GSoC application draft: extenders.

Rob Scheepmaker r.scheepmaker at student.utwente.nl
Wed Mar 19 14:22:14 CET 2008


Hi,

I've improved my proposal a bit. It can be found at

http://cripplefight.student.utwente.nl/extenders.pdf

I'm really hoping that a couple of people could spare some time to
deliver feedback on this, since I want to have my GSoC application ready
when the application period starts, and I want to know if I'm on the
right track. Should it be more specific on the details? Is it 'big'
enough for GSoC? I would like to know what you think about it.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks in advance...

Rob Scheepmaker (pinda)


On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 05:48:07PM +0100, Rob Scheepmaker wrote:
> Hello Plasma Devs,
> 
> I want to apply for GSoC, and have written this first draft of an
> application. I would like some feedback on my proposal. I would also
> like to know if there's somewhere where I could find GSoC applications
> from last year, so that I could get an idea about what's expected.
> 
> 
> 
> Project proposal Google Summer of Code 2008
> 
> The Project:
> 
> When plasma was designed, one of the groundbreaking concepts was that of
> extenders. Unfortunately, this concept isn't implemented in plasma yet.
> Extenders would allow for a more intuitive and versatile way of
> interacting with the desktop. The idea is that so called 'applets' which
> are placed in a panel, and have little room to display all information
> they're capable of displaying, could 'extend' the panel when a user
> clicks on them, hovers over them, or when the applet wants attention.
> These extenders could then be detached by dragging them somewhere else,
> so a user could take an item of iterest, and put it somewhere where the
> user can easily monitor the item. Because a mockup says more then a
> thousand words, here are some links illustrating this concept and
> applications that could make use of it.
> 
> http://plasma.kde.org/cms/1069 (section 'extenders')
> http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/KDE+Extender+Mockup?content=30012
> http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Tasks+Info+in+Less+Windows+(mockup)?content=33673
> 
> When plasma provides a flexible, yet easy to use interface to applets,
> and even applications, lot's of applets will use this feature, making
> the desktop more consistent, intuitive and powerfull.
> 
> This project would cover the following:
> 
> Design a easy and flexible api for extenders, so that both applets and
> applications having a system tray icon could add extender functionality
> without much coding effort. This design would of course be made in close
> collaboration with the rest of the plasma developers, to be sure it's
> flexible enough, and in line with the rest of the plasma api.
> Implement extenders. Extenders would probably be specialised applet's or
> widgets which will be contained in a special containment. Extenders
> should be sortable, detachable, and regroupable.
> Polish the visual appearence. Extenders should look like they really
> belong to the panel, or whatever other containment they're in. So panel
> borders shouldn't be visible between the panel and the extenders and the
> border should go around the extenders. Interacting with extenders should
> have an organic feel to it, so Phase should be used to animate extenders
> growing out of the panel, instead of making them appear out of nothing.
> Also, detached extenders might show some form of 'title bar' as shown in
> the animated mockup.
> Make one, or, if time allows, more proof of concept applets that use
> these extenders. Ideas for good proof of concept applets include the
> following:
>     A kuiserver applet that shows all currently running jobs (file
>     downloads, burning of cd's etc.).
>     An rss applet that can show items from feeds in extenders, and
>     where detaching an item shows the the actual post.
>     Extend kopete or konversations, so they use extenders for
>     showing incoming messages.
> 
> About Me:
> I'm a student in computer science at Twente University in the
> Netherlands. I'm currently in my third year of studying computer
> science. Besides my study I also earn some money building web
> applications. I've been interested in FOSS software for quite some time,
> but recently I got involved in the KDE project and actually committed a
> couple of improvements. I've also been working on a new rss plasmoid.
> I've learned basic c++ programming skills on my university, and because
> of my recent involvement in KDE I've also learned some basic Qt and
> libplasma.
> 
> I'm hoping to get accepted for GSoC, so I could get a more thorough
> understanding of the inner workings of plasma, and improve my knowledge
> of Qt. This would make it easier for me to commit usefull improvements
> to plasma in the future. I discovered that writing code for software you
> use and love, and being able to share that code with the world is very
> satisfying and a lot of fun. And being able to look at the code of other
> applications to see how they solve certain problems is a great way to
> learn. I'd love to be able to spend more time on writing FOSS software,
> and GSoC is an excellent opportunity to be able to do that.
> 
> The reason I chose for a KDE project is that I really like the open and
> accessible community. I also think that KDE is the most powerfull
> desktop environment around, and that it has the real potential to draw
> people towards free software. And the first thing people coming from
> other platforms will notice is the plasma workspace. Because plasma is
> such a visible part of KDE, it should be beautifull, flexible, intuitive
> and basically just amaze people. I think that the concept of extenders
> could really add to this.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Rob Scheepmaker (pinda)
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