[Kde-finance-apps] Finance Sprint article on the dot

[Thomas Richard]

Hey,

Op 23/06/2010 13:00, Thomas Baumgart schreef:
> Hi all,
>
> please find some add-ons inline.
>
> on Wednesday 23 June 2010 04:51:53 Alvaro Soliverez wrote:
>
>
>    
>> Here is a draft, with more info on the 3rd day, and little epilogue
>> with info about the group and its past and current work.
>> -------------------------------------
>>
>> On April 23rd, developpers from various finances-related KDE
>> applications gathered in Francfort for the very first ever KDE
>>      
> applications gathered in Frankfurt for the very first ever KDE
>
>    
>> Finances Sprint. The fellowship was composed of :
>>
>> The KMyMoney gang:
>>
>> Thomas BAUMGART, whose company (Syrocon) kindly hosted the event
>>      
> Thomas BAUMGART, whose company (SyroCon, http://www.syrocon.de) kindly hosted
> the event
>
>    
>> Alvaro SOLIVEREZ, from Argentina
>> Cristian ONET, from Romania
>>
>> The Kraft bunch:
>>
>> Klaas FREITAG, from Germany
>> Thomas RICHARD, from Belgium
>>
>> The Skrooge guy:
>>
>> Guillaume DE BURE, from France
>>
>> Arnaud DUPUIS, developper of Assuma, was also supposed to join from
>> France, but couldn't make it due to personal issues.
>>      
> Do we want to add some info about the ash-threat before the meeting?
>
>    
>> Day 1, meet&  greet
>>
>> On Friday 23rd, after travelling from our various places, we all met
>> in the Syrocon's office, located in a building facing the building
>> that will soon become the new home of the Francfort Stock Exchange.
>>      
> in the SyroCon's office, located in Eschborn, facing the building
> that will soon become the new home of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
>
>    
>> Now, ain't the perfect place for a KDE Finance Sprint ?
>>
>> We got some time to introduce ourselves, what were the chains of
>> events that brought us that day into that room, discussing that highly
>> improbable topic : writing KDE Applications dedicated to financial
>> matters.
>>
>> Teams took some time to present their respective applications, what
>> they currently do, and what they might become in the future.
>>
>> KMyMoney
>>
>> KMyMoney is a long time player in the FOSS applications for personal
>> finances management. Its origins goes back as far as KDE 1 ! It is
>>      
> finances management. Its origins go back as far as KDE 1 ! It is
>
>    
>> probably the most reknown application in the KDE Finance Ecoystem.
>>
>> The current stable is still based on KDE 3, but the team is working
>> full steam on porting it to KDE 4 in KDE playground. Its philosophy is
>> to have the rigourous philosophy of the double entry system, but
>> hiding its complexity from the user. It is suitable for a range of
>> users from individuals to small business organizations.
>>
>> Skrooge
>>
>> In the same area of personal finances management, Skrooge can be seen
>> as KMyMoney's little brother. As opposed to the latter, Skrooge does
>> not rely on the double entry system, and is only suitable for
>> individuals. The project started in 2008, based on KDE 4, and is part
>> of KDE Extragear.
>>
>> Skrooge philosophy is to keep a simple interface while allowing
>> powerful functions such as advanced reporting or automatic processing
>> of operations.
>>
>> Kraft
>>
>> Kraft plays on a different field : it is an invoice management
>>      
> Kraft plays on a different field : it is a tender and invoice management
>
>    
>> application, that can be used by small business organizations that
>> don't want to go through the hassle of deploying a full blown ERP.
>> Kraft allows them to create their products catalogue, manage the
>> clients database using KAdressBook, and manage invoices using a
>>      
> clients database using KAdressBook, and manage tenders and invoices using a
>
>    
>> templating system.
>>
>> Kraft's latest version is based on KDE 4.
>>
>> Day 2, we have a plan
>>
>> With a clear vision of applications and their respective use cases, it
>> was time to start producing work that could benefit to that whole
>> Ecosystem. There were two main topics that we wanted to discuss when
>> we built the agenda in the preceding weeks.
>>
>> Oxygen Icons
>>
>> When KMyMoney and Skrooge started to talk in 2008, one of the first
>> possible common work that arose was requesting nicer icons to the
>> Oxygen Team. As both applications were moving closer to KDE, it only
>> made sense that the visual relationship needed reinforcement. But with
>> both teams knee deep in development, the topic advanced rather slowly.
>>
>> This face to face meeting was the perfect time to pick it up again,
>> and extend the offer to Kraft guys. So we sat down a moment and
>> focused on producing a list of requested icons that could benefit all
>> three applications. the list can be found here.
>>
>> Nuno added it to his TODO, so we're confident these icons will see the
>> light, sooner or later.
>>
>> KDE Finance Stack
>>      

The KDE Finance Stack is an idea from Klaas, who
envisioned broader interactions between KDE Financial applications,

(Thanks for the credit, but the idea was totally from Klaas. Also note the small spelling error i corrected)


>> but also between KDE Finance and the rest of KDE. We started by
>> listing a few Use Cases to define more precisely what we have in mind,
>> like this one:
>>
>> Fred purchases the album of his favorite band in an online music store
>> and pays 5,99$ for it. The commitment is done in Amarok. Next time
>> Fred starts KMyMoney or Skrooge it notifies him that he did this
>> payment and if he wants to put it on the right account.
>>
>> Read other Use Cases for more details.
>>
>> A good part of the discussion was about finding a name for this
>> component, so we had a small brainstorming session were we put some
>> keywords about this thing (exchange, money, transfer...), and came up
>> with Alkimia, the arabian word that is the basis for the word Alchemy.
>> We found it pretty good, so we sticked with it ;).
>>
>> Day 3, focusing on Alkimia
>>
>> Once we had a set of use cases, we worked on a preliminary
>> architecture for this framework. DBus, Akonadi, and SQlite were
>> discussed, and an initial architecture came to light, also with a
>> blueprint for a prototype that would allow us to test drive the
>> concepts we had discussed. Later on, this blueprint would become the
>> source for a Season of KDE project that is being worked on at the
>> moment. Also, we discussed some more possibilities for Alkimia,
>> including handling some tasks currently done individually by each
>> application, like online quotes and file import/export. Afterwards, we
>> wrapped up the discussion and everyone left to take their ride home.
>> Exhausted, but extremely happy with the results.
>>
>> History and future of the group
>> The KDE Finance group is fairly recent. It started with some
>> discussions about application integration between the developers of
>> Kraft and KMyMoney. Later on, when Skrooge became known, they were
>> invited too. The discussions lingered during 2008 and early 2009.
>> Then, a mailing list was created and there was a proposal for a
>> sprint, which was delayed until KMyMoney and Kraft were ported to
>> KDE4. During January and February of this year, a date for the sprint
>> was decided, more developers were invited into the group, and clear
>> goals were set for the group. The sprint and the joint work later
>> during SoK have strengthened the group. Even as everyone continues to
>> work hard on their own applications and will continue to do so, the
>> KDE Finance group is slowly evolving into a team and results are
>> starting to show. Alkimia is slowly making its appearance in
>> playground, taking shape as a promising future pillar of KDE.
>>      
>
> Should we add the links to the project pages (also those that did not make it
> like assuma and lemonpos) here to show that there are even more projects in
> the foundation of the group?
>    
Maybe a link to the Alkemia techbase pages too? I don't know if anyone 
kept them up to date actually.

Greetings
Thomas