[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] Re: Abuse on the ApplicationCatalog page

[From: Tuomas Kuosmanen]

On Wed, 2006-04-05 at 23:05 +0930, ext Stephen DeGabrielle wrote:
> With that in mind, I think it is probably time that the
> ApplicationCatalog was refactored into multiple pages, as it is a
> 128kb monster at the moment and painful to edit.  Of course being so
> large is probably discouraging edits a little so maybe it's not a bad
> thing.
> 
> I might refactor it myself. (Probably not - so maybe someone else will.)

What do you guys think of such a refactoring where the *main*
application catalog would contain software that has been "ported" a bit
further than just "wow, it runs! Here is a package to try out!"

There's a lot of interesting stuff going on with porting and making
things run on the device and maybe providing .deb's is an important
first step. But there is still work to be done to make it "fit" the
Maemo desktop and environment, polishing the packaging to make it fit
the menus, perhaps adding the dbus service stuff etc.

I am thinking of a rough outline of a process what it takes to "fully"
port an application:

      * basic "it works!" porting work to make it run, if changes are
        even needed in the code itself
      * packaging for the application installer (where to put it in the
        menus, adding the dbus stuff to make the "starting foobar..."
        -notifications work etc..
      * hildonizing the UI (menus, toolbars etc)
      * Possibly rethinking the user interface even further to make it
        work better in a tablet environment [*]
      * Ideally working with the original maintainer (if not the same
        person) to get maemo-specific changes integrated upstream,
        ideally maintaining the "maemo port" in the same code tree as
        the original to reduce forking and making sure the port "lives"
        with the parent project if possible.

Did I miss something? Does it make sense to you to have this kind of
"raised bar" for the main catalog?

[*] As you might remember I'm here to help you with the user interface
part, and in many cases it is not *that much* work to get there. :) And
well, many times this could also result in good ideas for the "parent"
application's user interface.

I think having such a distinction in the app catalog could be good in
making us more motivated to making better ports? Comments?

//Tuomas

-- 
A: No
Q: Should i quote this on the top?