[maemo-developers] Extras-testing improvements

[From: Graham Cobb]

On Tuesday 09 March 2010 09:42:05 Niels Breet wrote:
> You have to see that Extras should be for applications that are of a high
> quality. 

Absolutely not.  I completely disagree.  

Extras is the home for the wonderful creativity of the Maemo community.  It is 
for all apps: the good, the bad, the ugly.  It is the place for our new 
members, just starting, who want somewhere to publish their first try at 
creating an app.  It is the place for our major success stories.  It is the 
place for the niche app with fewer than 20 users in the world.  It is the 
place for the next unexpected success story.

> The Extras repository should not give any problems to people who 
> are new to Maemo and have no clue how to work with linux for instance.

Sure, we want a process which can **help** developers improve and avoid 
problems.  But the best way for new developers to learn is to publish their 
app and get feedback from real users.  Then they will understand the advice 
better.

> For Extras we really should aim for having end-user ready apps. We haven't
> been too strict about it, but we as a community should try to be on the
> same level as, or above Ovi ;)

I completely disagree.  Ovi can remain as a highly controlled channel.  Extras 
is about unrestricted creativity, which includes good and bad.

> > If applications are ugly or not completely working (but still not
> > harmful), I'd like them to have a bad rating, of course, but still be
> > available on Extras.
>
> I'm not sure about this. I think we need to grow up a bit and aim for
> something better than 'it works'.

A way to find high quality apps should be layered on top of Extras.  My view 
is that this should be a web tool, on maemo.org, maybe with something like 
Daniel's app as an on-device UI.  As Extras gets bigger and bigger, people 
will move away from using HAM, with its massive lists in alphabetical order, 
as the way to find apps and will want something better.  That is the place to 
allow them to find the higher quality apps out of Extras.  Meanwhile, if 
someone on Talk tells them about a neat app in Extras they can still use HAM 
to install it, in the confidence that it might be crap but it won't break 
their device.

Graham