[ghns] Idea about integrating SVN, also general brainstorming and status request

[Frank Karlitschek]

On 18.02.2008, at 17:34, Ian Monroe wrote:

Hi Ian,

> I'm a developer of Amarok and we've identified a few problems with the
> current setup that Amarok 1.4 has with kde-apps.

You can always send me an email if you have a problem with kde-apps. I 
´m happy to
help you. :-)

>
> * On kde-apps a script is tied to its original creator. If the creator
> stops making releases, it becomes abandonware unless someone forks it.

I, or any other admin of kde-apps, can change the owner of an entry. I  
do
this every few days. Please send me a mail if you want me something to  
change.

I´m also implementing the possibility to assign an entry to several  
owners. In a few
weeks you can have a group of maintainers for an entry.

I can give you admin rights if you want. So you can edit and delete  
all entries.
What do you think?

> * Bitrot. Sometimes a script works perfectly fine, but just needs a
> bit of tweaking to work with an updated Amarok or webservice. People
> can submit patches to the maintainer, but how do you even know they're
> still working on it (see above).
> * There really isn't anyway to do quality control on the scripts.
> Not-so-great-QC is part of user-generated content, but it can be
> improved.
>

Yes, this is a knows issue. I am working on an approval and review  
system.
This is needed for plasma too.


> For a while now Amarok has had a SVN repo available for use by script
> writers, partly to address these issues. But the kde-apps "one app,
> one maintainer" policy kind of negates it. We want to bring the Amarok
> scripts (some of which are quite complex) into the full spirit of OSS
> and make easy collaboration the default.
>
> One idea is to have a SVN (or git) repo, and have GHNS generated the
> releases out of it. This is partly inspired by Rails, where you can
> upgrade to new version by specifying a SVN tag. So instead of users
> uploading tarballs, they could setup a project and then commit to a
> special SVN repo. Tarballs could be generated out of a tag. So while
> it would be etiquette to let the creator/maintainer of a script decide
> when to the release, there would be no technical barrier to bar any
> SVN contributor  from doing so. Amarok developers could also follow
> all the new commits, so this would add some security as well.

svn is a great tool for developers. It is probably a good idea to use a
svn repository for amarok scripts.
But if you want more enduser contributions
a web based community can attract more people to contribute because it
is easier to use for noobies. And you also have the community factor  
as a
source of motivaton for the users.

I think a svn repository is suitable for code like amarok scripts. A web
community is   better for stuff like amarok themes, playlists and  
other stuff.

What do you think?

>
> I believe the development of the repos on kstuff.org is in part to
> address these issues. I'm ignorant though, so let me know if I'm
> proposing solutions to problems already solved. :)
>
> Ian

Cheers
Frank

>
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--
Frank Karlitschek
karlitschek at kde.org