[pulseaudio-discuss] PA Roadmap Planning and LAC Conference

[Colin Guthrie]

Hi all,

There have been a few discussions recently about getting a solid roadmap
organised for the next medium term of PA development. While the
stable-queue stuff has been bubbling along nicely enough, there are
several new features in the 1.x master branch but no real timescales
decided. There are quite a few willing people out there these days which
is really encouraging, but we need to get a solid focus on when to
expect releases and what we hope to achieve in each one. This email is
the start of that process.

In addition, there is the LAC conference[1] in Dublin (or just outside)
in May and there is already plans for quite a few PA developers and
interested parties attending. I will book my flights very soon, but if
there are several of us going, then I wonder if it would make sense to
try and have a "sprint day" before the conference (or after) to see if
we can all sit down in once place and concentrate on stuff for a little
while. Being in one pace would probably help a lot with certain
discussions and really help progress.

So this email is really about two things:
 1. Planning a time for an IRC meeting on the near term Road Map.
 2. Discussions if a "sprint day" at LAC is possible (so we can book
flights.


With regards to IRC meeting, I propose initially that we do this next
week sometime (the sooner the better). For the sake of argument, I'll
pick a time: 11am UTC Thursday 24th. Other timing suggestions welcome.
I'd expect it to take at least 1h but probably less than 2h and it would
be good if people involved could be fairly focused during the meeting
window. I'll prepare an agenda and ensure that notes/logs are taken
(with a meetbot) and made available afterwords. We will likely use a new
IRC channel for this but anyone who wants to sit in, lurk or actively
particpate would be most welcome.
 Q: Is this time suitable for everyone (Lennart in particular)?


With regards to LAC, David has already indicated he'll have to leave on
the Sunday (after the conf which is on Fri/Sat), so if no-one has any
objections, I'll propose that we have a Sprint day on Thursday 5th May
(ideally so people can arrive on Wed evening or early Thursday so we get
the full day). How would that fit for everyone? I've no idea about
space/location, but I'm sure something can be arranged, even if it's
just in the corner of a pub! Perhaps this can just be incorporated into
the Fri/Sat programme anyway and a separate day is not needed? Having
not been before, I'm not sure how "practical" the conf is and whether
the extra day would be needed or beneficial, but my general thoughts
would be "more time = more code", so an extra day could still be nice!
 Q: Lennart, are you going to LAC (I kinda assume so!) Have you booked
your flights yet, and could a sprint day be incorporated into your plans?


Comments and feedback welcome, but with LAC in particular, feedback
would be welcomed ASAP so people can book their flights (the sooner the
cheaper usually!).



FWIW, the things most interesting me personally (and things that I will
hopefully find time to actively work on!) will be the routing priority
lists I've talked about in the past and how to incorporate that into the
core, jack sensing, how to deal with the various virtual sinks in UI
friendly ways, and how to query what sinks a card profile would produce
without activating it (essentially higher level things that lead to good
user experience/tools/UI).

All the best

Col


[1] http://lac.linuxaudio.org/2011/?page=about
-- 

Colin Guthrie
gmane(at)colin.guthr.ie
http://colin.guthr.ie/

Day Job:
  Tribalogic Limited [http://www.tribalogic.net/]
Open Source:
  Mageia Contributor [http://www.mageia.org/]
  PulseAudio Hacker [http://www.pulseaudio.org/]
  Trac Hacker [http://trac.edgewall.org/]