point to on a resume, get it in good shape (the code, not necessarily feature complete). Imagine a future employer poking around the code to see what it looks like, not downloading and running the code.
Whether you release the code in an incomplete state or not, it's always worthwhile having enough documentation to allow users to understand how to use the library.... even if it's only API docs. Make sure that anything incomplete is tagged as TO DO - it helps to maintain a target list of tasks to complete, and lets users know that the feature/method/whatever hasn't been forgotten.
Providing a set of code style/standard documents (perhaps with architectural notes on class relationships) allows other developers to contribute more readily, and in a manner that enhances the library rather than making it a hotch-potch of spaghetti code. It's never easy releasing a library, then having to refactor, while maintaining backward compatibility for users who have already taken up and are using that library in a production setting.
EDIT
Don't be afraid of criticism... it goes with the territory.
Some critcism can be constructive (take heed of that).
There'll be plenty of other people who criticise your code (for whatever their reason) without being constructive, or who just denegrate your work. The difference is, you've produced the goods, they probably haven't ever contributed to any OS product/library.
Users expect you to fix their problems immediately, or to write their code for them to use your library, or simply say "it doesn't work" without any explanation of what they mean. You have to learn to live with that 24x7x365.
But just once in a while, somebody will thank you for saving them hours of work, or for providing something useful... and suddenly all the stress and hassle feels worthwhile.
I read a document by Joshua Bloch, a pricipal software engineer at Google that talked a lot about the best type of API design. Basically, once you release it, it is more or less set. He says
Public APIs are forever - one chance to get it right
You can check out the slides here. It's definitely worth reading. I have a PDF of it as well; let me know if you need it.

Passing my own project on someone else - what to do? [closed]

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Often there are situations where a project is passed on someone else. And often this process is unpleasant for both sides - the new owner complains about horrible documentation, bugs and bad design. The original owner is then bothered for months with questions about the project, requests to fix old bugs etc.
I might soon be in a situation where one of my projects will be given to someone else so I can focus on my other projects. I wonder what should I do to make this transfer as smooth as possible. What i already have is a decent documentation, the code is quite good commented and i'm still improving it. Its a medium sized project, not very large but still its not something you can code in a week.
I'm looking for a list of things that should be done in order to help the future owner taking over the project and at the same time will spare me all those annoying questions like "and what does this function do, what purpose does this class have...". I know documentation is a must - what else?
Note: although my project is in C++ i believe this is a language-agnostic question. If there are things you think are specific to some language, please mention them too.
Documentation is one thing, getting it into the head of your new project owner another. IMHO this is a typical situation where "less is more" - the less documentation your colleague has to read to understand something, the better. And, of course, learning takes time - for both of you, accept it.
So
instead of writing lots of documentation, make your code self-commentatory
have all documents / source code etc. in a clean and well named folder structure
make sure your build-process is almost completely automatic
don't forget to document your deployment process, if it is not automatic, too
clean-up, clean-up clean-up!
When taking over a project, documentation is of course desirable, but even more so is a good test suite. Trying to modify a program that you have no means of testing for correctness is a nightmare.
Documentation, but on all levels:
API docs
High level architecture: What components are there, what are their relationships and dependencies
For each component, a high level description pointing to important code sections
Tutorials: If you want to do X, here's how
Data: What data does it use and how, database schemas
Idioms: If you've created some idioms within your code, explain them
And, to start, give the guy a personal introduction to all of the above in person, hopefully doing some needed change in a pair programming way
the new owner complains about horrible documentation, bugs and bad design.
I suspect that no matter what you would do, new owner will always complain about something. People are different, so something that looks easy to understand for you, will look horrible and extremely complicated for someone else.
The original owner is then bothered for months with questions about the project, requests to fix old bugs etc.
In this case you should clearly refuse to help. If you won't refuse, you'll probably end up doing someone else's job for free. If maintaining the project is no longer your job, then the new guy should fix his problem without your help. If "the new guy" can't deal with that, he isn't suitable for the job and should quit.
Its a medium sized project,
"Medium sized" compared to what? How many lines or code, how many files, how many megabytes of code?
I wonder what should I do to make this transfer as smooth as possible. What i already have is a decent documentation, the code is quite good commented and i'm still improving it.
I would handle it like this:
First, do a sweep through the entire code and:
1.1 Remove all commented out blocks of code.
1.2 Remove all unused routines and classes (I'm talking about "forgotten" routines, not parts of utility library).
1.3 Make sure all code follow consistent formatting rules. I.e. you shouldn't mix class_a, ClassA and CClassA in same app, you shouldn't use different styles for putting brackets, etc.
1.4 Make sure that all names (class, variable, function) are self-explanatory. Your code should be as self-explaining as possible - this will save you from writing too much documentation.
1.5 In situations when there is a complicated or hard to understand function, write comments. Keep them as short as possible, and post only when they are absolutely necesarry.
1.6 Try to make sure that there are no known bugs left. If there are known bugs, document them and their behavior.
1.7 Remove garbage from project directories (files that are not used in project, etc.)
1.8 If possible, make sure that code still compiles and works as expected.
Generate html documentation with doxygen. Reveiw it few times, modify code comments a bit until you're satisfied. Or until you're somewhat satisfied with the result. Do not skip this step.
If there is a version control repository (say, git repository) with entire development history, hand it over to a new maintainer, or give him(her?) a functional copy of the repository. This will be useful for (git )bisecting and finding source of the bugs.
Once it is done, and code is transferred to a new maintainer, do not offer "free help", unless you're paid for it (or unless you get something else for helping, or unless it is order from your boss which makes helping new maintainer a part of your current task). Maintaining the code is no longer your job, and if new maintainer can't handle it, he isn't qualified for the job.
I think most of the problems can be avoided with just two simple rules.
Keep the code consistent with platform style guide.
Naming, naming and naming.
If the project is huge, then you just need to run some code camps with the new guys. There's no shortcut for this one.
Remember also that complaining happens mostly because new guy is not qualified enough, i.e. doesn't understand something. That's why it is important to keep things simple. And in case he is more qualified, then I guess you deserve it ;)
Some good advice where to start hacking/changing things is always better than documentation. Consider documentation as a backup material after you are familiar with the code, it should never be the starting point (except if you are exceptional technical writer with unlimited resources and time)
If there is good documentation and commented code as you say, then you've done your part. Just make sure that the documentation includes high-level documentation (architecture, data flow, etc.) as well as lower module or procedure-level documentation.
If this is a situation where you can, I would strongly suggest you protect yourself with some type of contract that specifies what future support (if any) you will provide and for how long.
I think for a situation like this the most important thing is a working, complete build that automatically compiles, documents, and tests the project. That way, there is a well defined point at which the new developer has it working. He can then figure stuff out from the tests and documentation, in principal.

About to release code into the wild [closed]

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I have a program I wrote and I have been encouraged by folks to release it into public.
What would be the best way to go about it? Just dump it on a public site and hope for the best?
How much criticism will come (on the standards, decisions made etc...) and how best to prepare for that. I have been the sole developer for this app for about two years.
And how much difference does the license (GPL, MIT etc...) practically make?
Any experiences?
A license is a good idea, even if you don't care what people do with the code - most of the time people will happily take code "as is" and if it doesn't do what they want they will just throw it away - but you never know when some idiot might try to sue you because they burned their mouth drinking a hot coffee while reading your code. You may also wish to restrict usage (derivative works etc) where someone else makes profit out of your hard work. Fron the other side of the fence, people who might take and use your product/code like to know where they stand with regard to use/copying/distribution. By asking that your name stays on the code, you can also ensure that you get vcredit for the work, and that any improvements/suggestions that happen in the wild can make their way back to you.
If you just want to give away the code wihtout much ongoing development, then a great place is CodeProject - you can release the application and write a small article describing it, and then it's up to you to decide if/when you will post updates.
If you want other people to collaborate then there are plenty of open-source websites that will support this approach.
As for criticism, you are likely to get a few mails from people who need tech support, or who want to suggest extra features. Most people are very polite though. If you wrote the program for yourself, there is a good chance that when it gets into the wild you will discover all the bits that have to be used in a particular way to work well, and all the additional options that you don't care about but which the product needs to make it applicable to a wider audience - you can get sucked into a lot of support work if you're not careful. Ultimately don't be afraid to say "no" to someone if they ask for something you don't want to support - it's your program and your time after all.
The main thing is to have fun :-)
Using a well-known, well-tested open-source license will make it easier for your users to know where they stand with regard to your code. The worst thing you can do is release your code without a license. No license means no use, since in most jurisdictions software is automatically copyrighted with no right of use or reuse.
If you don't want the project to wither away from lack of interest, you'll need to get it in front of developers. Releasing it at a large open source project site (such as SourceForge, GitHub, or Google Code) will help you get that visibility, and will provide a lot of infrastructure for managing your project. The more you do, the better the chances that others will find it, try it, and use it.
CodeProject is a good suggestion- but it really depends on the platform. Typically users of each major development platform flock to other sites for their Open Source extensions or apps. For example, lots of developers on the Microsoft stack look for things in the Visual Studio Gallery or on CodePlex. SourgeForge obviously has its own religious following as well. I would suggest promoting your new app on a site where you would go to find something like it. The Google page rank of whatever public site you use to host it will also impact how many people find it and ultimately how much criticism (constructive or otherwise) you get on the project. Licensing is always a good plan. It has been my experience that each major open source collaboration site tends to learn towards a specific licensing mechanism, so I would just do what seems to be the most popular if you don't have any specific requirements.

Bare minimum you need to work for an open source project [closed]

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I have recently started working on some open source project which I found relevant to my interests.
During this initiation period I came across some terminologies/stuff that I am not acquainted with, like configure, tool chain, binutils, etc. which I agree depends upon the type of project you are working on.
Now my question is, are there some bare requirements a developer should know before starting to work on the project?
Any help/reference will be greatly appreciated.
EDIT:
I have seen the GNU configure and build system in most of the projects I have seen.
If someone bothers about it "The GNU configure and build system" is a good place to start.
If it's a pre-existing one, you'll need to read their development docs (if any), learn how to use their version control system, and have the requisite tools for building the code and running it.
If you have all that, and the knowledge of the code/language, then you just need enthusiasm and some spare time :)
I wouldn't define them as bare requirements in the sense that it appears you are looking for. If you're a programmer you already have (hopefully!) the self-learning and problem solving characteristics that probably led you to be a programmer at first.
You'll never really know 'everything', and will likely learn something new everywhere you go. Heck, I got my current job never even hearing the words "Model-View-Controller", but picked up the concept in no time.
Your examples, toolchain and binutils, are not complex concepts and a simple wiki article should suffice.
I'd suggest downloading all the source code and making sure you can build it yourself as a first step.
Try and make sure you are familiar with the overall design and documentation before attempting to make any changes to ensure you don't inadvertently break anything on your first change!
The terminologies being used will probably depend on the technologies being used, for example an open source project written in C++ and running on Linux, will likely be very different to a C#/.NET application build to run on Windows.
It depends on how much involvement you will get into. If you just want to contribute with a feature, just get the tools to build the project, an editor to change the file and enough doc reading to find injection point for your feature. If you can find someone to help you getting started it will be fairly easy.
If you are to be committed to the project I recommend learning build tools, project history and aims. Also how the current authors try to solve the problems, their perspective on the project will help.
I would say being able to understand all of the architecture, tools and technology for whatever project you're working on is a must.
However, you then tried to make this a generic question that applied to any open source project. You kind of answered that for yourself didn't you?
which I agree depends upon the type of
project you are working on
I would think that depends entirely upon the project. Most well set up software projects will specify:
What language(s) they're written in
What developer environments (if any) they're set up for
What tools you need to build/compile/run the project
Test data with which to test the software
What are you working on? Are you sure they don't provide any of this information?
It depends on what you qualify as "work" on the project.
Most of the answers here suggest that you're coding (and your question hinted in that direction), but there are things that you can do to contribute to projects -- like testing and documentation -- that can be done without knowledge of how the program's written.
Now, for the coding aspect of it -- if it's a smaller project, I'd try to figure out what the other contributor's motivation and grand plans/goals for the project are. As with any team, coming in and trying to take things in a completely different direction than the others are planning, even if you have good intentions, can cause all sorts of problems.
(and then there's the technical advice that everyone else said ... source control, build system, project architecture, toolkits used, etc.)
It depends, as you say, on the project.
You'll have to know how to work in the language, you'll have to be familiar with the source code control system they use (usually subversion). You'll have to be able to build (usually Ant, often Maven).

Strategies for learning and writing code when I'm not allowed to be "polluted" with open source code? [closed]

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I work at a company where the rule basically is (as I understand it) that you cannot use any code unless (a) you write the code yourself or (b) there is some explicit indemnification clause guarding your use of any other code (like open source code). I am finding this making my coding difficult.
For example, coding samples in books are pretty much use "as-is". Microsoft SDK Code Samples are use "as-is". Blog posts about coding are use "as-is". There are several sites out there with code samples (including SO) that are use at your own risk. No warranties implied or indemnification against intellectual property lawsuits, blah, blah, etc.
Basically, I'm confined to using Asp.Net and the .Net Framework and nothing else and to bar my eyes from accidentally picking something up that I haven't created (ok...that may be my anal interpretation of the rule ;-).
I find this difficult because a big part of learning to code I think is reading other code. Reading blogs that have code, reading books that have code, looking at coding samples, using code from SDK samples etc. Also, I would think it is safe to use code that people have shown to be a good solution or pattern for something and freely put up for others to use. I'm not about to think that I can code everything myself. I definitely have to stand on the coding shoulders of others to reach certain heights.
It could be that I don't understand licensing very well either. From the companie's perspective (I suppose) they don't want to incur any risk of beind sued for IP infringement.
My thought is that you have to weigh risks. Taking a coding snippet from a book is low risk. Incorporating code from an open source library could be high-risk. I say make decisions based on how much risk you are willing to take.
Has anybody had experience working in a situation like this or similar to this? Is this a rare thing or is it common in some sectors? Are there others in the same position like me out there?
Any insight or guidance would be appreciated! Thanks!
Edit:
Thanks for the responses! To clear up some things: I'm not advocating stealing code. I'm talking about code that has some kind of public license that allows it to be used in its defined legal way. The key is there is no indemnification in public licenses in using the code. That means it you use it at your own legal risk (and other risk). If someone sues an open source project that you used code from, you could be roped into the lawsuit as well because you are using the code even though it had a public license.
In 2005, Microsoft was using indemnification to compete against open source venders by promising it's partners that Microsoft would protect them against IP lawsuits. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/jun05/06-22PartnerIndemnificationPR.mspx
So, even if the risk of being sued for IP infringement may be extremely low, it is a non-zero probability. Thus, I can't use any of it. Even if it has a public license of some sort. :-(
The "risk of beind sued for IP infringement" isn't really the right way to think about it. This isn't a "risk" thing.
Either
You have a license and can use the source. There's no risk. You have the license. There can't be a lawsuit.
Or
You don't have a license and you're in violation. Effectively, you will be sued. There's no risk here, either. You're in violation of someone's copyrights (or worse).
Companies are averse to Open Source for a variety of strange reasons. Risk of lawsuit is not one of them.
Things I've heard.
What if it has a virus?
What if it doesn't work as advertised?
What if it "crashes" something? Who do we sue?
None of these are "risk" items. They're "due diligence" items. And mostly, they're easy to address: pick products with enough users that someone else vets the code before you; QA open source as if one of your own people typed it in. Except for one.
This leads us to the real reason. [Hint: It's not "risk of lawsuit".]
There's no one to sue when you didn't perform due diligence on open source.
Most shops don't have real solid configuration management or QA policies (the kind that would stand up in court as best practices). Until they have these things in place, they don't dare think about introducing open source for which you really need solid QA and configuration management.
I think what your company is really worried about is you directly copying large segments of code for which there may be licensing issues, presenting a legal problem to the company if they are caught using it. However, you may read blogs or other non-licensed code and discover a solution which works for the particular problem you are working on. In that case, you would be better off rewriting the code (that is, look at the solution and reproduce it) as opposed to just copying the code and making modifications to it. At my company, that is what they generally recommend for using non-proprietary code.
As well, for small amounts of code (e.g. a standard implementation of a cache) where everyone implements this the same way, every time, your company is unlikely to be afraid of using outside code, as long as you are sure to test it carefully.
By "indemnification", I assume they mean assurance that the code is free of copyright or patent or maybe trade secret encumbrance that they don't know about up front, or that somebody's willing to compensate them if something like that turns up. I've never been in a company that worried about this, nor have I heard of one before.
It's not clear what you actually want here, other than sympathy (and I do have sympathy for people trapped in corporate foolishness). It sounds like the policy is quite rigid, if you're worried about sample code in books. This is a bad policy, and will hinder you, but I don't know what you can do about it. Unlike Joel's blog post on getting things done as a grunt, it sounds like you can't just start doing thing intelligently without being in clear violation of corporate policy.
Not knowing your situation, my suggestion would be to look for another job. This one will definitely stifle your professional growth, and a company with that policy is unlikely to be reasonable about it.
(It would be nice if you could assure them there was no danger, but that's not true. People have lied about copyrights, although open source projects tend not to, and only a fool would claim definitely that a large chunk of code did not infringe on any patents in the US; even if it was written a year before software patents were first awarded, that would be merely good grounds for a court fight, rather than avoiding a court fight. GPLed software is actually better than BSD software, since it requires some patent licensing downstream, but it can't deal with third-party patents. Of course, if they're that worried about being sued, writing in-house software is no solution. That can infringe on patents.)
You could rename the variables and how would they find out? Do they check every line of code ? Universities tell you that all the time, not to copy code without referencing. Why don't you try coding something and useing parts of code you find in the Internet?
Generally you will use more from communities like stack overflow or blogs than from open source projects.
Finally since the code has no warranties, its at your own risk.. well the is the same case if you came up with the code by yourself: its at your own risk.
Hope that helps... and good luck.
It could be that I don't understand licensing very well either. From the companie's perspective (I suppose) they don't want to incur any risk of beind sued for IP infringement.
My thought is that you have to weigh risks. Taking a coding snippet from a book is low risk. Incorporating code from an open source library could be high-risk. I say make decisions based on how much risk you are willing to take.
I'm not sure if I understood correctly. If you are saying that license infringement is fine when you don't get caught, I will have to disagree with you.
You can learn by reading code without breaking laws or getting fired. Just don't copy the code to your company's code base if the license doesn't allow it.
If you're not aware of the "clean room" concept, then there's always that approach. Have a friend look at some open source code and get them to tell you how they think it works. Diagram it out, and then code it yourself.
If it worked for IBM, right?
Keep in mind that not all Open Source is GPL. Your company can copy as much BSD-licensed code as they like. BSD-licensed code has made it into OS X (that's probably my biggest understatement of today) and to a lesser extent Windows NT.