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Jono Bacon: Connecting The Opportunistic Dots
Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon writes about a software stack that is geared towards "opportunistic developers" on his blog. The stack is based on Python and GNOME, using GTK, GStreamer, Glade, and DesktopCouch. Ubuntu developers have been adding tools like Quickly and Ground Control to integrate it more closely with features like Launchpad, Bazaar, and Personal Package Archives.
"We have been seeing a growing movement inside the Ubuntu community in helping to make Ubuntu a rocking platform for opportunistic developers. While all the components are Open Source and can be shipped on any distribution, I am really keen for Ubuntu to really optimize and integrate around the needs of opportunistic programmers and I just wanted to highlight some of the work that has happened here."
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Related reading Posted Feb 1, 2010 19:51 UTC (Mon) by MattPerry (guest, #46341) [Link] David Siegel wrote a similar article on his blog which was titled Improving Launchpad Bug Workflow for Opportunistic Programmers. It also has some great ideas.
Related reading Posted Feb 2, 2010 18:49 UTC (Tue) by donbarry (guest, #10485) [Link]
Funny how Ubuntu is essentially promising to "embrace and extend"
Debian. No mention of how these supposedly sweet tools would flow upstream -- or even that there is an upstream.
Ubuntu is rapidly adopting the methods and language of a certain
Meanwhile, perfectly decent people and developers like Jono join the
Related reading Posted Feb 3, 2010 0:13 UTC (Wed) by whiprush (subscriber, #23428) [Link]
The tools are open, no one is preventing anyone from putting these tools in
Debian or any other distribution.
Jono Bacon: Connecting The Opportunistic Dots Posted Feb 2, 2010 19:57 UTC (Tue) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183) [Link]
Not sure about the precise thing he is suggesting, but generally the idea that there are a lot of
people out there who would like to contribute but can't due to lack of time and other reasons is something I think likely as well, and I fully agree (for what that's worth :) ) with the idea of doing everything possible to lower the barrier in order to tap all the contributions that can be got. The Launchpad translation thing is also a nice illustration of this, allowing people who are competent at language but not necessarily at programming to join in.
Of course, quickly getting to know the structure of a large piece of software in order to fix a small
Jono Bacon: Connecting The Opportunistic Dots Posted Feb 3, 2010 10:03 UTC (Wed) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183) [Link]
> Of course, quickly getting to know the structure of a large piece of software in order to fix a
> small bug is usually not quite trivial. It might be easier if other people who had struggled with > particular sections could add their comments in the source in an easy, wiki-like way to help other > people going down the same path...
Actually I suppose that that is the sort of thing some of the newer distributed project tools let you
Jono Bacon: Connecting The Opportunistic Dots Posted Feb 4, 2010 5:51 UTC (Thu) by jspaleta (subscriber, #50639) [Link]
I wouldn't be so quick to hold up Launchpad's concept of translations as a good example of lowering the bar. There's been grumbling in the past about Ubuntu specific translations being applied downstream in Launchpad that are lower in quality than the upstream translations. Lowering the bar doesn't mean you get better output nor better collaboration and I think history of launchpad's translations is a case study of some of the pitfalls you can experience.
And with that said... the jury is out on the opportunistic programming meme as to whether its going to lower the bar too low or if it lowers the bar at all. Other than Canonical employees who's currently using quickly to build a usable codebase? And out of those people, which ones are actually inexperienced coders who need a lower bar. Jono's doing a great job selling it as the next best thing...and it maybe... for existing experienced coders who don't need the bar lowered and are just looking to take shortcuts which save them time.
-jef
Jono Bacon: Connecting The Opportunistic Dots Posted Feb 4, 2010 9:01 UTC (Thu) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183) [Link]
I've certainly used the Launchpad translation thing to make a quick correction to a Ubuntu-specific
tool (the original translator didn't take the differences between French and English plurals into account). It looked to me as though it only applied to things for which Launchpad *is* upstream, and that all translations have to be signed off by a maintainer anyway.
Of course, if lowering the bar means opening the floodgates and closing your eyes, it is not likely
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