Excerpts from Renato's message of 2010-06-05 13:45:54 +0200:
On Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:18:02 +0200
Philipp <hollunder(a)lavabit.com> wrote:
Hi,
this is all about making Linux Audio more useful.
The idea came about because on the one hand there are parts of Linux
audio that really need some coders attention and on the other hand
there are coders who don't know where to start. I realize that there
never are more than enough coders, so this is mainly about bringing
attention to the parts that need it the most.
To a degree it's what bug/feature trackers are there for, but those
are usually per application, and while there are category and priority
systems in place those are rarely used.
So what this is also about is bridging a gap between users, developers
and between applications.
It would be quite simple really.
An easy to find, central place, possibly a wiki or a tracker.
Anyone, a user most likely, describes his workflow and what the
showstopper is. This could be applications not syncing properly, or an
essential but missing feature. The idea is to tackle mainly
infrastructure and cross application problems, with the goal to make a
workflow actually work.
The user should have to specify all relevant information available,
such as version information, links, probably some kind of priority or
urgency indication and how hard he believes it would be.
He could also put up a reward of sorts, not necessarily monetary.
Any developer could pick up the task and work on it, possibly leaving
a notice.
The possible benefits I see are:
a) A kind of overview of what's needed the most, one place where you
can see what's actually important to users.
b) A way to identify and fix problems between applications -
something I believe is very important for a system that encourages
the use of multiple applications at once. I believe there are numerous
synchronisation/transport issues for example which are never really
tackled, despite this being a very important part of the
infrastructure. c) Emphasis on actual workflow and usability.
d) It would work for any program, even those without tracker and those
that aren't high profile and aren't usually in the center of
attention.
Could this work? What do you think?
As a user, I think this is a great idea - and a much needed one given
that, as Philipp points out and as we all know, the linux audio system
really works only with multiple interacting applications.
Sorry everyone that I'm very slow at replying, especially to long and
elaborate mails (this is not one of those). I have important exams this
month, so I have neither a lot of time nor mind for it. However, I'll
try to keep the idea alive.
I think it would even be quite easy to set it up.
I believe so too, at least in the simplest form, a wiki.
One feature I believe would be useful is that if I
file a "bug"
regarding the interaction of app 1,2 and 3, the relative devs get
automatically mailed and can jump in the discussion
renato
It would be nice, yes, but I'm not totally sure this is possible using a
wiki.
--
Regards,
Philipp
--
"Wir stehen selbst enttäuscht und sehn betroffen / Den Vorhang zu und alle Fragen
offen." Bertolt Brecht, Der gute Mensch von Sezuan