Migrate to a different project hosting system, retina support, pull requests (for lack of a better subject)

[jo...@keates.nl]

Hi Everyone,

First off: thanks for the awesome FOSS OpenVPN OS X GUI client, works like a charm! (well, most of the time ;-) )

1. As everyone already knows, Google Code is shutting down, now, maybe I didn't search properly, but I can't seem to find anything about migrating Tunnelblick to a different project hosting service (i.e. Bitbucket or GitHub), is this something that has not yet been decided on? Or is it more like a "let's do this together" thing where Wiki needs to be refactored to markdown text files and the project sources migrated to Git (if you're still using subversion for example) and people want to learn about Git as an VCS system.

2. It seems that some parts of the GUI are not yet Retina-Optimised, such as the icon in the menu bar. It's of course only an icon, but if this is the kind of stuff I could fix by simply putting a merge request in with a fixed icon, I'd be more than happy to help out.

3. Regarding 'helping', by contributing to documentation or code, what is the procedure? I have not really looked around much on the wiki but there doesn't seem to be a straight list of actions to do this... 

Some of these (or maybe all) might be somewhere hiding in the text on the discussion group, so I'm sorry if I didn't do my homework well enough, I tried using Google's search on itself, but it doesn't seem to like my google-fu here.

[jkbull...gmail.com]

On Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 11:36:07 AM UTC-4, john wrote:

Hi Everyone,

First off: thanks for the awesome FOSS OpenVPN OS X GUI client, works like a charm! (well, most of the time ;-) )

Hi. Thanks for your comments and questions.

1. As everyone already knows, Google Code is shutting down, now, maybe I didn't search properly, but I can't seem to find anything about migrating Tunnelblick to a different project hosting service (i.e. Bitbucket or GitHub), is this something that has not yet been decided on? Or is it more like a "let's do this together" thing where Wiki needs to be refactored to markdown text files and the project sources migrated to Git (if you're still using subversion for example) and people want to learn about Git as an VCS system.

Yes, Tunnelblick must migrate by July 31. If I do it and continue to be involved with Tunnelblick, it will have to move to SourceForge because only SourceForge supports the export restrictions on encryption software which I, as a US citizen and resident, must abide by. (GitHub and Bitbucket don't.) If I decide to step down and can find someone to take over development/maintenance of Tunnelblick, they might not have that restriction.

I've been putting off the decision about how to proceed and thus haven't documented anything, but I but hope to have more news by the end of this month. I will post any such announcement to both this DIscussion Group and the Tunnelblick Announce mailing list.

Both GitHub and SourceForge have migration tools which (if they work) will migrate the wiki, issues, and downloads. There may have to be some manual editing, too.

It might be a good idea to migrate the Discussion Group to SourceForge or GitHub forums, too, but that isn't as urgent; as far as I know it is just Google Code shutting down, not Google Discussion Groups. And I'm not sure there are tools to do that.

The web infrastructure for Tunnelblick updates and checking IP addresses is not on Google Code. It's on tunnelblick.net, so it doesn't need to change.

 

2. It seems that some parts of the GUI are not yet Retina-Optimised, such as the icon in the menu bar. It's of course only an icon, but if this is the kind of stuff I could fix by simply putting a merge request in with a fixed icon, I'd be more than happy to help out.

Several pieces of the artwork, such as the splash screen, are not Retina-optimized. But as I understand it (I don't have a Retina screen), the default Tunnelblick "icon" that appears in the menu bar is Retina ready. The other icon sets are not Retina ready. From the Release notes for Tunnelblick 3.4beta18 build 3704 (2013-12-18):

• Includes a new status icon (the icon in the menu bar) more in keeping with recent OS X aesthetics and which includes Retina images. (The old icon may be selected as the 'Tunnelblick 3.3 icon' on the Appearance panel of the 'VPN Details…' window.)
  

 

3. Regarding 'helping', by contributing to documentation or code, what is the procedure? I have not really looked around much on the wiki but there doesn't seem to be a straight list of actions to do this... 

There isn't any real "procedure" for contributing, and hence no writeup. Most people have just posted to the Discussion Group or emailed me privately with suggestions (my Gmail address is jkbullard).

There have been very few contributors to the code since the original creation of Tunnelblick. There have been a couple of very small contributions to the Objective-C code, and a couple of major contributions to the up/down scripts by several people, but other than that for the past few years I have been doing 99+% of the work on the code and scripts. I would **love** to have more help, though, so feel free to chime in with questions or comments.

And there are more than 100 translators who have helped localize Tunnelblick. That's done separately using Crowdin.com and then I integrate the translations.

As to the documentation, I've done pretty much all of it. When I took over the project from Angelo Laub in 2009, the (very small) wiki had a lot of unhelpful comments and wiki changes by people who were having configuration problems and were better off posting to the Discussion Group. So I disabled the ability for the general public to edit the wiki or make comments on the Wiki. But, again, I would welcome anyone who wants to help; I would give them access to edit the wiki directly. (I'm not sure how that works on SourceForge or GitHub but assume something comparable can be done.)

Some of these (or maybe all) might be somewhere hiding in the text on the discussion group, so I'm sorry if I didn't do my homework well enough, I tried using Google's search on itself, but it doesn't seem to like my google-fu here.

I don't think you missed anything because I don't think there is much written about this stuff! And searching the Discussion Group and wiki is problematic (ironic, given that it is hosted by Google!).

[jo...@keates.nl]

Good to know I didn't miss that much ;-) 

I think the best strategy would be to create it as an organisational FOSS project. This way, someone else can set it up, so you won't be accountable regarding export regulations.

There are a lot of Tunnelblick-related and forked projects on GitHub, I'd suggest going over there.

I'm not sure if Google Code has a read-only mode, but that would make it easier to migrate: you could first migrate code and issues, and then everything else as needed. I'd be happy to help with that.

If you want to, I could setup a Tunnelblick organisation, import the code, and then add you as an owner/admin, that way, you will be more like a "contributor" and that should allow you to work on the project since you're not exporting anything.

As FOSS projects usually take off and get a lot of attention when they integrate more, I'd suspect that you'd get more code help and contributions when using such a service (as GitHub or Bitbucket, or even Codeplex). 

Now, I'd like to help, but I'm not a Obj-C wizard in terms of Cocoa/Foundation etc. (but I'm getting there ;-) )

I do have a very good history with other parts of Tunnelblick such as OpenVPN itself, shell scripting, OSX network scripting etc. and regarding the artwork, I'd be happy to design/supply/edit things. I have the tools and the experience (and the network, I know a ton of designers that are happy to design an icon or something like that for an UI for free for example).

Would it be okay if I set up the GitHub thing anyway? I think the username is already taken but Tunnelblick.net or TunnelblickVPN are free I suppose. I don't know if you already have a GitHub account, if so, I could immediately add you.

Regarding export regulations in the US (I'm not a US citizen), do they apply if you contribute to an existing project in terms of code?

[jkbull...gmail.com]

Thanks for your comments and offer to help. I will email you privately later today or tomorrow, but I want to respond to the entire group now.

Please don't set up anything for Tunnelblick on GitHub (or elsewhere) yet. I am the "owner" of the GitHub "Tunnelblick" username, so I can easily turn it over to someone else.

As I wrote earlier:

I've been putting off the decision about how to proceed and thus haven't documented anything, but I but hope to have more news by the end of this month. I will post any such announcement to both this DIscussion Group and the Tunnelblick Announce mailing list.

[jo...@keates.nl]

Excellent, I'll do nothing for now, and as soon as you want to move in whatever direction you chose, I'll be happy to help.

-John

[jkbull...gmail.com]

(tldr: Most of Tunnelblick will move to GitHub on or before 2015-07-31.)

On Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 12:54:42 PM UTC-4, jkbull...gmail.com wrote:

On Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 11:36:07 AM UTC-4, john wrote:

1. As everyone already knows, Google Code is shutting down, now, maybe I didn't search properly, but I can't seem to find anything about migrating Tunnelblick to a different project hosting service (i.e. Bitbucket or GitHub)

…

Yes, Tunnelblick must migrate by July 31. If I do it and continue to be involved with Tunnelblick, it will have to move to SourceForge because only SourceForge supports the export restrictions on encryption software which I, as a US citizen and resident, must abide by. (GitHub and Bitbucket don't.) If I decide to step down and can find someone to take over development/maintenance of Tunnelblick, they might not have that restriction.

After posting this comment, I have learned that the activities I perform (posting on the Internet where it may be downloaded by anyone) would not violate USA export regulations. So even though GitHub does not "support" the regulations, I can upload to GitHub without violating the regulations.

Because GitHub seems to be where more and more FOSS projects are going, and because OpenVPN itself is hosted on GitHub:

Tunnelblick will move to GitHub on or before 2015-07-31.

When that happens, https://tunnelblick.net will redirect to Tunnelblick's GitHub site instead of to Tunnelblick's Google Code site, and the Google Code site will be updated to direct visitors to Tunnelblick's GitHub site.

The Tunnelblick Discussion Group will continue to be hosted by Google Groups, and the web infrastructure for Tunnelblick updates and checking IP addresses will continue to be hosted on tunnelblick.net.