[maemo-community] Extras and Fremantle

[From: Jeremiah Foster]

On Feb 27, 2009, at 11:06 AM, Tim Teulings wrote:
>
> My plan/expectation for freemantle is:
> * I get a dveelopment environment that can be installed in parallel to
> existing SDKs.
> and is at least API an possibly even feature complete (but not bug  
> free).

My understanding is that it is largely, if not completely, API complete.

> * I get my application to compile locally in the dveelopment  
> environment.
> * I get my applications to run locally  in the development  
> environment.

Surely this is the goal of the freemantle authors as well. :)

> * I fix potential bugs in packaging.

Thanks!

> * At this point I want to assure that my application builds using the
> autobuilder
> because that is the way to relase my applications at the point the new
> devices with
> freemantle are out.

The autobuilder will most likely mirror the SDK to assure that apps  
built with the SDK build in the autobuilder.

> * I would be happy if my applications are already build using the
> autobuilder and already
> appear for freemantle under www.maemo.org/downloads if hardware is  
> out. So
> in this case
> autobuilder and repository need only to be available a free week  
> before
> hardware is out
> (because a few weeks are OK to fix build bugs that only appear using  
> the
> autobuilder).

I have no knowledge of the release timeline unfortunately.

> * New version of the SDk migh generate iterations in this process  
> but I
> expect that
> the first iteration will be hard and further iterations will only  
> require
> small fixes
> so starting early is OK for me.
>
> The case is however different if I need external libraries that are  
> not
> part
> of the SDK and the maintainer is different than me. In this case  
> people
> need an central
> repository to exchance packages and build software on top of other
> packages. Also it will
> take (much) longer to get things running because there are likely more
> iterations.
>
> For this to work, SDK must be stable regarding features and API. But  
> this
> seems to be
> assured with the next version coming.
>
> So a central repository my be required soon, possibly now.

In fact I think it is coming any day now.
>
> If we have a centeral repository we should use a autobuilder to  
> increase
> the quality
> of parts and avoiding people pasting binary blobs into the repository.

I don't think the autobuilder is ready - I'm not sure when that will  
be coming online.
>
> This repository does not and should not apear at www.maemo.org/downloads
> (nobody could make
> use of that anyway). So an extras-devel repository should be enough.
>
> I personally have no problem with someone deleting extras-devel binary
> packages
> and rebuilding all packages from their source packages if a new  
> alpha/beta
> SDk version appears.
> I would this find even helpful. It would also be nice to have some  
> report
> or even a mail if
> my stuff suddenly fails.
>
> It would be cool if at the point of hardware available (e.g. I have
> hardware to test my apckages
> in reality) I have to chance to propergate from extras-devel to (than
> created) extras
> quickly - which should be no problem.
>
> So please make a extras-devel repository and an autobuilder instance  
> for
> freemantle soon!

Watch this space . . .

Jeremiah