screenlets-dev team mailing list archive

[Rico Pfaus <ryx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Am Mittwoch, den 08.12.2010, 05:08 +0900 schrieb boamaod@xxxxxxxxx:
> Hi everybody,
Hi Guido!

> 
> Just to keep you updated... Things that have appeared:
> 
> 1. Project for individual Screenlets development: 
> https://launchpad.net/indiv-screenlets
> 
> I added all the Screenlets as well as all of Universal Applets and some 
> more Screenlets (quite randomly) from Gnome-look.org. There is 89 of 
> them now. Not all of them function though, but most of them at least 
> start and do something. I also created two packages that the project 
> produces:
> 
>      screenlets-pack-basic
>      screenlets-pack-all
> 
> If you want some actual Screenlets to be distributed with "screenlets" 
> core, you have to distribute also at least the package 
> "screenlets-pack-basic". There are no Screenlets in package 
> "screenlets", but "screenlets-pack-basic" is "recommended" by it and 
> "screenlets-pack-all" is "suggested". This is to make 
> installation/updating/removing of Screenlets more dynamic.
I like really that. Only change I'd propose is to let the core depend on
pack-basic (instead of just recommending). Otherwise people might be a
bit confused if they install the screenlets package but have nothing
they can use. But that's up to discussion.

> 
> All the individual Screenlets can be translated on Launchpad now. You 
> can read about it in the updated documentation:
> 
>      
> http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Documentation#Translate_to_your_language
> 
Also a nice improvement, really good to have that separated now. This
reminds me that we badly need to clean the core (and likely many
screenlets) from translated debug messages. It should make translating
much more comfortable and less time-intense.

> There is also a section about submitting individual Screenlets to the 
> project:
> 
>      
> http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Documentation#Why_should_I_add_my_Screenlet_to_individual_Screenlets_project
> 
> 2. A Screenlets PPA: https://launchpad.net/~screenlets-dev/+archive/ppa
> 
> It contains automatically generated Debian packages of all the 
> Screenlets with their translations from the individual Screenlets 
> project and development versions of packages "screenlets", 
> "screenlets-pack-basic" and "screenlets-pack-all". Packages are 
> generated and uploaded to PPA daily for "karmic", "lucid" and "maverick".
Cool, I'm gonny try that during next weekend.

> 
> 3. Documentation has some other news in these sections:
> 
>      http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Screenlets_0.1.3_cooking_...
>      http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Download
>      http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Get_more_screenlets
> 
> ***
> 
> As next step I'd consider fixing individual Screenlets and doing some 
> work on the core, but I don't really have time to do it. I'd like to 
> encourage users of individual Screenlets to fix the bugs, but this 
> hardly works. Using Launchpad and Bazaar is too much for most of them.
I'll see if I can find the time for it. I already fixed my own
screenlets on my local working copy and did some minor core fixes.

> 
> I also think that we should announce updated version of Screenlets 
> (0.1.3 ?), but I'd like to see some testing and bug reports before. For 
> example, it would be good if somebody tested the present version on some 
> not Debian/Ubuntu system and gave feedback.
I agree, new release would be much needed. Unfortunately I can only test
on Debian.

> 
> I'm also planning to build into Screenlets some support for making any 
> application appear as a widget, but I'm not sure if that works out. I'll 
> let you know later.
> 
> Merging the changes from Universal Applets core is still an issue. If 
> there would be some general documentation or hints on the changes in 
> Universal Applets, somebody may do the work, but otherwise it's just too 
> much uncommented code. If somebody could clear the code for merging or 
> write some instructions what should be merged and how, this would be 
> really welcome.
I'd also really like to know what were the major changes in the U-A
branch - besides the whole "melange server" thing and changes related to
that. From what I can see there were just some structural changes and
minor bugfixes? Maybe Natan can sum that up.

> 
> And, if somebody has an idea why should people prefer Screenlets to 
> Google Desktop Gadgets, please let me know!
I never used Google Gadgets, but I guess the major difference between
Screenlets and other widget frameworks is that Screenlets in fact are no
"widget framework" :-) ... 

The Screenlets-API has no limitations, Screenlets are just common
desktop apps with a more modern, "task-oriented" look. Most (all?)
widget engines are limited to some sandboxed, HTML-driven toy-API,
whereas Screenlets can utilize the full repertoire of anything Python
and Linux have to offer.

Developers have to understand this difference and realize that they can
do very different things using Screenlets - things that other frameworks
might not be able to. 

> 
> Sincerely "etc"
> Guido Tabbernuk

Thanks for your efforts, Guido. It's great to see things going forward
again.

best regards
Rico