Re: GSOC 2008 advice

[John Stowers <john stowers lists gmail com>]

On Tue, 2008-02-26 at 12:10 -0600, Benjamin Gramlich wrote:
> Greetings all,
> 
> I am interested in applying to work on a project for Gnome during the
> summer of code 2008, and I have a few ideas. 
> 
> Idea #1) Re-implement the panel-applet library/interface to depend on
> DBUS.

I guess you are familiar with the hacking that desrt did on the panel
last year [1][2]. AIUI one consequence of this was a shift to DBus. It
would be cool if someone was to pick this up and run with it.

Here are some of my random notes about what a shiny new panel would look
like
* Some way to mix in and out of process applets, a C API that would
support this, might be a sensible for the default set of applets, saving
memory and startup time.
* See what can be taken/adapted from AWN[3]/Cairo-dock[4]. Should there
be another basic panel primitive that is more like a dock? Is there a
need for the two to be separated, or is AWN just what the panel would
look like if it was implemented again today, using current technologies?
* Pick a widget technology. Something that would allow people to write
widgets with less hacking mojo. We have seen other people facilitate
this by making widgets closer to the web. Jackfield[5] development seems
to have stopped, but webkit is the rage these days, and looking at , it
seems capable of making all our dreams come true[6].
* Also check out the amazing bling in aastro-desktop[7], using Clutter
and JSON.
* Is the management of desktop widgets by the panel a good idea? Should
the panel be like the vista sidebar, applets can be in it, or hovering
on the desktop.

Regards

John

[1] http://git.desrt.ca/gitweb/?p=panel;a=summary
[2] http://blogs.gnome.org/desrt/2007/02/18/panel-composite-bin/
[3] http://awn-project.org/
[4]
http://thedailyubuntu.blogspot.com/2008/02/cairo-dock-animated-launch-bar-for_03.html

[5] http://www.kryogenix.org/code/jackfield/
[6]
http://www.atoker.com/blog/2008/02/26/developing-hybrid-web-gtk-applications/
[7] http://svn.o-hand.com/view/clutter/trunk/toys/astro-desktop/

> 
> Idea #2) Migrate the panel to GIO/GVFS and DBUS.
> 
> Idea #3) Develop a tutorial for GIO/GVFS.
> 
> Idea #4) Create more compositing effects for metacity and develop a gui
> configuration tool for the effects.
> 
> Are these ideas any good? Are they in line with what Gnome needs at the
> moment? Would they duplicate the work of a Gnome developer? Lastly, (and
> probably most importantly) would there be a mentor available to help
> with any of these projects?
> 
> I'm really excited about the possibility of doing SOC this year, and I
> would like to get studying and learning as soon as possible. Any
> feedback or advice is most appreciated.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Benjamin
> 
> 
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