ulc-devs team mailing list archive

[Frederik Elwert <frederik.elwert@xxxxxx>]

Am Donnerstag, den 10.11.2011, 19:48 +0100 schrieb Patrick Seemann:

>         initial source structure
>         ------------------------
>         
>         I had very good experiences with quickly[1] in other projects.
>         It takes
>         away much of the pain of software development, especially the
>         boring
>         things like packaging, PPA uploading, and the like. I know
>         there are
>         plans to create a unity lens template for quickly, and I am
>         just trying
>         to find out if any steps in that direction were already made.
>         
>         If not, we could probably just use the cli template of quickly
>         and adopt
>         it to form an initial unity lens skeleton. If all works out,
>         we should
>         get packaging from the start, making it easy to install and
>         uninstall
>         our preliminary work. Many python projects can be run from
>         their source
>         directories, but for the lens to work we need to install some
>         files. But
>         I think once the base files are in place, we should be able to
>         run the
>         lens daemon from the source directory, so we can test our work
>         without
>         installing it.
>         
>         [1] https://launchpad.net/quickly
> 
> 
> Quickly is a very cool tool (ha, that rhymes ;)) I have used it before
> to create a gtk app. But I've not yet played with the command line
> template.

I just found out that the lens template is not yet available. I have not
used the cli template as well, but I think we should try to make use of
it.

>         blueprints
>         ----------
>         
>         Before coding all details, we should probably make a round of
>         design
>         proposals and discussion. We need to decide on the categories
>         and
>         filters we want to support in the lens. We also need to decide
>         on the
>         actions we want to be able to perform on contacts. (For
>         details on the
>         lens architecture, see [2].)
> 
> 
> I assume we are discussing the features on this list. What about
> documenting what we come up with? Should we create a wiki or something
> like this? I'm really new to all this, so don't exactly know what
> would be best.

Yes, we should discuss features on the list. I would recommend using the
launchpad blueprints for writing down the final specs.

>         version control
>         ---------------
>         
>         When using launchpad, bzr is set. bzr allows for a centralized
>         (SVN-like) and a decentralized (git-like) approach. So we
>         could either
>         set up a group branch and commit all to it, or we could work
>         on personal
>         branches and merge them into master once they are ready for
>         inclusion.
>         
>         I personally like the decentralized approach better. So I
>         would suggest
>         to create a team branch as trunk, but do the work on personal
>         branches
>         and merge them into trunk from time to time.
> 
> 
> +1 on the decentralized approach. Again, something which I've never
> done before, so I have some questions ;) 
> Where do we keep the local branches? Does it local literally mean,
> that we keep them only on our hard disk and once we are done with our
> changes, we commit them to the main branch? Or do we keep them
> somewhere on launchpad (probably in a branch related to our launchpad
> account, e.g. ~launchpad_id/+junk/branchname)?

We keep them on launchpad (~launchpad_id/unity-lens-contacts/branchname,
branches will then be listed on the ulc code page. +junk is mainly for
experiments that are not related to an existing project.)

Once the code is ready to be included in trunk, one can create a merge
request in launchpad.
> 
>         Once the basic structure is in place, maybe someone with more
>         experiences with lenses can start to implement a rudimentary
>         lens.
>         (Patrick, maybe that is a job for you, since you already wrote
>         a python
>         lens? Pablo might help you with libfolks.)
> 
> 
> I'm already working on the lens daemon... Unfortunately, I can't use
> my old lens as a reference because they've changed the lens api a lot.
> But there are enough python lenses on launchpad which are helpful.
> What I'm still missing though, is a more detailed documentation on the
> lenses api (for python)... The Ubuntu wiki only has vala
> examples: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/Lenses (these are still
> helpful sometimes).

Great. Yes, the API changed a lot, but I hope it is set now.

>         These are my current suggestions. Feel free to speak out if
>         you disagree
>         or have different ideas.
> 
> 
> Thanks again for your detailed emails!! I think you are making a very
> good leader for this project ! 

Thank you. :-)

Regards
Frederik