Feature Proposals vs new modules [was: Module Proposal: Zeitgeist]

[Seif Lotfy <seif lotfy com>]

Hi Andre,

Thanks for the quick reply. I have some concern though that for framework authors, it's very hard to understand the new module proposal process.

This might be slightly off the topic... so I understand if you would put this in another thread.

New features get planned for GNOME 3.6. When it comes to implementing them, which is most probably after the feature proposal is over, how is it decided if a technology should be used or not if the proposal period is closed? How would it affect the developers if a library or a framework  is blessed to be used in a core application? How will the user notice that? 

E.g: Empathy want to add sorting contract according to popularity? If the feature is not in the 3.6 feature plan [0], does this mean the feature should be postponed 6 months? If no, can the Empathy developers use a library or daemon that is not regarded as an external dependency for GNOME? What if an external dependency wants to add a dependency?

I am not sure that rules that apply on UI visible proposals, should be applied on libraries and non-ui modules.

Cheers

Seif

[0] https://live.gnome.org/ThreePointFive/Features/

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Andre Klapper <ak-47 gmx net> wrote:

Hi Seif,

FYI we dropped the module proposals period and replaced it by a proposal
period for systemwide features. See
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/devel-announce-list/2012-March/msg00005.html for the GNOME 3.5 call.

So the question would turn into "Which (Zeitgeist-based) features could
become part of GNOME 3.6 and what are the advantages for the GNOME
system".
As far as I see this is already answered by your section below, both by
describing systemwide functionality provided by Zeitgeist and by listing
several GNOME modules with existing or planned integration code.

andre

On Tue, 2012-04-17 at 22:47 +0200, Seif Lotfy wrote:
> Purpose:
> Zeitgeist is an event logging framework. It stores user activity in a
> structured manner and provides a powerful DBus API to query and
> monitor the log. Zeitgeist as such does not have a graphical
> component, but is intended to integrate wherever it makes sense. Just
> like Tracker, Folks and GStreamer, Zeitgeist does not provide a UI.
> And is not a going to be used by the user directly, but rather would
> allow developers to harnest the feature it provides and make something
> useful out of it in their UX.
>

> Zeitgeist is not meant for searching through your files and folders,
> but rather as a log for user activities. This can be used for:

>       * Sorting search results according to frequency/recency
>       * Populating dashboards
>       * Finding files/contacts/etc... that are used together
>       * History browser
>       * Associating locations to items (used at location X or Y)
>       * scheduling activities (files/contacts/et...) can be set (See

>         Task pooper)
> People have expressed interest in using it within GNOME, we want to
> help and make it happen. We think all these use cases could be
> address.
>
> We already have GNOME specific developments:

>       * We already log everything that pushes into Gtk.RecentlyUsed.
>       * For better logging we have Totem, Rhythmbox, and gedit

>         deploying loggers as a soft-dependency in the form of plugins.

>       * We worked with gedit and some GNOME designers to develop the

>         Dashboard plugin [1] to address the empty slate problem.

>       * Additionally, the team wrote several plugins for GNOME Shell
>         [2][3][4]
>       * Integration with telepathy-folks is currently under
>         development.
>       * Discussion about a possible Gtk Recenet Manager revamp with an

>         optional Zeitgeist backend. [5]
> Another deployment in development is a feature that we think would
> enrich the developer story for folks, which is giving folks the
> ability to actually provide developers with some interaction details
> for each individual. [6] This is under development and hopefully can
> be merged soon.
>
> We also provide a logger for Telepathy as part of the
> zeitgeist-datasources package. It will soon be
> shipped directly with Telepathy-Logger as a soft-dependency.

--
mailto:ak-47 gmx net | failed
http://blogs.gnome.org/aklapper

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