Summer of Code application draft

[William Viana]

Hello,

I am interested in the Context View project idea. I have been mailing
Leo Franchi for some questions related to the project and now I need
some feedback for my first application draft. I would like to know if
I should also include a roadmap or a methodology.

Any feedback is welcome.


   Application for Google Summer of Code 2008

   Abstract
----------------
 Amarok 2.0 has suffered a very big change in its new user interface.
The Context View (CV) has gained more relevance than ever occupying a
central position in the application window. My task would be to
complete and improve the CV area continuing the work already done,
improving and polishing its appearance. In the following lines I will
introduce what would be my approach in this task


   Project
---------------
  Amarok is currently making use of Plasma library to display applets
(a.k.a. plasmoids) in the CV. Plasma is a brand new technology and
very promising but still not fully exploited in Amarok 2.0. My
approach would take into account that Plasma library was created for
the desktop and I would try to take advantage of it.

 My main task in this project would be to finish what is already
started and to correct what is currently not working properly. That
would involve the following:


   Allow to resize the applets: this is one of the missing
functionalities and the one that should be accomplished with less
effort. It would also be useful to me as an initial contact with the
source code.


   Allow to organize the applets using layouts: this task should
provide a way to organize the applets in the CV area. There is already
some work done with the layouts but it is still missing the
possibility to rearrange the applets in the CV.


   Manage a CV with many applets: currently if you add many applets to
the CV if they do not fit in the area they are simply not shown until
you remove some of the others applets or you hide the side columns.
The easiest way to solve this would be to provide a scroll bar and to
add all the new applets to the end of the scrollable area. A more
interesting way of solving this would be to implement virtual areas
such as virtual desktops where users could place their applets. Taking
advantage of Plasma library zooming capabilities it would be possible
to develop the change between virtual areas zooming out to show the
available areas and then zooming in to the desired one. Another
interesting way would be to have an area with a iconized version of
the applets like in a desktop task bar.

   Packaging system: The current "Add widget" dialog has some
functionalities missing like drag-and-drop applets directly to the CV
or install new applets. I would make sure this dialog has at least the
basic functionality.

   Polish the already existing applets: some applets are not fully
functional yet and others need some love. This task would be left to
the end of the project if there is still time to accomplish it.

  My job would require me to be in constant contact with Plasma
developers since it is still in heavy development and some of the
functionalities I may need may be missing or still in development.

 This project is of great relevance for Amarok 2.0 and would polish
one of its main functionalities which is part of the main purpose of
the application: "Rediscover your music".


   About me
------------------
  I am a 23 years old computer science student in Castellón Spain. I
am currently in my fourth year in college and fortunately I have had
plenty of opportunities to work with FOSS applications in my
university, including QT 4 toolkit which I am pretty familiar with.
Apart from personal interest and college subjects I have been working
with QT 4 toolkit in a project from October 2007 to December 2007. The
project was an jural application [citation needed] written in C++ and
my task was to port the SQL queries to XML-RPC calls.

 At the age of 15 I got interested in FOSS and started using
GNU/Linux. At the same age I started to learn to C and then turned to
C++. In my college's years I have got more involved with FOSS,
promoting and helping to plan FOSS events. I am used to read API
documentation and I consider myself a quick learner.

 My next step is to get involved and collaborate in a FOSS project. I
chose KDE because it is what I use and where I would like to see
improvements. Amarok particularly is one my favourites application in
KDE and probably the one I use the most.