Application for GSoC and proposal

Tue Mar 20 23:14:35 UTC 2012

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 9:46 PM, Alexander Rössler
<mail.aroessler at gmail.com> wrote:
> Here I'm starting with my proposal:
>
> Please read it and help me improving it.
>
> Introduction
>
> I noticed that deploying applications to Linux is not that easy, especially
> when considering that there are a lot of different Linux distributions out
> there. OpenSUSE (or exactly Novell) found a solution for that, the Open
> Build Service. The Build Service brings a lot of comfort for developers and
> packagers, however to deploy an app with the Build Service, you need at
> least do know the basics about RPM and Deb and a lot of time. For Developers
> using Linux as main development platform this is of course not a big
> problem, but especially when a project is developed for different platforms,
> developers might be frightened about deploying applications to Linux,
> especially smaller projects. The aim of the project Bretzn was to connect
> various services on the internet for building and deploying applications. In
> the end of 2010 the beta of a plug-in for the IDE Qt Creator was released.
> The plug-in looked very interesting, but a final version was never released.
> So my suggestion is, bringing project Bretzn back to live and to create an
> application for deploying software on Linux.
>
> The goals of the project:
>
> making deployment of applications on Linux easy
>
> saving lots of time for releasing applications and updates on
> openDesktop.org
>
> providing a plug-in for Kdevelop
>
> Implementation:
>
> The project should start where the development of the Qt Creator plug-in was
> stopped. The plug-in used the lib Attica, which provides an easy to use
> framework for using the Open Collaboration Services. Instead of developing
> this project purely as Kdevelop plug in, I would prefer developing a
> standalone application and providing a plug-in that makes use of this
> application. The application should automatically generate .spec files for
> RPM distributions and the necessary files for Deb distributions. Data like
> the application description or the changelog could be input with an easy to
> use GUI.
>
> Timeline:
>
> Analyzing the code of the previous project and getting information from the
> developers
>
> Designing first parts of the GUI
>
> Implementing the specfile and debian.rules generator
>
> Implementing the project-file management and tarball creator
>
> Implementing the parts of the application that use the OCS API
>
> Finishing the GUI
>
> Creating the Kdevelop plug-in
>
> Getting in touch with the users
>
> Testing
>
> Optimizing and bug fixing
>
> Especially because a lot of the tasks that should be done are well
> documented, all this should be done within one to two months, providing
> enough time if problems, or things that where not thought of, occur.
>
> About me:
>
> I am studying electronic engineering at the University of Applied Sciences
> Technikum Vienna. I have a lot of experience developing Qt applications,
> because I am a open source developer since a long time. (one of my newest
> projects is PhyxCalc:
> http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php/PhyxCalc?content=149161) I am also one
> of the OpenSUSE ambassadors for Austria, making me especially suitable for
> this job as developer of the Build Service plug-in.
>
>
> Regards
> Alexander
>
> 2012/3/17 Aleix Pol <aleixpol at kde.org>
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 9:27 PM, Alexander Rössler
>> <mail.aroessler at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hello kdeveleop-developers,
>> >
>> > I'm an electronic engineering student form Austria and I like to apply
>> > for
>> > kdevelop on GSoC. I am using kdevelop as my preferred development
>> > environment for C and so I would like to help you improving kdevelop at
>> > GSoc. I have a lot of experience with Qt/C++, KDE and Linux and I am
>> > also
>> > OpenSUSE ambassador for Austria. As you can see, I'm not new to the open
>> > source community. If you like to see my current Qt project
>> > visit: http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php/PhyxCalc?content=149161
>> >
>> > I like your GSoC ideas for kdevelop, but I have following to add: When I
>> > developed PhyxCalc I came to one point, where I had to deploy my
>> > application
>> > for several Linux desktops. As I am a OpenSUSE user, I knew the Open
>> > Build
>> > Service very well. So I deployed my application via the build service,
>> > however, it was quite a pain to get everything working. New developers,
>> > especially developers coming from Windows, might be deterred of the
>> > deployment of applications on Linux (without the build service it is
>> > even
>> > more a pain). So I found this on the
>> > internet: http://qt-project.org/forums/viewthread/2890 This plugin is
>> > not
>> > developed any more (and wasn't finished anyway), but I think it would be
>> > nice if kdevelop would have such a plugin. Especially for small projects
>> > this would be perfect, it would make deploying applications for Linux
>> > easy
>> > (and even improve the success of the open source community).
>> >
>> > Regards
>> > Alexander Rössler (aka Strahlex)
>> >
>> > --
>> > KDevelop-devel mailing list
>> > KDevelop-devel at kdevelop.org
>> > https://barney.cs.uni-potsdam.de/mailman/listinfo/kdevelop-devel
>> >
>>
>> Hi Alexander!
>> Yes it's a good idea and something that can be useful, but it also has
>> to be properly thought through before making a proposal out of it.
>>
>> I'll be looking forward to your proposal.
>>
>> Aleix
>>
>> --
>> KDevelop-devel mailing list
>> KDevelop-devel at kdevelop.org
>> https://barney.cs.uni-potsdam.de/mailman/listinfo/kdevelop-devel
>
>
>
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> KDevelop-devel at kdevelop.org
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>

Hi Alexander,
All in all, it's a good proposal, although it still lacks some work.

- First of all, it's KDevelop, writing a project's name properly is a
good start.
- You say you want to make a standalone application and then you say
you want to make a plugin. We don't want the application's GUI inside
KDevelop, that's not useful. If you don't want it integrated with the
IDE then don't, but don't try to say everything to see if something
gets us interested.
- Forget about getting in touch with the users. There will be no time
for that. You can do that later if you're still interested in your
project after the summer is over. (note that you're deciding what to
work on here, so please try to do something that you're interested in)
- Designing the parts of the UI and reading the code should happen
mostly before the code part starts (here you didn't specify, maybe you
should take a look into google's schedule). Furthermore, you should
have specified in the proposal what this piece of code is going to do.
That's not what the UI design is about, but from the functionality to
the actual design there won't be that much changes. We need to make
sure that you know what you're doing.
- Do you really expect to generate rpm and debian spec files automatically?

I hope this helps you find a better way to explain yourself.

Aleix