GSoC Report: Week of Mon 17 August

[Seb Ruiz]

2009/8/18 Alejandro Wainzinger <aikawarazuni at gmail.com>:
> End of GSoC.  Here's the list of things to do set on the GSoC
> application (direct excerpt):
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The following are what will be implemented in this project:
> 1. Playlists:
> Viewing
> Creating
> Editing
> Deleting
>
> 2. 1.4 Features for iPods:
> Initialize – delete all tracks on the iPod, replace database with a
> new blank one
> Stale and Orphaned – find music files on the iPod that are not in the
> iPod database
> and add them; remove tracks in the iPod database whose associated file
> is not on the
> iPod
> 3. GUI Feedback and Actions
> From a usability standpoint, media devices need a lot of work. There
> are many device
> operations with little or no GUI feedback that the user will need to
> be made aware of:
>
> Connection – When a device is plugged in, a notification of what
> device, and that it is
> available for viewing in the collection browser (perhaps give
> Collection's TreeView
> immediate focus in the browser)
> Copying – Warn when a device is read-only, out of space, or any other
> error preventing
> a copy from occurring. If copy fails, display on which track it failed and why
> Deleting – Similar to copying, but also introduce a confirmation
> dialog which shows the
> tracks to be deleted, and allows the user to confirm or reject
>
> 4. Universal Mass Storage (UMS) Device Support
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Almost all of this was accomplished, with the notable exception of
> more feedback for connected devices, which I plan to add afterward.
> In addition, a big devices refactor which I hope will make it easier
> to implement new devices for new people (given a guide written by me)
> made it in.
>
> There seems to be generally positive-reactions to UMS support in
> Amarok 2, and unexpectedly, many people are claiming that this was the
> last thing keeping them from switching away from 1.4, so I feel a bit
> proud of that.
>
> Next week I will spend doing bug-squashing in preparation for the next
> A2 release.  While things are missing a bit of polish, this summer
> really solidified the more-important aspects of devices: errors when
> doing stupid things (trying to copy while already copying e.g.),
> playlists, warning dialogs before deleting, initializing the iPods all
> from within Amarok without manually-creating text files and running
> lsusb and such.  The initialization can now benefit from another GSoC
> project, the KAuthorizedButton one, so that we can run the
> initialization-required sudo-commands better.
>
> Having had a bizarre set of life events getting in the way of GSoC
> this year, I'm happy that a lot was able to get done, but let's go
> beyond that and see what's still needed/coming up:
>
> - full threading of copying and parsing devices to stop freezing the GUI
> - MTP devices with mini-sd cards and such being manageable from within
> Amarok (would like such a device to test with, but can code and ask
> for testers)
> - Artwork!  (fun issues with Artwork and threading made that tough,
> seb started some work on it)
> - mysql/sqlite database for UMS devices (would be nice not to have to
> rescan device each time it's plugged in)
> - playlist syncing (bart's work is still ongoing, so a bit pending on that)
> - podcasts
> - more devices? (a guide to show people how to implement their pet
> device, so we can get support for other devices 1.4 supported that
> people want)
> - ..... and so on..
>
> Work is never done on devices, and new stuff like usage of Amarok Urls
> would be nice as well.  As I won't be going back to school until
> January, I'll have time to work on some of these features, but I can't
> do it alone, so the next thing I really want to work on is hooking in
> more device developers (I sound like a broken record, but it's really
> needed).
>
> And that's my last report for this summer.

Congratulations Alejandro, and thanks for the great work. Hope that
your plans of grandeur lead to lots more development activity with
Amarok.


-- 
Seb Ruiz

http://www.sebruiz.net/
http://amarok.kde.org/