Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

I've got a few suggestions ...


(1) I think a tree arrangement is a wonderful idea ... **however** it should be a *local* tree I build myself. I envision it working on an e-mail filter basis to sort things out by patterns I specify ... that way I could ...

(a) do something about how things are arranged, like putting categories I don't care about in a "trash" branch ... :p
(b) divide things up by repo (and *yes* I actually *want* separate repos, there *are* reasons for this, ya know!)
(c) put all those gcompris* packages where the sun don't shine!


(2) Let me at least *show* the repo in the lists!


(3) Uh, fix the bug that makes it hang on "Updating" after an install completes (not all of them mind you, just sometimes!)


(4) And ... a very tangible immediate wish ... that the app could leave me *on* the category I just finished browsing in the categories list when I exit that category! (Why does it always return to the *top* of the list? ... and remember class, no lazy programmer excuses are allowed!)

Ken :D

Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

You are absolutely right, I don't know s**t about packaging.

But what I know is that if you allow developers to put what ever they want in the category section, you end up with current situation.

So my comment was only a suggestion to improve the system. But if only wizards can make comments, put that in the subject of the thread.

I don't know in details how it works, what I know is that if I turn "red pill" mode on, I find a lot more packages available for installation. Stupid user reaction "their must be some criteria in the package". Then back to "blue" mode. Oh, let's try to install this new package! WRRRRONG! Works only in "red" mode. Then why is it listed??

It seems this thread also is "red pill". :(

Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

I can add paging for those categories.

How would we determine "Essentials"? Based on downloads and ratings?

Just click on the 'XXX applications' link on the downloads frontpage, this links to http://maemo.org/downloads/list/OS2008/all for example.
Clicking on 'Fresh' and 'Popular will give you a list of the top 25 items. (Paging would be a good idea to show more)

I think you have a point there. The idea of the autobuilder is that packages are only uploaded to extras-devel, when they meet certain standards. (At the moment we are testing this in private and the only criterium is that a package actually builds).

If the package arrives in extras-devel, a developer should be able to decide if the package needs to get promoted to extras.

Ideally all uploads to extras and extras-devel should go through the autobuilder and not to the repository directly. We could do some quality control in the autobuilder, but on the other hand we need to make sure we don't make uploading too hard. To find a balance there is pretty difficult.

We need to have clear documentation for the whole uploading process, getting the information to the developers is key.

Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

That's why we need good guidelines to tell developers and packages what categories they should use.

Because one of Red Pill's features is showing everything outside of User/—everything that the user doesn't need to see with proper package management.

Like I said, there are a lot of variables that go into preventing a package in User/ from being installable, some of these stem the repository mess (while I don't disagree with the previous poster about multiple repositories being useful sometimes, it really should be limited to Extras, Extras-devel and the official repos for the sake of the new user's sanity), some stem from bad packaging and some stem from broken local installs, so determining whether something is "Red Pill" or not isn't entirely straightforward.

Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

I put my RFC on my maemopeople blog purely so it'd be syndicated to the planet (which is widely read). I also sent it to maemo-developers and Quim directly.

There was lots of community discussion and consensus, but there was no official response from Nokia; given the carrot for gatekeepers was increased karma on maemo.org, it required that bit of official sanction.

Also, Nokia/maemo.org involvement is necessary to not duplicate work (see the recent announcements about beta promotion interfaces and auto-builders)

Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

Agreed with your points. Your plan, combined with many helpful suggestions here and perhaps some further fine-tuning, looks sound.

It looks like X-Fade may be a member of the maemo team; X-Fade, are you able to comment on that?

Either way, I will try to help "carry the water" a bit on this.

Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

Quality control: I don't care how much you clean up the interface if the packages flakey
UI: Why can't I just upgrade all packages that are available?

Right now maemo.org has how many packages that you would consider beta? 15-30 I would say. Noobs should be prevented, by default, from installing packages that have not been through QC.

Right now maps, FBreader, and OpenSSH will not upgrade through App Manager ( that's 40% of the 3rd party apps I have installed on this unit ).

Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

http://maemo.org/news/announcements/...els_breet.html

Well, I'm a basically a community member but Nokia hired me to do some tasks. I have been doing the /downloads revamp and am trying to help out in the extras repository improvement efforts. (Some might have seen the extras download statistics that I quietly added to maemo.org/downloads)

I also try to keep the maemo.org website updated (planet, news and events) and do some admin work on garage too.

Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

X-Fade, that's wonderful. So at the very least one maemo participant is aware of this thread (and better, participating! :)).

Re: How would you change Maemo.org Downloads and Application Manager?
 

Don't forget that those are community packages. People are uploading those packages in their spare time for you to enjoy. Mistakes do happen.

We are working on better quality control, but things like this can happen at the moment.