screenlets-dev team mailing list archive

[boamaod@xxxxxxxxx]

Hello everybody,

I have done various changes to main branch now. I haven't removed any of the
present functionality except installing Screenlets into system directories
from UI. I think this is not normally needed and not a good practise anyway.
It would have made installing of Debian packages utter nonsense because of
possible conflicts.

ORGANIZATION

1. Updated Debian building system
2. Updated translation file directories to be compatible with Launchpad
3. Moved all individual Screenlets temporarily to
   lp:~screenlets-stayinalive/screenlets/screenlets-individual
4. Prepared individual Screenlets to be installed
    a. As individual Screenlets from tar.gz (from WWW) into usual
       ~/.screenlets/* (and not system directories)
    b. As individual Screenlets in Debian packages (supposedly from 
PPA) into
       usual /usr/share/screenlets/*
    c. By means of Screenlets metapackages installing individual Screenlets
       in Debian packages by dependencies into /usr/share/screenlets/*
    d. By means of Screenlets packs actually containing Screenlets code
       into ~/.screenlets/screenlet-pack-*/*

Concerning 2, Launchpad needs to be configured to update translations
automatically (at least export from Screenlets to Launchpad). This can 
be done
by project administrator only.

Concerning 3 and 4, Screenlets PPA should be activated, to use, test and
demonstrate the features of the new Screenlets packaging policy. PPA can be
activated by project administrator only. After that I'd debianize all the
individual Screenlets and put them on PPA. I think we should accept ANY
Screenlet to the PPA/individual Screenlets project, but we should
have some official packs of them, so only the best will be distributed with
the original Screenlets core. I propose to name the pack published with
Screenlets core "screenlets-pack-basic", by now we have also
"screenlets-pack-all" (containing all the Screenlets). Both of these are
real packages (not metapackages) in order to make possible to include them
in official Debian/Ubuntu repositories (they don't accept millions of small
Debian packages for Screenlets as it seems). There should be some policy
of naming, versioning and making updates/modifications to present 
Screenlets.
By now I moved individual Screenlets to branch owned by Screenlet 
Stayinalive
team and changed the team description. This is because already some 
Universal
Applets Teams had joined this team and since they should anyway have access,
I decided to keep the existing team (as I said, until there are no problems,
we should accept anybody who wants to join). I couldn't change the team 
ID yet,
because there was error on Launchpad deleting the PPA and policy doesn't 
allow
renaming a team when team has a PPA. I'll hope to do that later, if we 
do not
decide to create a whole new project fro individual Screenlets. I'd like to
have your feedback on this.

Concerning 3 and 4, also the documentation on Screenlets.org needs to be
updated. I wonder if Rico can give me access to the files for doing that.

Concerning 1, Debian packaging system actually needs a complete review, but
until it works, I'd keep it like that.

COSMETICS

1. Added tray icons and mono/light icons for Ubuntu
2. Made most of the console messages untranslatable
3. Added 'Add' menu to context menu and 'Quit' menu to notify area menu
4. Made icons to appear under launch Screenlet item in the notify area menu
5. Updated "get more Screenlets" address

CODE

1. Implemented most of the pathces from bug tracker
2. Fixed some translation stuff (made strings translatable etc)
3. Implemented Debian package requirements checking for Screenlets
4. Implemented version checking/using the latest version for Screenlets
5. Implemented the changes needed for installing all kinds of Debian 
packages
6. Added Screenlets Debianizer (to be used in creating PPAs etc)
7. Added Compiz setting to make screenlets stick to Desktop on 'Show 
Desktop'
Concerning 5, there may be some refreshing issues. Since Screenlets are
installed separately from Screenlets Manager, there may be some problems of
updating the state of Screenlets directories/list at the right time.

It would be nice to have some feedback on this and I'd really like to hear,
what are your plans for the future of Screenlets.

Guido Tabbernuk