Ba Yanxing: From leading multiple SIG groups to OpenHarmony "code contribution star", how did I do it?

Author: Ba Yanxing Shenzhen Kaihong Digital Industry Development Co., Ltd. Senior OS framework development engineer

Editor's note: During the ecological development of OpenHarmony, a large number of outstanding code contributors have emerged. This topic aims to recognize contributions and share experience. The content in this article is from guest interviews and does not represent the views of the OpenHarmony Working Committee.

Open source software (hereinafter referred to as "open source") came into being in the 1980s and has since benefited the world. Today, open source technology supports more than 90% of Internet products and has penetrated into commercial applications in various industries. In 2021, for the first time, my country will explicitly include "open source" in the "14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Outline of Vision 2035". Although my country's open source construction started relatively late, the country has begun to give affirmation and support to open source at the strategic level. At present, open source has become the dominant mode of global software technology and industrial innovation.

As a platinum donor of the Open Atom Open Source Foundation and a Class B donor of OpenAtom OpenHarmony (hereinafter referred to as "OpenHarmony"), the core technical team of Shenzhen Kaihong has completely inherited the previous OpenHarmony business technology accumulation, with the open source spirit of co-construction, co-governance and sharing. , with the strategic goal of becoming the leader of the intelligent IoT operating system, based on OpenHarmony, it focuses on the technology research and development and continuous innovation of the intelligent IoT operating system (KaihongOS). Committed to building a win-win IoT operating system ecosystem, continuously broadening the boundaries of the industry, and realizing the interconnection of all things.

As a senior OS framework development engineer, Ba Yanxing is responsible for the overall technical planning, project care, achievement delivery, and communication and coordination with the community; the application for the establishment of the auxiliary tool SIG, the incubation of the SIG, and the promotion of the graduation process. Among them, the auxiliary tools SIG includes a series of tools such as NAPI framework generation tools, boot animation tools, and IDL conversion tools.

He often said that in this world, there are no good luck and miracles that fall from the sky, and opportunities are only reserved for those who are prepared. Bayanxing seized the opportunity and fully embraced the open source era. On the basis of open source software, it provided enterprises with secure and stable enterprise-level open source software, and gave 100% of the code back to the community. He has been extremely responsible for his work for ten years, and has used his expertise to gather energy. At present, he has led the team to lead 4 SIGs, participated in the code contribution of 12 SIGs, and contributed 30W+ lines of code to the backbone.

This time, we invited Shenkaihongba Yanxing to participate in the interview, hoping that through his perspective, he will give us a more comprehensive understanding of the story behind the Shenkaihong team.

Q1 Can you introduce yourself and your development team?

Hello everyone, I am Ba Yanxing, a senior OS framework development engineer at Shenzhen Kaihong Digital Industry Development Co., Ltd. Since I started my career, I have been deeply involved in the research and development of terminal equipment and have more than ten years of experience in mobile system development. On the one hand, the Shenzhen Kaihong team undertakes the research and development tasks of the company's KaihongOS (one of the commercial distributions of OpenHarmony), and on the other hand, actively, in a large-scale and comprehensive manner, makes open source contributions to the OpenHarmony community.

Q2 As a technical expert in the development field, what are the reasons for you to decide to participate in OpenHarmony's community contribution?

With the advent of the 5G era, the demand for digital upgrades, interconnection of all things, and human-machine-material integration has become increasingly strong. For the first time, "open source" has been clearly listed in the "14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and 2035". Annual Vision Outline. As the operating system of the base of the interconnected ecosystem, OpenHarmony came into being.

Since the establishment of the OpenHarmony open source project, the Shenzhen Kaihong technical team has carried out in-depth cooperation with the OpenHarmony working group. It is the first company in the industry to conduct in-depth research on the application and empowerment of OpenHarmony in the industry. I believe that there will be a window period for the rapid development of mobile operating systems in the future market. Therefore, when I learned that a company such as Shenzhen Kaihong, an operating system distribution company with OpenHarmony as its technical base, was born, I did not hesitate. joined.

Since I participated in the co-construction of the OpenHarmony community, I have been deeply involved in the work of code co-construction. Combined with the accumulation in the technical fields of system kernel, system security, network communication, multimedia and AI over the years, I have led several SIG groups and continued to contribute to the community. Contribute high-quality code, continuously consolidate the basic capabilities of OpenHarmony, and accelerate the ecological construction of OpenHarmony.

Q3 Congratulations on getting the February Code Contribution Star, which is very impressive. Can you tell us what code contributions you have made in the community and what results you have achieved?

In June last year, Shenzhen Kaihong began to participate in the RISC-V SIG, starting from chip adaptation, and then undertaking the task of implementing the driver SIG's audio and video hard coding and decoding HDF framework. With the accumulation of open source experience, the team also brings together technical experts in various fields. Therefore, in September 2021, Shenzhen Kaihong officially led the first SIG group - the AI framework integration SIG group. During this process, I participated in the whole process of research and development such as requirement analysis, architecture design, code framework construction, code review, and warehousing; based on RockChip Toybrick 3568x, I realized the development of HDF framework; based on MppBuffer and MppBufferGroup provided by Rockchip's MPP framework As well as the components and interfaces related to packet and frame, combined with Buffer queue, shared memory and other mechanisms, the hardware encoding and decoding process has been implemented, and the related encoding and decoding demonstration programs and unit testing programs have been completed; based on the HJSUnit test framework, use the JavaScript language to write JS Test scripts for all component properties, styles, events, methods, etc.; the above related codes have been integrated into the trunk.

With the gradual expansion of the scale of the R&D team and the gradual improvement of team capabilities, there are more and more technical fields that can participate in leading or co-construction - auxiliary tools, soft bus, multimedia, kernel and other projects all have the presence of the Shenzhen Kaihong team, slowly Showing the trend of "blooming everywhere", we also saw that our achievements have helped more developers, and truly felt the prosperity of the ecology.

So far, Shenzhen Kaihong has led 4 SIGs, and 12 SIGs have participated in the co-construction, especially in the root technology fields such as kernel, soft bus, HDF, ArkUI, etc., and have contributed 30W+ lines of code to the backbone.

Q4 Could you please share with us what technical or other difficulties you and your team have encountered during the entire development process? How are these problems solved one by one? What lessons did you draw from it?

We encountered many problems in the process of kernel development, such as the limited types of boards supported by the kernel, the hardening of the Hi3861 development board kernel, and the complex compilation environment construction, all of which aggravated the difficulty of entering the kernel development. Faced with these difficulties, we have also worked out a set of methods in the process of exploration.

First, we use simulation technology to solve the problem of limited single board, secondly, we use Q/A method to record each step, output technical documents, and consolidate the footprint of each step. Keeping a curiosity about new technologies is a must-have for every kernel developer, and this mentality motivates us to continue to overcome difficulties. At present, the core development work is still in its infancy and has achieved preliminary results, but we will continue to invest in research and development. In the process, we can not only improve our own technical capabilities, but also enhance the company's technical reserves and promote a virtuous circle. .

Q5 Since joining the OpenHarmony ecosystem, Shenzhen Kaihong has made a lot of achievements in the open source contribution of the community. What do you think are the "secrets"?

If there is any "secret", it is that Shen Kaihong has always adhered to the open source concept from open source to open source, combined with OpenHarmony system characteristics and industry application requirements for operating systems, and launched KaihongOS with industry commonality Commercial distribution, while meeting customer needs, also returns the accumulated technical capabilities and industry practices to the community.

In addition to the main code contribution, we also make efforts in the directions of tripartite libraries, knowledge system working groups, compatibility working groups, basic services, development boards, etc., and make open source contributions in multiple dimensions and at multiple levels. At the same time, our contribution has also been recognized by the community, and Shenzhen Kaihong has officially become the first extended member of the compatibility working group.

Q6 What aspects of OpenHarmony do you most want to complain about? What to expect from OpenHarmony in the future?

OpenHarmony is currently in its infancy, and many things are not yet mature. For example, system capabilities need to be enhanced; the application ecosystem is not rich enough; Big coffee participates in the construction of the OpenHarmony community. As for the expectations for the future, it is naturally hoped that it can flourish and be on par with or even surpass today's mainstream open source ecology.

Q7 What else will Shenzhen Kaihong do in the future? In which direction are you working?

As one of the co-construction units of the OpenHarmony open source project, Shenzhen Kaihong has the responsibility, obligation and ability to continuously improve the technical capabilities of OpenHarmony, and continuously accelerate the layout of the open source ecological construction with innovative technologies. From the perspective of industrial ecology, a rich and dynamic ecology will also promote the continuous improvement, optimization and improvement of OpenHarmony, and ultimately feed back the industrial ecology, forming a virtuous and organic cycle. Therefore, we will continue to promote the commercial implementation of KaihongOS in various industries, and at the same time empowering thousands of industries, we will contribute the accumulated and refined technical capabilities to the OpenHarmony community, and truly practice the concept of going from open source to open source. Concept, this is what Shenzhen Kaihong will do in the future and the direction of its efforts.

Q8 Is there anything you want to say to other companies and developers?

As an ordinary engineer and technician, I am fortunate to encounter such an era, and even more fortunate to be able to personally participate in the great changes of this era. Opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared, and I will do my best to embrace such an era and seize the opportunities given by the times. The power of an individual is small. Here I call on more people of insight and like-minded people to participate in the co-construction of the OpenHarmony ecosystem. Let’s join hands to promote its prosperity and development!