Summer of Code application draft

[Nikolaj Hald Nielsen]

Hi William

That sounds like a great and worthwhile project! :-)

A tiny bit of nitpicking: "Amarok 2.0 has suffered a very big
change..."  'suffered' is generally a very negative word, so using it
in this context implies that it is actually a problem with Amarok 2.
Maybe something like 'undergone' or 'seen' would be better suited.

Other than that it looks great!

- Nikolaj

On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 2:33 AM, William Viana <vianasw at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>  _______________________________________________
>  Amarok mailing list
>  Amarok at kde.org
>  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/amarok
>