Packaging for Eventual Release

[spillz]

I feel that phraymd is approaching the point where it is ready for
public release. (I guess one would call it an "alpha" release because
I don't plan to feature freeze any time soon!) I'm opening this
discussion thread to get some feedback on how to go about this.

1. Sometime back I wrote the necessary scripts to create a debian
package for phraymd targeted at Ubuntu. These scripts aren't currently
in the source repository because I'm inclined to keep the source tree
free of distro specific junk. Consistent with this, I think the Ubuntu
maintains a separate repository for maintaining the scripts needed to
build packages they include. If anyone has good ideas about where and
how to maintain these scripts let me know...

2. I'm going to focus my own packaging efforts on Ubuntu. Initially I
plan to provide these packages in a Personal Package Archive (PPA) on
launchpad. I'm also aiming to get phraymd included in "Universe" in
Ubuntu 10.04. I suspect the deadline for inclusion will be January
2010, so phraymd will need to be in a good state before then. The
Ubuntu process is described here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/NewPackages
and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Packages/REVU

3. I'd eventually like to see phraymd packaged for other distros that
use the Gnome desktop. I don't have time to do this, but I will
support anyone who does.

4. Before official inclusion in any distro I'd like to see the
following missing features added:
a) Plugin for photo import from digital cameras or other parts of the
filesystem
b) Plugin for photo upload to at least one popular web service (I
suggest picasa, because Postr is already available for flickr and can
be called from phraymd -- http://burtonini.com/blog/computers/postr)

5. There are plenty of areas where phraymd could be improved.
a) There are currently 30+ open bugs on launchpad (and many more that
aren't reported)
b) User Interface is crufty and incomplete in many places (e.g. the
various ways that metadata is displayed and edited)
c) Startup and shutdown performance
d) Need icons and artwork
e) Documentation (web-site, source code comments etc)
I'm not sure where to draw the line on what needs to be done before
release.

Your thoughts on this are appreciated...

[antistress]

it would be really cool to have packages for phraymd, it would really
help people to try and enjoy it.
Unfortunately i have no skill for packaging.

Before proposing a package, it would be cool to focus on polishing the
existing stuff even before adding new stuff.

The recent work on the GUI is welcomed.

It would also be cool to polish some details that are important in
user perception of the software. I'm trying to avoid the term
usability since it may not be precise enough (1). Actually i'm
thinking of details that could help to bring more consistency with
other GNOME application (spacing and Positioning or button ordering &
phrasing within dialog boxes) and to give better feedback to the user
(adding a new created tag in the tag tree without restart for
instance)
Concerning both, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/phraymd/+bug/395389/comments/25
& later comments for instance
Fixing these bugs would help user to feel even more comfortable with
the application.

In the same line of thinking, allowing translation would also be a
good idea to me (i can help for french)

As far as i'm concerned i don't see any penalty performance in startup
or shutdown but optimisations are always welcomed :-)

Concerning the need for a plugin for photo import from digital
cameras : it should be as good as nautilus
For instance i have a Canon IXUS 30 camera whichdoesn't support USB
Mass Storage and only handles the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) but
nautilus can communicate with my camera through gvfs-backends &
libgphoto2-2 (2)

Concerning the need for a plugin for photo upload to popular web
services, do you plan to get this into phraymd (Picasa first and then
Flickr for isntance) or to collaborate with Ross Burton to extend
postr to use Picasa (3) ?

(1) http://mpt.net.nz/archive/2008/08/11/usability
(2) Martin Pitt explained to me :
« That's just a "dirty" (or, I should say "ingenious"), trick. gvfs
has a module for libgphoto, and exports a "fake" gvfs file system for
the camera.
gvfs also sets up a fuse file system for any gvfs-supported file
system (smb, ssh, gphoto, and whatnot) und provide it as a fuse file
system in ~/.gvfs/. Nautilus has proper support for gvfs/gio, so it
doesn't need those fuse file systems. But other applications can use
the fuse system to interact with GNOME-mounted gphoto, ssh, samba, or
other virtual file systems. »
(3) I've filled a bug report against postr a few days ago about it
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=598736

On Oct 22, 5:29 pm, spillz <damienlmo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I feel that phraymd is approaching the point where it is ready for
> public release. (I guess one would call it an "alpha" release because
> I don't plan to feature freeze any time soon!) I'm opening this
> discussion thread to get some feedback on how to go about this.
>
> 1. Sometime back I wrote the necessary scripts to create a debian
> package for phraymd targeted at Ubuntu. These scripts aren't currently
> in the source repository because I'm inclined to keep the source tree
> free of distro specific junk. Consistent with this, I think the Ubuntu
> maintains a separate repository for maintaining the scripts needed to
> build packages they include. If anyone has good ideas about where and
> how to maintain these scripts let me know...
>
> 2. I'm going to focus my own packaging efforts on Ubuntu. Initially I
> plan to provide these packages in a Personal Package Archive (PPA) on
> launchpad. I'm also aiming to get phraymd included in "Universe" in
> Ubuntu 10.04. I suspect the deadline for inclusion will be January
> 2010, so phraymd will need to be in a good state before then. The
> Ubuntu process is described here:https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/NewPackages

> andhttps://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Packages/REVU

>
> 3. I'd eventually like to see phraymd packaged for other distros that
> use the Gnome desktop. I don't have time to do this, but I will
> support anyone who does.
>
> 4. Before official inclusion in any distro I'd like to see the
> following missing features added:
> a) Plugin for photo import from digital cameras or other parts of the
> filesystem
> b) Plugin for photo upload to at least one popular web service (I
> suggest picasa, because Postr is already available for flickr and can

> be called from phraymd --http://burtonini.com/blog/computers/postr)

[spillz]

Good comments.

> Before proposing a package, it would be cool to focus on polishing the
> existing stuff even before adding new stuff.

Before I move to polishing mode I'm going to add the import and upload
plugins. I consider these features essential housework...

> The recent work on the GUI is welcomed.

there will be plenty more of this.

> It would also be cool to polish some details that are important in
> user perception of the software. I'm trying to avoid the term
> usability since it may not be precise enough (1). Actually i'm
> thinking of details that could help to bring more consistency with
> other GNOME application (spacing and Positioning or button ordering &
> phrasing within dialog boxes) and to give better feedback to the user

I agree that these are important and should probably be considered
blockers for official inclusion in ubuntu et al

> (adding a new created tag in the tag tree without restart for
> instance)
> Concerning both, seehttps://bugs.launchpad.net/phraymd/+bug/395389/comments/25

I think I fixed this in Rev 296. Try opening the tag pane, then start
editing metadata in an image. you should see the tag pane update in
real time.

> In the same line of thinking, allowing translation would also be a
> good idea to me (i can help for french)

I have to figure out how to use gettext and upload a pot file to
launchpad. I'm wary of uploading anything before we have a reasonably
stable base of code, because I don't want translators wasting their
time on text that might change radically.

> As far as i'm concerned i don't see any penalty performance in startup
> or shutdown but optimisations are always welcomed :-)

It's more noticeable with 20,000+ images. The only way around this
might be to come up with a way to keep some of the collection offline
yet still readily searchable... Other optimizations include not
scanning the collection directory unless the user requests it, or
building a daemon that maintains the collection in realtime (basically
replicating what tracker does or better yet, building on top of
tracker)

> Concerning the need for a plugin for photo import from digital
> cameras : it should be as good as nautilus
> For instance i have a Canon IXUS 30 camera whichdoesn't support USB
> Mass Storage and only handles the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) but
> nautilus can communicate with my camera through gvfs-backends &
> libgphoto2-2 (2)

In terms of devices, I agree it should be possible just to use the
gvfs abstraction and just let the user choose it as an import source
in the same way they would select a directory.

> Concerning the need for a plugin for photo upload to popular web
> services, do you plan to get this into phraymd (Picasa first and then
> Flickr for isntance) or to collaborate with Ross Burton to extend
> postr to use Picasa (3) ?

I'm going to spend the next week working on a general purpose
uploader, with support for Picasa first. Depending how painful that
is, I will then move onto other services. One thing I don't like about
postr is its modal operation, in which you cannot modify the queue
while upload is in progress.

[antistress]

"adding a new created tag in the tag tree without restart" works now,
thanks

concerning the Picasa uploader, i'd like to be able to upload into an
existing picasa folder, which means that the plugin should be able to
browse picasa folders and let the user select one or create another
one

[spillz]

phraymd package for Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) available here:

https://launchpad.net/~damien-moore/+archive/ppa