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Dec22011
From 12:00 UTC to late in the night, please join us on IRC Freenode network in the #plasma channel today and tomorrow.
We hope to triage all those bug reports and make Plasma even shinier!
So, what can you do?
We hope to triage all those bug reports and make Plasma even shinier!
So, what can you do?
- you need first an account to bugs.kde.org. You also need to have rights to amend bug reports states and we will have people giving you this right.
- triage bugs: you need a rather up-to-date system like 4.7.3. Preferred is 4.8 beta but it's not at all a requirement. Some of us will run master anyway to double check bugs already fixed. You either choose one of your preferred components and look at bug reports for it (like your preferred applet for example) or choose to pick reports in the list we have on bugs.kde.org (see plasma crashers on the left under the "Saved Searches" section, tinyurl here).
- fix bugs: you need to have a checkout of KDE master in order to make a patch.
Tutorials and people helping you will be available, do not hesitate to ask as many questions as you need! Goal is to effectively triage all those reports: find and mark duplicates, especially for crashes (RESOLVED as DUPLICATE of ####), test and assess if bugs are still there (set status to NEW), find bug reports for upstream components like third party applets from kde-apps.org,...
Doing this as a team makes it fun and I am sure you will learn a lot by sharing a bit of your time to join us! We're counting on you!
Nov302011
Since Monday 21st November, KDE is offering various and interesting tasks for students aged 13 to 17 through Google Code-In: coding, translation from English to several languages, screenshots for KDE documentation, bug triaging, outreach tasks to make KDE more known, ... you can see that anyone can find a task for his abilities!
It is very rewarding to work with those students: they are enthusiastic and work hard to achieve the task. Some leave comments about the task and how they were glad to discover this application or how they look forward to doing another similar task.
Out of the 20 tasks I am mentoring, 16 are already done! They ranged from taking screenshots in French language to coding some QWhatsThis to translating docs to French.
We have until the 16th December to add new tasks which will be published on the 16th. Do not hesitate if you have some task that you delay until you have more time, it's your chance now to have it done. Think about your website, wiki pages, documentation, videos, blogging, bug triaging, ... all these things devels keep discarding for later.
So, what is a good task proposal?
- Precise task title to describe the task with maximum accuracy in minimum words (include words like Screenshots, French, the program name,...)
- Description of the task: should be very precise. Keep in mind the young people do not know KDE as we do. When I wrote in my tasks descriptions "screenshots in KDE defaults" they could not know what those default are(if they never changed anything in the settings they assume they have default, even if those defaults are Ubuntu orange color!). So I precised later to set color and style and window decorations to Oxygen in System Settings
- Expected results: this is the output of the task when finished. The student will upload the finished work to the task webpage. For screenshots, I forgot to precise that they should not change the English names and to compress the files in an archive.
- Prerequisites: what they should know beforehand (usually know the program they will work on, the tool they will need like Lokalize, the level of knowledge they should have like being fluent in French for a French translation).
Doing all these steps will ensure success for your task!
Do not hesitate to mail me or to ping me or anyone on IRC (freenode, #kde-soc) if you want to ask tasks and need more information.
It is very rewarding to work with those students: they are enthusiastic and work hard to achieve the task. Some leave comments about the task and how they were glad to discover this application or how they look forward to doing another similar task.
Out of the 20 tasks I am mentoring, 16 are already done! They ranged from taking screenshots in French language to coding some QWhatsThis to translating docs to French.
We have until the 16th December to add new tasks which will be published on the 16th. Do not hesitate if you have some task that you delay until you have more time, it's your chance now to have it done. Think about your website, wiki pages, documentation, videos, blogging, bug triaging, ... all these things devels keep discarding for later.
So, what is a good task proposal?
- Precise task title to describe the task with maximum accuracy in minimum words (include words like Screenshots, French, the program name,...)
- Description of the task: should be very precise. Keep in mind the young people do not know KDE as we do. When I wrote in my tasks descriptions "screenshots in KDE defaults" they could not know what those default are(if they never changed anything in the settings they assume they have default, even if those defaults are Ubuntu orange color!). So I precised later to set color and style and window decorations to Oxygen in System Settings
- Expected results: this is the output of the task when finished. The student will upload the finished work to the task webpage. For screenshots, I forgot to precise that they should not change the English names and to compress the files in an archive.
- Prerequisites: what they should know beforehand (usually know the program they will work on, the tool they will need like Lokalize, the level of knowledge they should have like being fluent in French for a French translation).
Doing all these steps will ensure success for your task!
Do not hesitate to mail me or to ping me or anyone on IRC (freenode, #kde-soc) if you want to ask tasks and need more information.
Jun142011
Again the website of the KDE Education Project is ahead. It was the first site that migrated to the
Feb232011
I was putting together ideas for my talk at conf.kde.in about practical ways to contributing to KDE-Edu. In the process I was trying to list "qualities" that might be useful for new potential contributors and I was asking myself "what is the motivation for other people to contribute to KDE? what is my motivation?"
My personal motivation changed over time. At first when installing my first Red Hat I did not realize the freedom part, the technical challenge of installing and running it appealed to me. Then I understood a bit that it was all done for free over the internet. After playing with stuff I found KDE the desktop that I was comfortable with, I sticked to it. So I started translating to French and that helped me improving my English (I happened to live in England and not speaking well at all). I was motivated by learning new things mostly for myself (so it was very self-centered), the idea of giving something was weakly perceived at that time.
After that I ran into an article about KDevelop and started putting together a Memory game. The article mentioned IRC which I had never used and when I went there in some KDE channels, I met the community and the passion began. I immediately felt at ease and welcomed (I think it has to be 2 sided in order to succeed, the willing from me and the reception from the community, as in contributing to any real life group). I was a total newbie and fell in all traps a newbie can fall in (I found back my first commits to CVS and I committed built files for example ;-)) but this is quite natural and strong peer help makes this learning process easier. The years before I was doing math courses by correspondence with a French University, that was before the internet and working alone to do a master in mathematics was not easy at all. I only got half of it ;-)
I got carried away by telling you my "debuts" but, to cut it short, now KDE has become a passion (not an addiction though as my life is primarily led by my family) and I welcome the intellectual challenge of constantly learning new things. I give and I receive.
What about your motivation?
Feb172011
I'll be giving 2 talks at KDE conf.in in Bengaluru: one about how you can contribute to KDE-Edu with practical tips and some tasks to be done in various areas (development, yes, but also promotion, documentation, websites, ...) I plan to have slides (of course) but the slides themselves will be "light" so I'll release a PDF with precise details on what I said and which can't fit on slides! There will be also some wiki pages where people can apply for tasks. I blogged about Plasma Config dialogs in C++ applets to be adapted to suit the Apply button configuration: we coordinated this from a wiki page and 3 new developers stepped in to do the work, which is finished! I hope to generate the same interest about some KDE-Edu tasks.
The second talk will be about KDE documentation and to broaden it a bit, I'll talk about help in general: where can a user find help when she/he needs it in KDE? Again, the slides themselves will be "light" and I'll release a pdf (with sources of course, be LaTeX or .odt, I am not sure yet) which will have the details of what I said.
If you plan to go to the conf (and you should!) be sure to register now! See you there and come to my talks! Also don't miss the keynotes talks, they will be a blast and will give you deep insight about KDE! I can't wait to be there and I have to thank my husband who will be taking the week off to look after the children (it's holiday for the kids).
KDE-Edu is moving to git following kdelibs, kdebase and a bunch of leading projects already there. In git, we will split all KDE-Edu components so you will be able to build say KTouch standalone. We're working on the libs and also we are preparing this split in current trunk svn. That means you still can build kdeedu as a whole module in svn trunk but with building and installing the libkdeedu first. Sorry about that! You can also build components standalone. The move to git should have happened this week but hit some problems due to branches. Thanks to our awesome duo "eean" and "PovAddict" who are doing this work which is quite difficult and demanding. Stay tuned!
After India, there will be a release party in Toulouse for KDE 4.6 and nearly all the French KDE people will be there! We'll be having a general presentation on the Friday 18th followed with some drinks and on the Saturday afternoon we'll have 2 tracks of conferences: users-oriented and developers-oriented. Put this on your agenda and come! Thanks to our sponsors and to the efforts of the guys who made this happen! I'll talk about the KDE community, how we work together, what's the legal structure and so on, it'll be an insight from within KDE.
The second talk will be about KDE documentation and to broaden it a bit, I'll talk about help in general: where can a user find help when she/he needs it in KDE? Again, the slides themselves will be "light" and I'll release a pdf (with sources of course, be LaTeX or .odt, I am not sure yet) which will have the details of what I said.
If you plan to go to the conf (and you should!) be sure to register now! See you there and come to my talks! Also don't miss the keynotes talks, they will be a blast and will give you deep insight about KDE! I can't wait to be there and I have to thank my husband who will be taking the week off to look after the children (it's holiday for the kids).
KDE-Edu is moving to git following kdelibs, kdebase and a bunch of leading projects already there. In git, we will split all KDE-Edu components so you will be able to build say KTouch standalone. We're working on the libs and also we are preparing this split in current trunk svn. That means you still can build kdeedu as a whole module in svn trunk but with building and installing the libkdeedu first. Sorry about that! You can also build components standalone. The move to git should have happened this week but hit some problems due to branches. Thanks to our awesome duo "eean" and "PovAddict" who are doing this work which is quite difficult and demanding. Stay tuned!
After India, there will be a release party in Toulouse for KDE 4.6 and nearly all the French KDE people will be there! We'll be having a general presentation on the Friday 18th followed with some drinks and on the Saturday afternoon we'll have 2 tracks of conferences: users-oriented and developers-oriented. Put this on your agenda and come! Thanks to our sponsors and to the efforts of the guys who made this happen! I'll talk about the KDE community, how we work together, what's the legal structure and so on, it'll be an insight from within KDE.
Feb112011
Following my last blog post I have been working with Romario, Farhad and Sinny to add the Apply button code in C++ applets: they added the applet they would work on on the wiki page with their name, publish the code on reviewboard , I would check it and test it and sometimes ask the maintainer to double check then they would push or I would if they don't have access. Nearly all the work is now done, thanks to them!
It allowed me to dive into the Git world. It's also amazing how Git experts are patient with us newbies and explain things clearly. So far I understand how to work on master. Next step will be branches!
Meanwhile in KDE-Edu we also are busy preparing the move to git. This also requires collaborative work. We will split the kdeedu module in git and we are preparing this right now in svn: all applications should build standalone. Meanwhile the kdeedu build itself might be a bit broken, you probably need to build and install the lib and then it'll build. Sorry about that. Thanks to Niko preparing the patch and to Jeremy applying it!
For the git move fortunately we have Ian and Nicolas checking all the rules. This is a tedious work as they need to ensure all branches history is also included. I am pleased to see that each application developer took time to check their rules and it shows how lively the KDE-Edu community is: when needed, people rally!
It allowed me to dive into the Git world. It's also amazing how Git experts are patient with us newbies and explain things clearly. So far I understand how to work on master. Next step will be branches!
Meanwhile in KDE-Edu we also are busy preparing the move to git. This also requires collaborative work. We will split the kdeedu module in git and we are preparing this right now in svn: all applications should build standalone. Meanwhile the kdeedu build itself might be a bit broken, you probably need to build and install the lib and then it'll build. Sorry about that. Thanks to Niko preparing the patch and to Jeremy applying it!
For the git move fortunately we have Ian and Nicolas checking all the rules. This is a tedious work as they need to ensure all branches history is also included. I am pleased to see that each application developer took time to check their rules and it shows how lively the KDE-Edu community is: when needed, people rally!
Feb52011
Aaron implemented in plasma master (now kdeplasma-addons in in git) the functionality to use the Apply button in the C++ applets config dialogs: when you change a setting, Apply makes the setting visible without closing the configuration dialog.
So the changes were made in some plasma files and now all the C++ applets have to be ported. It's really a very easy job and I did it with the Picture Frame applet (so I could test my git skills and do my first push): you only need to connect all UI widgets in the configuration dialog to the slot SLOT(settingsModified())
Read the mail from Aaron
http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/plasma-devel/2011-February/014888.html
look at my commit for the Picture Frame applet
https://projects.kde.org/projects/kde/kdeplasma-addons/repository/revisions/2a2d1c167c51fd2694b5873665fd669515cc4732
Folderview also is already ported.
If you need help, we'll be happy to provide it on IRC in #plasma or using the plasma-devel mailing list.
You can either send me the patches or push yourself if you have an account.
Please remember to add the applet you are working on and your name on
http://community.kde.org/Plasma/Tasks#config_dialogs
Thanks a lot!
PS: my first problem with git was because my distro version (1.6.4.4) was too old to support separate urls so be sure to have a recent enough git version in order to be able to push. Again thanks to the 24/24 admin support (a Saturday morning!) the problem was quickly spotted! I built git from git and it's all OK now.
I should note that it requires master (as kdelibs and kdebase and kdeplasma-addons are on git). Master is the new term for "trunk".
So the changes were made in some plasma files and now all the C++ applets have to be ported. It's really a very easy job and I did it with the Picture Frame applet (so I could test my git skills and do my first push): you only need to connect all UI widgets in the configuration dialog to the slot SLOT(settingsModified())
Read the mail from Aaron
http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/plasma-devel/2011-February/014888.html
look at my commit for the Picture Frame applet
https://projects.kde.org/projects/kde/kdeplasma-addons/repository/revisions/2a2d1c167c51fd2694b5873665fd669515cc4732
Folderview also is already ported.
If you need help, we'll be happy to provide it on IRC in #plasma or using the plasma-devel mailing list.
You can either send me the patches or push yourself if you have an account.
Please remember to add the applet you are working on and your name on
http://community.kde.org/Plasma/Tasks#config_dialogs
Thanks a lot!
PS: my first problem with git was because my distro version (1.6.4.4) was too old to support separate urls so be sure to have a recent enough git version in order to be able to push. Again thanks to the 24/24 admin support (a Saturday morning!) the problem was quickly spotted! I built git from git and it's all OK now.
I should note that it requires master (as kdelibs and kdebase and kdeplasma-addons are on git). Master is the new term for "trunk".
Dec52010
We're at the end of post-beta 1 bug triaging week. When we triage, we first ensure the product (KDE program) and component (product sub area) are right for the bug report and that the title is accurate and in English.
A bug report goes through various stages until it is closed. First stage is UNCONFIRMED status. Bug squad people mainly try to reproduce your bug. When this is done, the report can move to the NEW status, a comment is added about the version on which it is reproduced on and the maintainer then knows that this is serious. The bug can also move from UNCONFIRMED to CLOSED as a duplicate. The bug number is added to the duplicate report in order to tell it that there was another person reporting it.
Sometimes the triager or the maintainer would like more information about the bug: the backtrace is not accurate enough because some debug packages are missing, the procedure to reproduce is not clear enough, a screenshot would show the problem better,... A comment is added to ask for more information and the bug is marked as WAITINGFORINFO. The reporter in most cases then adds the information so it's easier to understand the problem and the bug moves back to UNCONFIRMED or NEW.
Developers look at the problem and fix it if they reproduce it or if they find the cause. When it is fixed with a code change, the svn revision is included in the bug report which is then closed. Death of the bug!
Sometimes the bug is from third part components which were not updated correctly to the new libs version (some plasma applets for example that you get from kde-look.org) and the bug is closed as RESOLVED as DOWNSTREAM. You are then invited to report it to the author.
If you want to know more https://bugs.kde.org/page.cgi?id=fields.html describe those fields better.
A bug report goes through various stages until it is closed. First stage is UNCONFIRMED status. Bug squad people mainly try to reproduce your bug. When this is done, the report can move to the NEW status, a comment is added about the version on which it is reproduced on and the maintainer then knows that this is serious. The bug can also move from UNCONFIRMED to CLOSED as a duplicate. The bug number is added to the duplicate report in order to tell it that there was another person reporting it.
Sometimes the triager or the maintainer would like more information about the bug: the backtrace is not accurate enough because some debug packages are missing, the procedure to reproduce is not clear enough, a screenshot would show the problem better,... A comment is added to ask for more information and the bug is marked as WAITINGFORINFO. The reporter in most cases then adds the information so it's easier to understand the problem and the bug moves back to UNCONFIRMED or NEW.
Developers look at the problem and fix it if they reproduce it or if they find the cause. When it is fixed with a code change, the svn revision is included in the bug report which is then closed. Death of the bug!
Sometimes the bug is from third part components which were not updated correctly to the new libs version (some plasma applets for example that you get from kde-look.org) and the bug is closed as RESOLVED as DOWNSTREAM. You are then invited to report it to the author.
If you want to know more https://bugs.kde.org/page.cgi?id=fields.html describe those fields better.
Dec32010
I have to say this out loud: I am VERY impressed with Google Code-In students. Some of them took videos tasks: KDE is not very good in promotion (to say the least) so we issued some YouTube screencast tasks. The results are very impressive and we get new videos:
- BlinKen on Windows
- KStars on Windows
- Install KDE on Windows
- Konqueror Rocks! very high quality work!
Nov272010
A few tips on how to write good bug reports:
The KDE forum has a new section about the Releases and in particular about the Betas for 4.6!
- write in English: you can switch every KDE application to English in the Help menu. That can help you in explaining what happens.
- be specific: one bug per report only! Do not mix problems in the same report.
- be clear: explain the steps that lead to the bug so that we can reproduce them easily
- include screenshots: a picture is worth many words so attach a screenshot to the bug report (using KSnapshot for example). Do not link to an external web link which can expire, use the Attachments link at the bottom of the bug report.
- include the backtrace within the bug report as a comment, it makes it easier to find duplicates for us (do not attach the backtrace as a text file)
- clearly separate facts from speculation: only describe what happens. For a design problem, include a mock-up if possible.
The KDE forum has a new section about the Releases and in particular about the Betas for 4.6!
Nov262010
I'll carry on giving tips on how to make better bug reports but I would like to ask your participation at the bug squashing week which will start tomorrow and will last 7 days.
What is it? The aim is to detect and triage the more bugs possible so that the next beta already will benefit of an improved quality.
How? If you can install the beta, you have 2 possibilities: either run it in any possible way and report all the bugs you find. Or help triage and reproduce the bugs already reported.
Where? You can join on IRC Freenode #kde-bugs and you can ask there any question. There is also a Techbase Page to help you.
Following my last blog, I know that issuing bug reports is not easy. There's the matter of having an account and I also hate this (fortunately as a KDE developer I use my svn credentials so I remember those). Issuying a bug report takes time, it needs to be in English which might not be your main language. But it is really worth it. I know some reports have been around for years and not taken care of but they are a very small minority. When you read Planet KDE you can see how developers care: Aaron asked for help on multiple screens, VHanda asked feedback on the new Nepomuk kcm, John explained Localisation, and so on... (I only noted here the very last entries). So yes, it is worth the effort!
If you only have 4.5.X you can still help triaging and look on your system if the bug is present. Yesterday on #kde I met 2 fantastic users who took time to help pointing an issue about capital keyboard layouts in systray (fixed in 4.6 but present in 4.5). Those 2 users devoted several minutes to the issue and this is enough to help KDE. They were contributors and actors, not just consumers.
So if you have a few minutes to dedicate to KDE feel free to drop on IRC or issue a bug report or help triaging.
By the way if you are not sure whether your bug was already submitted it's better to issue a new report than none. If you find a duplicate for a bug you have, please add a comment like "I can reproduce on KDE from ".
Coincidently I'll be talking about the bug effort in KDE tomorrow in Toulouse in the KDE monthly workshop of our lug!
I hope to meet you on IRC #kde-bugs during the week! You are KDE!
What is it? The aim is to detect and triage the more bugs possible so that the next beta already will benefit of an improved quality.
How? If you can install the beta, you have 2 possibilities: either run it in any possible way and report all the bugs you find. Or help triage and reproduce the bugs already reported.
Where? You can join on IRC Freenode #kde-bugs and you can ask there any question. There is also a Techbase Page to help you.
Following my last blog, I know that issuing bug reports is not easy. There's the matter of having an account and I also hate this (fortunately as a KDE developer I use my svn credentials so I remember those). Issuying a bug report takes time, it needs to be in English which might not be your main language. But it is really worth it. I know some reports have been around for years and not taken care of but they are a very small minority. When you read Planet KDE you can see how developers care: Aaron asked for help on multiple screens, VHanda asked feedback on the new Nepomuk kcm, John explained Localisation, and so on... (I only noted here the very last entries). So yes, it is worth the effort!
If you only have 4.5.X you can still help triaging and look on your system if the bug is present. Yesterday on #kde I met 2 fantastic users who took time to help pointing an issue about capital keyboard layouts in systray (fixed in 4.6 but present in 4.5). Those 2 users devoted several minutes to the issue and this is enough to help KDE. They were contributors and actors, not just consumers.
So if you have a few minutes to dedicate to KDE feel free to drop on IRC or issue a bug report or help triaging.
By the way if you are not sure whether your bug was already submitted it's better to issue a new report than none. If you find a duplicate for a bug you have, please add a comment like "I can reproduce on KDE
Coincidently I'll be talking about the bug effort in KDE tomorrow in Toulouse in the KDE monthly workshop of our lug!
I hope to meet you on IRC #kde-bugs during the week! You are KDE!
Nov252010
KDE 4.6 first beta is nearly out and the code is frozen for new features and strings. We are entering an intense debugging phase! You can help and the first thing to know is how to issue good and efficient bug reports. This small serie of posts will give you some hints on how to do that.
Reporting bugs is a small but valuable contribution to a project, it makes you actor, you get involved, you belong!
The first thing you need is to open an account to http://bugs.kde.org.
Usually bugs come in two flavours:
This is quite scary but you will be guided to efficiently report this crash. The link in the dialog "Learn more about bug reporting" will explain you the process. If you choose to report the problem, click on "Report Bug" and an assistant will guide you through the steps. The requisite to report a crash is to have your distribution debug packages installed in order to provide a valid backtrace.
I will write some more posts about Bugs in the next days, stay tuned!
Reporting bugs is a small but valuable contribution to a project, it makes you actor, you get involved, you belong!
The first thing you need is to open an account to http://bugs.kde.org.
Usually bugs come in two flavours:
- you notice something which is not working properly or not working at all, a bad design, a missed functionality... Open the application Help menu
and Click on "Report Bug..." You will then be guided to http://bugs.kde.org. Some information will be automatically picked up like the application version number.
- the big ugly bug which is called a crash: your program disappears and another window appears named "The KDE crash Handler".
This is quite scary but you will be guided to efficiently report this crash. The link in the dialog "Learn more about bug reporting" will explain you the process. If you choose to report the problem, click on "Report Bug" and an assistant will guide you through the steps. The requisite to report a crash is to have your distribution debug packages installed in order to provide a valid backtrace.
I will write some more posts about Bugs in the next days, stay tuned!
Oct302010
As you know we are in the process of moving from svn to git. So there are already some KDE dependencies that are not in kdesupport svn anymore but instead they moved on KDE git server.
If you want to/are used to build KDE trunk by yourself, I am trying to keep the techbase doc up-to-date with all these moves. Please see http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/KDE4 and especially http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/KDE4/Prerequisites which deals with kdesupport dependencies.
Please mail me or amend the page yourself if you know of anything that is not written here yet! This is pretty much a day by day process at the moment so be sure to look at it very often!
If you want to/are used to build KDE trunk by yourself, I am trying to keep the techbase doc up-to-date with all these moves. Please see http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/KDE4 and especially http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/KDE4/Prerequisites which deals with kdesupport dependencies.
Please mail me or amend the page yourself if you know of anything that is not written here yet! This is pretty much a day by day process at the moment so be sure to look at it very often!
Jul22010
Following the KDE-Edu meeting at Randa in May, we decided to increase the communication with our users and to increase promotion of our software. One channel to do so is our website which we decided to port to the new KDE website style. We also decided to keep static webpages on http://edu.kde.org with minimum information and to use KDE wikis: http://userbase.kde.org for user-oriented information and http://techbase.kde.org for developer oriented information.
Yesterday the new KDE-Edu website went live. There is still improvement to do in the texts of course. I would like to warmly thank Matthias "pipesmoker" who did all the work on this new website. Without him coming back with his web skills, we would not have succeeded in having this new website. This is the magic of Free Software projects when people with the right skills come at the right moment! A big thank to Matthias who worked hard in hot days to make this happen before Akademy. Thanks also to the kde-www people who helped a lot!
If you feel you can help with improving content on the website, please send patches to me or to the kde-edu mailing list. For wikis, it's even easier and you can improve pages yourself. Thanks in advance for any help!
I will not be at Akademy due to having no solution for the children (no, I can't afford to fly them in Finland!) but please attend Aleix'talk ("KDE Edu and how to learn by using KDE") on Sunday from 11:45 to 12:45 in room 1. Have a nice Akademy all of you and don't forget to communicate about it with us who are not attending!
Yesterday the new KDE-Edu website went live. There is still improvement to do in the texts of course. I would like to warmly thank Matthias "pipesmoker" who did all the work on this new website. Without him coming back with his web skills, we would not have succeeded in having this new website. This is the magic of Free Software projects when people with the right skills come at the right moment! A big thank to Matthias who worked hard in hot days to make this happen before Akademy. Thanks also to the kde-www people who helped a lot!
If you feel you can help with improving content on the website, please send patches to me or to the kde-edu mailing list. For wikis, it's even easier and you can improve pages yourself. Thanks in advance for any help!
I will not be at Akademy due to having no solution for the children (no, I can't afford to fly them in Finland!) but please attend Aleix'talk ("KDE Edu and how to learn by using KDE") on Sunday from 11:45 to 12:45 in room 1. Have a nice Akademy all of you and don't forget to communicate about it with us who are not attending!
Jun72010
From 6th to 11th July the RMLL will be in Bordeaux France. This is probably the biggest Free Software event in France. There is no proper "KDE France" but nevertheless we managed to get a KDE booth. Now we need people to staff the booth and demonstrate all the greatness of KDE.
If you are willing to help and can come 1 day or more, please add a comment to this blog or/and contact the French Events mailing list. Thanks in advance and see you there hopefully! I will arrange to either come during the week but with a few kids or for the week-end and alone but I need to check this with the rest of the family!
If you are willing to help and can come 1 day or more, please add a comment to this blog or/and contact the French Events mailing list. Thanks in advance and see you there hopefully! I will arrange to either come during the week but with a few kids or for the week-end and alone but I need to check this with the rest of the family!
May292010
Within the monthly Atelier KDE in Toulouse organized by Kévin "ervin" Ottens we had today a focus on KOffice 2.2. Jean-Nicolas Artaud and Benjamin Port presented this new release (including some nifty KPresenter 3D transition effects that are in trunk). They highlighted new features and also talked about their contribution as students of Toulouse University. I was very much impressed by the work done by these students, the Xinerama KPresenter feature totally rocks. Benjamin will carry on his work in KOffice as a GSoC coding 3D animations for KPresenter. He is finishing right now the HTML export for KPresenter.
Congratulations to the whole KOffice team on this release and special congratulations and thanks to Benjamin and Jean-Nicolas for their work and lively presentation!
We followed the presentation and questions by having some drinks and cakes!
Tricky KHangMan bug
I also made a test case for the KHangMan desert SVG background which has a dark band or garbage band on the right and I can't understand why it is so. The SVG itself seems good, I don't have any clue on what happens. I coded a minimum window which displays the Sea Theme background SVG pic correctly but the Desert one is wrong. If anyone wants to have a look, just run KHangMan and switch to the Desert theme... Any hint on where to look would be highly appreciated!
Congratulations to the whole KOffice team on this release and special congratulations and thanks to Benjamin and Jean-Nicolas for their work and lively presentation!
We followed the presentation and questions by having some drinks and cakes!
Tricky KHangMan bug
I also made a test case for the KHangMan desert SVG background which has a dark band or garbage band on the right and I can't understand why it is so. The SVG itself seems good, I don't have any clue on what happens. I coded a minimum window which displays the Sea Theme background SVG pic correctly but the Desert one is wrong. If anyone wants to have a look, just run KHangMan and switch to the Desert theme... Any hint on where to look would be highly appreciated!
May242010
The KDE-Edu team is very productive in Randa. On the second day we started with a Logo session.
Our eyes keep seeing logos in the everyday life and we have been wanting a logo for years.
At the meeting, Alexandre from Brazil, a professional designer, watched us the whole first day when we talked about who we are, what are our targets and about our programs. He then started to work on a logo concept: he defined a few verbs about KDE-Edu and came up with the conclusion that KDE-Edu makes people's knowledge grow. So the main idea behind the concept
is "growing knowledge". The logo is still in its infancy so please don't comment like "I don't like it" or whatever without being productive. We as a group, after the logo was presented, did not do a "like/hate" unproductive waste of time session.
We agreed that the concept idea was good. One thing Alex also said is that if a logo looks good as a stamp, in black and white, it'll look good anywhere.
It'll come into several versions and glossy stuff for websites, more simple design for t-shirts and so on. The concept version is only black and white, the concept horizontal version is here
and theconcept vertical version is here.
We write down proceedings of the sessions linked from the schedule. If you want to add something, you can do so, just edit the wiki page and add your name or whatever on the bottom and add your comment. Just
make it clear it's an outside input but we'll be very pleased to gather your input on the various topics.
So far we noticed we have great apps that we do not really know how to make users know about. We need more ways to get people make their content for the program (words for KHangMan for example). About formats, we need to use widely spread open formats and when we define our own format, we need to use it in every possible program (like we do with KVTML). We have some narrow-targetted programs such as KBruch and several test programs that we would need to combine in a single framework.
The interaction with Sabine and Berto from Vox Humanitatis and Ambaradan is very very nice and productive. They have content like lists of translated words we can use in Parley and KHangMan, they have dictionaries, we have the free software.
Thanks to them for being there and being so nice in understanding what Free Software is and how we work.
Thanks to the awesome cook who keeps us well feeded and happy. The Free Beer maker was there as well, awesome beer!
Our eyes keep seeing logos in the everyday life and we have been wanting a logo for years.
At the meeting, Alexandre from Brazil, a professional designer, watched us the whole first day when we talked about who we are, what are our targets and about our programs. He then started to work on a logo concept: he defined a few verbs about KDE-Edu and came up with the conclusion that KDE-Edu makes people's knowledge grow. So the main idea behind the concept
is "growing knowledge". The logo is still in its infancy so please don't comment like "I don't like it" or whatever without being productive. We as a group, after the logo was presented, did not do a "like/hate" unproductive waste of time session.
We agreed that the concept idea was good. One thing Alex also said is that if a logo looks good as a stamp, in black and white, it'll look good anywhere.
It'll come into several versions and glossy stuff for websites, more simple design for t-shirts and so on. The concept version is only black and white, the concept horizontal version is here
and theconcept vertical version is here.
We write down proceedings of the sessions linked from the schedule. If you want to add something, you can do so, just edit the wiki page and add your name or whatever on the bottom and add your comment. Just
make it clear it's an outside input but we'll be very pleased to gather your input on the various topics.
So far we noticed we have great apps that we do not really know how to make users know about. We need more ways to get people make their content for the program (words for KHangMan for example). About formats, we need to use widely spread open formats and when we define our own format, we need to use it in every possible program (like we do with KVTML). We have some narrow-targetted programs such as KBruch and several test programs that we would need to combine in a single framework.
The interaction with Sabine and Berto from Vox Humanitatis and Ambaradan is very very nice and productive. They have content like lists of translated words we can use in Parley and KHangMan, they have dictionaries, we have the free software.
Thanks to them for being there and being so nice in understanding what Free Software is and how we work.
Thanks to the awesome cook who keeps us well feeded and happy. The Free Beer maker was there as well, awesome beer!
May212010
I arrived on Thursday afternoon in Randa, in a beautiful scenery with big mountains and white summits. The weather is quite sunny (not that we have been out a lot today ;-) and the house is very nice. We started working today with a together session to get to know who each other is and how we can share knowledge. Then we split and in the KDE-Edu side, Frederik started with suggesting topics we could work on, community-related for KDE-Edu. You can follow the proceedings here:
http://community.kde.org/Multimedia/Sprint2010/Schedule#Friday.2C_May_21.
We defined the schedule and had quite a full and productive day. We're noting everything down and we try to keep focused on the topic.
We're focused in defining what is the KDE-Edu project more than hacking widly although we branched kdeedu for 4.5 and opened trunk for 4.6 as an exceptional measure.
It's very nice to be two groups (plus some satellites) as we feel more part of KDE overall and we benefit from other people energy and input.
Needless to say that Mario has been and is doing an awesome job in putting this meeting together, we have steady network and very good food and free (as not in beer) beer.
Developers before the morning session
http://community.kde.org/Multimedia/Sprint2010/Schedule#Friday.2C_May_21.
We defined the schedule and had quite a full and productive day. We're noting everything down and we try to keep focused on the topic.
We're focused in defining what is the KDE-Edu project more than hacking widly although we branched kdeedu for 4.5 and opened trunk for 4.6 as an exceptional measure.
It's very nice to be two groups (plus some satellites) as we feel more part of KDE overall and we benefit from other people energy and input.
Needless to say that Mario has been and is doing an awesome job in putting this meeting together, we have steady network and very good food and free (as not in beer) beer.
Developers before the morning session
May172010
On Thursday developers from the KDE-Edu project and from various multimedia parts will go to Randa in the Swiss Alps. Mario Fux organized the sprint and I rather like the idea of not having to move around for food, for hotel,... Everything will be at the same beautiful location. You can see on the webcam (click the top picture) that it's even sunny (which is better than in Toulouse!). The house offers lots of facilities that's why this is a combined event. Thanks a lot to Mario for organizing it, helped by Myriam and Mark. We'll be 12 Edu people + 2 people from Vox Humanitatis who are using several KDE-Edu programs for less resourced languages. This is a great opportunity to meet with Sabine and Bèrto and collaborate with them.
Within the 14 Edu people, 5 are new and will meet real KDE developers for the first time. I count roughly 8 countries for those 14 people. As for ages it's well distributed and of course we have our share of chicks between Sabine, Lydia and me!!! I'm looking forward to it and have such an agenda that I would need 1 month without sleep in order to fullfill it!
Within the 14 Edu people, 5 are new and will meet real KDE developers for the first time. I count roughly 8 countries for those 14 people. As for ages it's well distributed and of course we have our share of chicks between Sabine, Lydia and me!!! I'm looking forward to it and have such an agenda that I would need 1 month without sleep in order to fullfill it!
Apr292010
While Clarisse had chickenpox and then the other kids were on holiday for two weeks, develoment has been slow for me but I managed to finish a few tasks.
- Picture Frame widget: I gave the Picture of the Day various providers a good test and repaired those which were not working anymore. Marco "notmart" discovered that the Flickr one was constantly asking for kio processes and he fixed that. I added today the change of the picture when the day changes.
- Etienne "eti" who has been providing patches for several KDE areas got a svn account and implemented an auto-update feature on the Picture Frame for static pictures: the user can set the refresh time for his pictures.
Thanks to eti for all the patches he is committing, it's great to get new people into KDE development!
- I also got a contribution for KAppTemplate, the small program in kdesdk which generates templates to get you started in KDE programming (those templates being also used by KDevelop). Lindsay sent a Konq plugin template
which I tested and was working out of the box. It is now added to KAppTemplate, another example of a neat contribution,
thanks Lindsay!
- We also got a few patches for KDE-Edu programs, one from a developer who attended Akademy-Br, for KmPlot. Thanks
to everyone who makes the effort of submitting a patch!
- I am very pleased to make my débuts in GSoC in the form of a mentor. Adam from Poland is the successfull student for KHangMan, there was a lot of submissions for KHangMan and unfortunately only one student could be selected. Maybe the other students want to apply for SoK on another subject!
Adam will be working on KHangMan GUI, code refactoring and theme manager and I will do my best to guide him.
We got 8 students for KDE-Edu which is great and brings new code and new ideas.
There will be a KDE-Edu meeting in May in Switzerland, along with the Multimedia developers, this will allow more interaction with sound business! I have a full agenda for it and will make the most of it as I probably won't be able to go to Akademy as it's holiday time for the children which means I have them 24/24 (and no, I can't bring the 2 youngest along, it's a bit too costly!) Maybe when Akademy is in France!
I am also maintaining the techbase page on how to build KDE trunk up-to-date (which is not so easy!), I hope it will be helpful for new GSoCs and SoK students!
- Picture Frame widget: I gave the Picture of the Day various providers a good test and repaired those which were not working anymore. Marco "notmart" discovered that the Flickr one was constantly asking for kio processes and he fixed that. I added today the change of the picture when the day changes.
- Etienne "eti" who has been providing patches for several KDE areas got a svn account and implemented an auto-update feature on the Picture Frame for static pictures: the user can set the refresh time for his pictures.
Thanks to eti for all the patches he is committing, it's great to get new people into KDE development!
- I also got a contribution for KAppTemplate, the small program in kdesdk which generates templates to get you started in KDE programming (those templates being also used by KDevelop). Lindsay sent a Konq plugin template
which I tested and was working out of the box. It is now added to KAppTemplate, another example of a neat contribution,
thanks Lindsay!
- We also got a few patches for KDE-Edu programs, one from a developer who attended Akademy-Br, for KmPlot. Thanks
to everyone who makes the effort of submitting a patch!
- I am very pleased to make my débuts in GSoC in the form of a mentor. Adam from Poland is the successfull student for KHangMan, there was a lot of submissions for KHangMan and unfortunately only one student could be selected. Maybe the other students want to apply for SoK on another subject!
Adam will be working on KHangMan GUI, code refactoring and theme manager and I will do my best to guide him.
We got 8 students for KDE-Edu which is great and brings new code and new ideas.
There will be a KDE-Edu meeting in May in Switzerland, along with the Multimedia developers, this will allow more interaction with sound business! I have a full agenda for it and will make the most of it as I probably won't be able to go to Akademy as it's holiday time for the children which means I have them 24/24 (and no, I can't bring the 2 youngest along, it's a bit too costly!) Maybe when Akademy is in France!
I am also maintaining the techbase page on how to build KDE trunk up-to-date (which is not so easy!), I hope it will be helpful for new GSoCs and SoK students!
