Rant: So you want help?

[Thomas Friedrichsmeier]

On Friday 05 November 2010, Patrick Spendrin wrote:
> It doesn't work. Why do you think the informations are outdated? Do you
> know that some of us do have a blog? I am not sure that our problem is
> the media.

I don't think lack of updates on website and blogs are the main problem, but 
it's not like you can learn a lot about the project from blogs, recently, 
either. And BTW, if you ever did get around to write something more about the 
last sprint, I've missed that.

You know, I'm not trying to corner you here, or to point fingers. But I do want 
you to understand: For those without the time to follow irc, regularly, and 
without the time to attend the meetings, this project is pretty much a black 
box.

I guess most of us on the list are perfectly happy as long as said black box 
spits out a new release every now and than. But if it does not, then we'll 
start wondering just what exactly is going on inside that box. And more so, if 
we hear calls for help from within that box, then we'll try to figure out just 
how it works, and what it's up to. Sometimes that will include a bit of 
knocking and rattling.

> Our problem is that a lot of people do have interests that are very
> specific to them, thats why there is nearly no common ground. Think of
> three people doing KDE on WinCE, three others trying to port their own
> applications (and only that application), others again only want to have
> some working KDE apps for themselves.

True, we have different goals. And I won't pretend that KDE on Windows is my 
_primary_ concern. But I think we can find ways to collaborate in a way that is 
useful to all sides. If we communicate.
 
> Another thing that we already talked about at the sprint is: is
> kde-windows at kde.org a user mailing list?
> a developer mailing list? Who reads it? What do we want to discuss here?

Well, any channel of communication will have fuzzy boundaries. But I think 
this question is pretty easy: It's power users and developers on this list. 
Why? Because Joe user doesn't care about the platform. He cares about the 
application. And thus he'll ask on the application's mailing list. (Of course 
many users will also be subscribed for curiosity and announcement, but that's 
the case on any list).

Of course there are different kinds of developer on this list. Those whose 
primary passion is KDE on Windows, and those how just want their application 
to work on windows.

But I hope you have noticed it between all criticism in this thread: A good 
handful of us application developers have explicitly stated their willingness 
to help with the project. If we only knew how (yes, I know you'll need a bit 
more time to write up something about the release process; but this is a 
pretty general point).

> If there is a review request or a bug report, who is supposed to answer it?

Good question. But as a general advice: If a request has not been answered 
within a week, then please *do* feel responsible to give *some* response, even 
if you don't know a good answer. It's totally frustrating to put a good amount 
of thought and time into writing up suggestions, and being left to wonder, 
whether anybody has even noted, and what they may have thought about it.

Well, writing it as a rant appears to help...

> I am already very glad that I gathered most people that are working on
> KDE on Win* in the IRC channel. This way there is at least one way to
> communicate.

Ok. Tastes differ. For me IRC just doesn't match too well with my communication 
needs. Anyway, please consider posting _some_ more on the mailing list. One 
obvious advantage is that anybody interested can always read up on the 
archives / their inbox hours, days, or months later.

> This doesn't mean I will not work on binaries, but this is no
> automatism, and if I like to try out KDE on different compilers, nobody
> should say anything about that.

Alright, point taken. 

Please also understand the point of view of those whose primary concern *is* 
about binaries, and who willing to help out in that department. Especially, 
please understand that for whatever we will do, we will ask you first, because 
we assume there may be some plan(s), and we really want to help, not disrupt 
things.

Also, please understand, that for people like me, the motivation for investing 
time in KDE on Windows is not to "try out" something, but to get something 
specific accomplished.

All this means that if you *do* want us to get involved, you'll have to live 
with our questions. You can avoid some of these question by posting 
information a bit more pro-actively...

Regards
Thomas
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part.
Url : http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-windows/attachments/20101105/3a8972b5/attachment.sig