Necessitas is NOT a community project

Koying cbro at semperpax.com
Fri Mar 16 10:59:35 UTC 2012


I won't put great length into my final answer, because my point, i.e. 
necessitas NOT being a community project, has not been refuted, nor do I 
see in Bogdan's answer any sign that my points will be addressed in to 
foreseeable future.

Just some specific points:

1) Insulting

 I didn't insult anybody. I probably hurt feelings but you were forewarned. 
Re Ray, I was referring to his own quote:

"I just handle Mac and Windows builds and our own version of the ndk
toolchains, I'd like to help out more on the Qt side but I'm basically
a novice with Qt still, plus, I've fallen behind on ndk work anyway."

2)  Vision (http://community.kde.org/index.php?title=Necessitas)

Oh, you mean there is yet ANOTHER place to look for information re 
necessitas? Besides, this a TODO list, not a vision.
One thing I understand is that Widgets are more important to you than QML, 
even though Qt is deprecating their use on mobile device.
Your call, but I think this is a waste of time/resource, and I admit I'm 
somewhat frustrated you refuse to integrate the QML components (either 
mine's or Kate's) because it doesn't have the "Android look& feel", which 
seems fallacious to me, especially considering the alpha state of the 
project and that the widgets do not have it either.

3) KDE; ah, KDE:

"I didn't wanted to give also my money": If you don't want to use one of 
the numerous free solutions for hosting FLOSS projects as to make the 
project coherent, please organize a fund raising. I'm pretty sure you'll 
get the $150 for a yearly hosting plan in a matter of seconds.

"I had to join somebody, KDE was the natural choice": Why "joining 
somebody"? To host the project? See above. KDE a natural choice? Why? 
Because they're using Qt? In that sense, you could as well have asked QGIS 
to host necessitas. At least they officially support multiplatform.

4) Patches:

"Some time is easier/faster to rewrite them, then to reject a patch": Oh 
indeed, it is ALWAYS faster, but it is not how it works in a community 
project.
"e.g. the menus patch that you sent [1], it didn't work at all": My point 
exactly. You didn't discuss the supposed fact that it doesn't work with me 
(although it works pretty well for me, thank you).
"Probably you are frustrated because I had to revert your last patch, 
because it was a fiasco": Not a bit frustrated about the revert. I KNEW it 
wasn't working as it should. I'm frustrated because I proposed a solution 
(limit to /assets) both on the dev list and on the reviewboard, without ANY 
reaction.

OK, that's about it. 
I'm still not 100% sure Qt on Android is viable as a "commercial" 
alternative but thanks to Bogdan's great work, I was able to port my pet 
Qt/QML apps from Symbian to Android and they work great with some patches.

For what it's worth, my necessitas clone is at 
https://gitorious.org/~koying/qt/koyings-android-lighthouse (Native Options 
Menu + Native Context Menu + "/assets" only + Native Share menu soon)
My Symbian derivated QML Components are at 
https://gitorious.org/~koying/qt-components/android-qt-components (Native 
Options Menu + Native Context Menu + Native Share menu soon)
Don't forget Kate's Meego-derived components, either (We should really 
merge those...)

Best Regards
- Chris -


On Thursday, March 15, 2012 6:01:46 PM UTC+1, BogDan wrote:
>
> Hi Chris, 
>
> On Mar 15, 1:07 pm, Koying <c... at semperpax.com> wrote: 
> >  WARNING! This post is a rant, expresses only my own opinion and 
> feelings 
> > might be harmed during the course of this reading. 
> > 
> > *<RANT>* 
> > 
> > This post is a reaction to a thread on the dev list where Bogdan was 
> > lamenting on the lack of commitment to the project. 
> > I found it both laughable and pathetic in the sense that NOTHING is done 
> to 
> > make it a project you can be committed to, and I'll expose, IMHO, why. 
> > 
>
> Until now I find your remarks very insulting ... 
>
> > 1) *This is a one man (and a half, sorry Ray), "benevolent despot" kind 
> of 
> > project.* 
> > 
>
> I'm not going to accept you to insult Ray ! Ray's contribution is not 
> half ! 
> Because Ray dedicate his free time to this project, now 4000+ users 
> can use this 
> project on windows and mac ! What have you done for this project ? 
>
> > 
> > Bogdan IS the project. Every single decision is made by him without 
> > discussions nor appeal. He has his vision for the project (that I didn't 
> > find, but it could be hidden in one of the zillions places the project 
> is 
> > scattered into. More on this later) and I don't feel like he is open to 
> > discuss/challenge this vision. 
>
> I'm confused ! First you say that "He has his vision for the project 
> that I didn't 
> find .. "  then you say  "I don't feel like he is open to discuss/ 
> challenge this vision." ! 
> If you don't know my vision, how can you say that I'm not open to 
> discuss it, 
> did we ever discuss it ? 
>
> Anyway, my expectations for this project are here: 
> http://community.kde.org/index.php?title=Necessitas 
>
> We (you and me) had a few discussions before, but I don't remember I 
> have been that close... 
> We talk about menus and about look&feel plugin, I remember that we 
> had different approaches on this topic, you wanted add android 
> look&feel only to 
> your QML, I didn't agreed, because I still want to support class 
> widgets. 
> It means that I'm not open to discuss? Please give me more hints on 
> this matter ! 
> BTW Android 9patch is more complex than the standard, so, you can't 
> use 
> QML BorderImage (qDrawBorderPixmap) to draw the images ! 
>
> > This is human. AFAIK Bogdan created the project and feels he has all 
> rights 
> > on it (which he has), but that prevents real involvement from others. 
> > Fact is, if Bogdan is unavailable, the project just plain stops. 
> > 
>
> Every community project, is based on meritocracy: 
> You code/contribute, then you have the right to make decisions ! 
>
> > 2) *NOTHING is done to make it a community project.* 
> > 
> > I already ranted about this, but the scattering of the project resources 
> is 
> > just plain ridiculous, laughable and a HOWTO not to make a coherent 
> project. 
> > Wiki on sourceforge, 1 mailing list on kde and 1 on google groups, 1 bug 
> > tracker on sourceforge and 1 on google code, unclear/hidden master 
> > repository, unclear contribution process, which leads me to: 
> > 
>
> If you search this mailing list you'll find all the informations you 
> need: 
> -  regarding HOWTO and other information: The sf.net pages was written 
> by Damine Treg, 
> sadly he didn't had time to continue, so I asked may times for peoples 
> help ! 
> Nobody wanted to do it! I can't do everything by myself ! 
> - 1 on google groups - this is a high traffic general mailing list 
> used by everybody. 
> - 1 mailing list on kde  - this one is a low traffic mailing  list 
> used only by developers, I don't have time to read all posts on 
> google. 
> - 1 bug tracker on sourceforge and 1 on google code -  it was discuss 
> many times before, ONLY bug tracker on sourceforge should be used. 
> - unclear/hidden master repository: check 
> http://community.kde.org/Necessitas/Repositories 
> - unclear contribution process, as I already said to you before is not 
> may fault ! 
>
>
> > 3) *What the f... does necessitas has to do with KDE?* 
> > 
> > I only assume Bogdan and Ray are KDE devs and that it is easy for them 
> to 
> > host necessitas's master git and "contribution process" on KDE, but this 
> is 
> > VERY wrong from a necessitas perspective. KDE might have its own 
> > contribution process but it is irrelevant to us and ridiculous for a 
> > necessitas contributor to have to register a kde account to be able to 
> use 
> > reviewboard, itself, IMHO, a very obscure and complicated system for 
> code 
> > contribution vs. what is existing in github or gitorious. 
> > Obviously, all merge requests in the gitorious clone are ignored. 
> > Pretty please, make gitorious the main repository, use gitorious merge 
> > request system and do whatever KDE stuff you fancy do in your own KDE 
> > corner. 
> > 
>
> It has everything to do with KDE! Necessitas *IS* a KDE project ! 
> Again, searching this list will give you enough informations. 
> I'll try to summarize: When I released first alpha I had to put 
> Ministro libs somewhere, 
> I used some free servers to put the libs, but it was not a good 
> solution. I dedicated my 
> free time to this project and I didn't wanted to give also my money, 
> so I had to find 
> a reliable solution,  back then Nokia just joined Microsoft, to fight 
> against android, 
> so, I had to join somebody, KDE was the natural choice, we share the 
> same goal: 
> To keep QT free and powerful. 
>
> Regarding contributions: We want to upstream everything, the problems 
> are: 
>  - Nokia doesn't accept contributions without accepting and sign their 
> contributors agreement, 
>  - I can't move the project to qt-project.org (they don't want it yet 
> because is not finished) 
>  so you can't accept their agreement, when you publish your patch. 
>  - The ONLY solution was to "force" contributors to release their code 
> under BSD or public domain. 
>
> > 
> > 4) *Accept contribution, reject them, discuss them or ask for update, 
> DON'T 
> > rewrite them*. 
> > 
> > Crying for contribution, then taking some parts of a patch to rewrite it 
> > you way, mostly incompatible with the original patch, is NOT the way to 
> go 
> > to motivate contributors. 
> > 
>
>   Again I find some of your remarks very insulting, I'm not "crying" 
> for contribution ! 
>   I'm happy to have more contributor, but i'm not crying ! 
>
>   Some time is easier/faster to rewrite them, then to reject a patch 
> or to 
> ask for updates ! e.g. the menus patch that you sent [1], it didn't 
> work at all, 
> but I've seen a lot potential, so I decide to make it work [2] ! 
> I *CREDIT YOU FOR YOUR WORK* and I push a working version, so, 
> what was wrong in that ? 
>
>   Probably you are frustrated because I had to revert your last 
> patch, 
> because it was a fiasco, it made the applications almost unusable, is 
> that my fault ? 
> Probably it is, because I trust your patch and I didn't run and check 
> all the tests before push it ! 
> The problem is to run and check all the tests it takes too much (1-3 
> days). 
>
> > 5) *The project is sloooooowwwwww*. 
> > 
> > Due to 1), 2) and Bogdan's limited availability, necessitas is slow to 
> > progress in its own right. I kind of made my own necessitas fork to move 
> > on, and due to 4) it has diverged so much from the main trunk that I'm 
> not 
> > sure I'll bother rebasing. 
> > 
> > 6) *Maybe related to 3), I don't know if it is necessitas or KDE, but 
> one 
> > should definitely learn about the "git rebase" command*. 
> > 
> > All the merges coming from I don't know which branches makes the git 
> > repository unreadable. The proper way to merge upstream is to rebase and 
> > resolve conflicts. Merging upstream is pure lazyness. 
> > 
>
> WOW you are so good! We didn't know about "git rebase" command !!! 
> Of course you forgot to learn that you can't use "git rebase" command 
> when more than one people is using that branch ! 
> Check http://lwn.net/Articles/328438/ for more info on this topic. 
>
> Merging with upstream is NOT lazyness, is responsibility ! 
>
> > *Bottom line*: 
> > 
> > *Necessitas is NOT a community project*. 
> > 
> > Unless the issues outlined are addressed, It is pointless to whine about 
> > necessitas' lack of contribution. 
> > I suspect many of the more knowledgeable potential contributors will 
> just 
> > take the trunk and adapt it to their needs, without bothering trying to 
> > contribute it back. Unless the project becomes more community friendly, 
> I'm 
> > open to contribute to a potential fork. 
> > 
> > *</RANT>* 
> > 
>
> I'm open to discuss what is wrong with my vision ! 
> I'm open to know other people vision, so, please share your vision 
> with us! 
>
> Don't forget that this project is based on meritocracy! Even if you 
> have a vision, remember that you must to code it, not only to discuss 
> it ! 
>
> To be clear: I'm open to discuss, but I'm not going to "cry" for 
> contributors or to accept contributions with insults in the same 
> box ! 
>
> > Best Regards 
> > - Chris - 
>
> [1] https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/103934/diff/#index_header 
> [2] 
>
> https://projects.kde.org/projects/playground/mobile/necessitas/android-qt/repository/revisions/6dc070ff2715fd75e0e8576aa6f4c524b824ad42/diff 
>
> Cheers, 
> BogDan. 
>
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