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

[Guillaume DE BURE]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone :)

Will include your comments and submit it again here !



Le mercredi 23 juin 2010 20:02:45, Thomas Richard a écrit :
> 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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> > Kde-finance-apps at kde.org
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-finance-apps
> >    
> 
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