About the audio/video chat solution for Plasma Active 3

[David Edmundson]

I think we need to do this in two parts.

1) Make a desktop app. Really really simple, don't get bogged down
messing about with QML, handling multiple users or any other such
nonsense.

In order to do this we need:
 - Code in Telepathy-Qt-Yell
and that's it.

We don't need it merged into TpQt to start on this, tbh I don't think
we even need it merged to ship we can just compile it statically with
the call-ui.

Once we have a basic app, lots of people will be around to help add
polish/features afterwards. From experience it's far better to be
simple and iterative, than to try and do lots, get stuck and just
crash and burn.

2) Making a Plasma app.

Afterwards this should be simple enough, I think we should make the
desktop client first as it's far easier to iron our all the bugs
there. We did this for the Text-UI and made a plasmoid once I knew
what was needed and what needed doing. It was a pretty smooth process.

As for sponsorship, I've been talking to Martin. It's unlikely that
any one person will code all this, as there's lots of little tasks -
if we did get any sponsorship it should be split on a per-task basis.
Personally I'd be happy to be sponsored as I am truly amazing and good
at getting stuff done. It would allow me to have more time hacking as
I could cut down on my hours teaching.

I think the key is getting this TpQtYell work done. I think the spec
is fixed enough now that it can be started. The question is whether
Collabora are going to do it, which they'll only do if they have a
client who wants them, or whether we will have to. I'd only hack on
TpQt if I was being paid to do it as it's boring, I imagine many
others feel the same. I can ping their mailing list and find out as
this is the important part.

Dave

2012/2/10 Mario Fux <kde-ml at unormal.org>:
> Good morning dear KDE Telepathy team
>
> First I'd like to apologize for the confusion I created about this topic. I
> try to clear it with this email and will be ready to answer any questions of
> course.
>
> Ok so here the history that preceded the confusion ;-):
>
> Some weeks ago I had a conversation with Martin Klepetek on IRC about what
> would be necessary (code and time) to have a simple audio/video chat solution
> (like Skype or Google Hangout) with KDE Telepathy technology. My idea was (and
> is) as well to find some money (if the necessary effort was manageable) to
> sponsor a developer to work on this.
>
> Martin then sent me the attached email and I had another conversation with
> Dario Freddi about what's necessary in Telepathy upstream and how cooperative
> Collabora would be. We three then planned a Skype or so discussion which
> didn't happen yet.
>
> Then came the Plasma Active 3 meeting where I participated and as I was
> already in contact with two of your KDE Telepathy guys I took over this task
> [1] (mainly to contact you what I do herewith ;-).
>
> So now the question are:
> - How do we proceed with the audio/video chat solution?
> - What the overhead for such a solution on Plasma Active (PA)?
> - Did somebody of you already worked with PA?
> - What do you think about the idea to find a sponsored developer?
>
> Thanks for your reading and best regards
> Mario
>
> [1]
> http://community.kde.org/Plasma/Active/Tasks#Audio.2FVideo_chat_and_IM_integration_in_PA
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Martin Klapetek <martin.klapetek at gmail.com>
> To: Mario Fux <fux at kde.org>
> Cc:
> Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 20:20:04 +0100
> Subject: Audio/video calls in KDE Telepathy
> Hi Mario,
>
> sorry, I didn't get to computer earlier. Here it goes:
>
> Tasks that need to be done:
>
> Telepathy Call1 spec needs to be implemented in Connection Managers
>
> this is almost done by Collabora (xclaesse), details unknown
>
> Proper Qt bindings needs to be written
>
> there are existing bindings for older call specin telepathy-qt-yell project, these needs updating to Call1 spec, which should be fairly easy/routine task
> I estimate around 40-50 hours for someone familiar with Telepathy specs, glib and yell
>
> Merge of telepathy-qt-yell into telepathy-qt
>
> this step require unit tests and review from Collabora
> 10-15 hours for someone familiar with unit testing
>
> Port our KDE Telepathy call library to the new spec
>
> 20-30 hours probably
>
> Write good UI
>
> 10-15 hours, provided there's a mockup from designer ready
>
> System integration
>
> this is simply the rest - proper working notifications (that is very tricky with current plasma notifications), integration with the current KDE Telepathy suite etc
> shouldn't take more than 20 hours in total
>
> So by a rough estimate, it's something around 130 hours of work for skilled people who know they way around in Telepathy land, for people not familiar with it, I'd expect 170-190 hours, but that's my guess.
>
> Also unfortunately the work can't start before the Call1 spec is implemented upstream, otherwise we have nothing to work with. We also need QML bindings for GStreamer, which should be ready by the end of January.
>
> So that's all that's needed :)
>
> Cheers!
>
> --
> Martin Klapetek | KDE Developer
>
>
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