Hi guys, I attended the "GNOME Developer Documentation and Tools" hackfest in Berlin last week. The aim of the hackfest was to work on improving resources for developers who use (or want to use) the GNOME platform. A number of interesting issues were discussed and we made good progress addressing some them (see [1][2][3] for summaries). I'd like to make sure that Ubuntu derives full benefit from this work, and to encourage people to come and work upstream on some of it.
DEVELOPER STORY What is Ubuntu's "story" for new developers? That is, how are new developers, of different "types", introduced to the platform? Is it based on Quickly? I feel that it would be advantageous to match the Ubuntu and GNOME stories to as great an extent as possible. That way, "developers for the GNOME platform" are also "developers for the Ubuntu platform" and vice versa. We developed the GNOME story a little at the hackfest. It's based on five key GNOME languages (C, C++, JS, Python, Vala), and we intend to emphasise different languages for different types of developer. The hook into the platform is a set of exciting, focused tutorials (see below). We'll also provide a "blessed" (but not exclusive) development environment, which will probably centre around the Anjuta IDE for coding and (possibly) the OpenSuSE build service for deployment. It shouldn't be difficult to provide this environment in Ubuntu. DEPLOYMENT Deployment is something that GNOME hasn't really tackled before, but it's an important part of the story. At the moment, I think it's fair to say that deployment on desktop Linux is an issue for new developers. Packaging can be difficult and confusing, and distribution channels aren't always easy to tap into. Ubuntu has been trying to address this with initiatives like Quickly and the Software Centre app store. My question here is, how can we get this sort of thing working upstream so everyone benefits? (A Quickly plugin for Anjuta was discussed, for example.) DOCUMENTATION There have been some nice improvements to library.gnome.org and we're also planning to relaunch the developer.gnome.org portal. This will feature a new, up-to-date platform overview, good conceptual overviews of key frameworks/libraries like GStreamer, and a number of quick tutorials designed to get new developers to "dive in" to GTK/GNOME development. There's lots more work to be done on these, but the first batch is looking good. Ideas/development would be especially welcome in this area - we really need contributors. This initiative is still in its infancy but I think that with a bit of work we can make GNOME (and Ubuntu) an extremely compelling development platform. I should also emphasise that upstream are very receptive to input and are extremely keen to cooperate. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, and to encourage you to participate! Thanks, Phil [1] - http://blogs.gnome.org/johannes/2010/12/06/development-documentation-and-tools-hackfest-wrap-up/ [2] - http://philbull.livejournal.com/57007.html [3] - http://www.0d.be/2010/12/07/dev-doc-tools-hackfest-2/ -- Phil Bull https://launchpad.net/~philbull Book - http://nostarch.com/ubuntu4.htm -- ubuntu-devel mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
