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

[Thomas Richard]

Op 23/06/2010 19:46, Thomas Richard schreef:
> 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)
>    
Wait, there are two Thomasses in here. I might be wrong ;)
>>> 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
>
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