Maemo Wiki Mirror - User contributions [en]

Task:Package categories

2008-10-17T13:56:50Z

80.74.115.203: /* Additional categories */

This wiki page serves as a discussion page where we will try to find a better way to categorize packages in the repositories.

This proposal is coordinated by [[User:Xfade|Niels Breet]].

= Proposal =
This is a '''DRAFT UNDER DISCUSSION'''. You can help reaching conclusions. Please add your comments to the [[Talk:Package_Categories|discussion]] page.
This proposal is part of the [[Extras_repository_process_definition|Extras repository process definition]].

= Maemo Packaging Policy =

The [http://maemo.org/forrest-images/pdf/maemo-policy.pdf Maemo Packaging Policy] lists the following sections:

* accessories
* communication
* games
* multimedia
* office
* other
* programming
* support
* themes
* tools

One of the benefits of using official categories from this list, is that they will appear correctly localized in the Application Manager.

= Problem =

People feel the need to create new categories, because the current list is too limited.

* There is beauty in simplicity. Adding more categories would never solve the problem for some people. --[[User:timsamoff|timsamoff]] 18:34, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Another problem is that some categories aren't very descriptive. What applications go in to tools, support or accessories?

* This may be the better method, although "descriptive" is still subjective. --[[User:timsamoff|timsamoff]] 18:34, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

= Proposed solutions =
== Additional categories ==

We could add more categories to the official list. To do this we need to define a list of categories that need to be added. If we have a list of categories, we need to discuss whether they are really beneficial.

Please add your proposed category, description and motivation here:

* desktop: A category for desktop plugins. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 15:13, 4 August 2008 (UTC)
** Could be a good idea, but what makes this different from "Accessories"? --[[User:timsamoff|timsamoff]] 18:35, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
*** Accessories -> what would one expect there. I personally think that Accessories is just as bad as Other ;) --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 08:20, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
**** Well, I think the ambiguity comes from developers not using the categories properly, not necessarily from the category names not being descriptiove enough (e.g., currently, we can't even expect the "music" category to have every music-oriented application included anyway). In this case, enforcing the proper use of categorization is more important than the actual category names. --[[User:timsamoff|timsamoff]] 13:09, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

* Is there a possibility of subcategories? Or, do they all need to be top-level? --[[User:timsamoff|timsamoff]] 18:36, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
** To keep with Debian sections, it can only be top-level. (IIRC) --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 08:20, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
*** Eh? We're already not "keeping with Debian sections" by insisting on a "user/" prefix for applications to be exposed to the user. Why is changing that to support "user/multimedia/Canola/themes" (for example) any worse? Or does the Debian policy already allow for the "user/" prefix? --[[User:jaffa|Jaffa]] 13:12, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

* fonts --[[User:matan|matan]]

* languages: for packages that add support for other languages. --[[User:matan|matan]]

== Debtags ==
Debian Package Tags: Faceted Classification

As stated on the [http://debtags.alioth.debian.org/faceted.html debtags website]:

''Drawing a bit freely from the literature of Faceted Classification, a facet is a group of tags which describe the same quality of a package. Package Tags are organized in Facets, that represent different points of view from which to look at the package archive. For example, you could have a "Usage" facet with tags about what a program is intended to be used for, or you could have a "Media" facet with tags about what kind of information a program is able to process, a "Technology" facet about the technology a package uses, and so on. With this approach, every tag is situated in a specific context, and has a clear meaning. Also, tags from different facets shed light on packages from different points of view, giving "depth" to its categorization. Take something tagged with "Use::Chatting", "Technology::IRC", "Role::Server": it has a remarkable level of detail, and tells almost everything we need to know about what the package does.''

I'm not sure if this will help us here. We would need to specify a lot of tags for packages. Question is: how are we going to display this in the application manager or website without being confusing --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 12:02, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

= Reference =
== Debian ==
The Debian archive maintainers [http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-archive.html#s-subsections provide] the authoritative list of sections. At present, they are: ''admin, comm, devel, doc, editors, electronics, embedded, games, gnome, graphics, hamradio, interpreters, kde, libs, libdevel, mail, math, misc, net, news, oldlibs, otherosfs, perl, python, science, shells, sound, tex, text, utils, web, x11.''

== Previous discussions ==
* [http://communitizer.blogspot.com/2008/04/rfc-maemo-package-guidelines-mandatory.html Communitizer blog]
* [http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-developers/2008-April/033093.html Mandatory categories discussion]

== Bugs ==

{{#bugzilla:id=1805
|columns=id, priority, severity, modified, product, status, summary, to
}}

Task:Reducing number of external repositories

2008-10-11T11:53:41Z

80.74.115.203: Removed redundant ANEMONE repository.

We're currently working on getting the number of external repositories down to a minimum. Our goal is to have a lot less repositories on gronmayer as soon as possible.

It needs to be clear that we want the packages to be moved to Extras and after that the repository can be closed. The point of this effort is to get as much packages as possible in a central repository, not closing repositories and loosing packages!

This is part of the effort discussed in a talk about the future of Extras at the Maemo summit. More information can be found in this [http://communitizer.blogspot.com/2008/09/talk-reducing-number-of-external.html blog post]

If you need help or have questions: Contact niels at maemo or X-Fade in #maemo on irc.freenode.net.

==Repositories==
{| class="wikitable"
| style="background:LightGreen" | Closed
| style="background:LightBlue" | Contacted
| style="background:LightYellow" | Positive response
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!id
!repository
!packages in repository
!packages in extras
!status
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|1.||Mozilla|| 2 || 0 || Filed [http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=457307 bug #457307], contacted dougt. Discussing specifics now. —[[User:generalantilles|GeneralAntilles]] 10:50, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|2.||Eko One|| 5 || 1 || Positive response --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 13:49, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
|-
|3.||Hand Held SHell|| 2 || 0 || -
|-
|4.||ANEMONE IPv6 Repository|| 6 || 0 || -
|-
|5.||jabber.dk|| 1 || 0 || -
|- style="background:LightGreen"
|6.||mango.dia.unisa|| 10 || 3 || '''CLOSED''' (Thanks anidel!)
|- style="background:LightGreen"
|7.||mYTube|| 5 || 5 || '''CLOSED'''
|-
|8.||Gizmo Catalogue|| 2 || 0 || Marcell is making some calls internally. —[[User:generalantilles|GeneralAntilles]] 09:40, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|9.||tschmidt|| 12 || 9 || Contacted owner --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 12:38, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightGreen"
|10.||qt4|| 51 || 39 || '''CLOSED''' (Thanks gnuton!) --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 10:02, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|11.||Ricky Brent's Maemo || 51 || 41 || Owner will start to upload packages to Extras. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 10:20, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
|-
|12.||Aeracode OS2008|| 1 || 1 || -
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|13.||anderenen.de|| 18 || 18 || Owner is on holiday now, but will close repository when back. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 15:23, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|14.||Claws Mail|| 13 || 12 || Contacted owner --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 12:50, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
|-
|15.||Devicescape|| 1 || 0 || closed source application - no use to do something about that --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 13:18, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
|-
|16.||Estamos|| 1 || 0 || -
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|17.||FBReader Repository|| 11 || 8 || Work in progress --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 20:00, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
|-
|18.|| ZerionSeven|| 2 || 0 || -
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|19.|| Modest|| a lot || 0 || Contacted owner --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 09:38, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|20.|| RTComm beta|| a lot || 0 || Owner is going to move files to Extras-devel --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 14:16, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
|-
|21.||Yann Benigot's Repository|| 4 || 0 || -
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|22.||Armin|| 12 || 1 || Contacted owner. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 19:51, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|23.||Austinche|| 27 || 7 || Contacted owner. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 18:08, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|24.||Browser Extras|| 28 || 0 || Contacted owner, will look into it. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 20:14, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|-
|25.||Mapper|| 12 || 1 || -
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|26.||elkins.org|| 14 || 4 || Contacted owner. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 20:25, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|27.||MUlliNER.ORG Maemo Software (Maemo 4.x)|| 15 || 1 || Contacted owner --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 20:31, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|-
|28.||Jalimo|| 13 || 0 || -
|-
|29.||Maemo Hackers|| 64 || 25 || -
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|30.||Dayless|| 21 || 3 || Contacted owner. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 19:51, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|-
|31.||lancode.de|| 10 || 0 || -
|-
|32.||OpenedHand Prebuilt Maemo Packages|| 26 || 7 || -
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|33.||Anunakin|| 39 || 9 || Contacted owner --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 18:08, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
|-
|34.||Maemo CJK|| 27 || 1 || -
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|35.||mg.pov.lt (Diablo)|| 23 || 12 || Positive response, needs help with deciding what to do with some 'quick hack' packages. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 19:29, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|36.||Andrey's maemo repository|| 13 || 0 || Contacted owner --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 20:31, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|37.||Carman catalogue|| 6 || 0 || Contacted owner, will close after next release of Carman. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 19:29, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|-
|38.||debfarm|| 175 || 51 || -
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|39.||Collabora Haze|| 10 || 5 || Packages are going to get uploaded to Extras by owner. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 13:49, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|40.||Collabora catalogue|| 10 || 5 || Packages are going to get uploaded to Extras by owner. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 13:49, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|41.||Innologies Package Repository|| 6 || 0 || Contacted owner --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 17:48, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|42.||give|| 13 || 1 || Contacted owner. --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 19:51, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|-
|43.||Synthesize.us|| 9 || 0 || -
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|44.||tuomas.kulve.fi|| 25 || 10 || Positive response. Needs help with conflicting packages in Maemo. (How to solve this) --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 19:29, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|-
|45.||Upir\'s repository|| 5 || 0 || -
|-
|46.||Community Canola Temp|| 76 || 76 || -
|-
|47.||Wardenclyffe|| 14 || 1 || -
|- style="background:LightYellow"
|48.||Tills Maemo|| 12 || 2 || Owner is uploading packages to Extras --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 13:49, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
|- style="background:LightBlue"
|49.||Mollux.org|| 10 || 0 || Contacted owner --[[User:xfade|xfade]] 20:14, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
|}

Open development/Why the closed packages

2008-10-07T20:40:42Z

80.74.115.203:

== General reasons ==
Open source is the licensing model preferred by Nokia in the development of Maemo. There are some reasons to have exceptions, though:

- '''Brand''': Nokia wants to keep a strong brand and identity avoiding any risks of dilution.

- '''Differentiation''': Nokia wants to gain competitive advantage in certain areas by keeping the related software closed.

- '''Legacy''': Nokia keeps some components minimally maintained - the work of opening them has an unclear outcome.

- '''IPR & licensing issues''': Nokia avoids serious risks brought by patents, copyrights or complicated licensing situations.

- '''Third party''': Nokia does not own the code and therefore does not decide on the license.

== Specific reasons for packages ==
* '''tablet-browser-ui''': At the beginning there was a proprietary browser. In Maemo 4.0 the Mozilla based browser came, with an open engine (MicroB) but still a closed UI provided by tablet-browser. The main reason was the default rule to have the Maemo applications UI closed for differentiation. The context in mobile browsing has changed significantly and now there are better reasons to offer also an open browser UI. This is the plan for Fremantle.
* '''dsme''': This component covered many areas including power management, which is considered a differentiation area by Nokia. The component has been redesigned and the sensitive functionality has moved to mce, allowing to distribute dsme (soon) with an open license together with related tools and plugins: bootstate, dsmetool, waitfordsme, libdsme.so, libhwwd.so, liblifeguard.so, libprocesswd.so, libstartup.so and libstate.so. Then libtemperature.so will be replaced by another component consisting of several dsme open source plugins. Finally, libcalmodule.so will be dropped.

=== Waiting list ===

If you want to know the specific reasons for a package to be closed please list it below and the Maemo team will answer as time permits.

[[User:Andre|Andre]]: Adding the four requests that we have in Bugzilla:
* [https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1235 Media player]
* [https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3195 Connection applet]
* [https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3199 Display applet]

Requested at [https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1584 Bug 1584] including comments:
* mce, which will include the functionality of libactivitymonitor.so, libinactivity-blank.so and libperipheral.so (formerly part of dsme).
* activate_panel
* bt-cal
* cal-tool
* fb-chaimage
* text2screen
* wlan-cal
* wlan-fw-update
* retu-time
* show_image
* battest
* dspctl
* the script linuxrc
* libbmeic.so
* libcal.so
* libppu.so
* libactivitymonitor.so
* libinactivity-blank.so
* libperipheral.so
* DSP stuff
* BME
* libi18n-locale-resolver0

Other
* [[Questions_for_Nokia#Bookmark_manager_engine|Bookmark manager]]

== Opened ==
* [https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3635 Alarm framework] is open source, but apparently the sources are lost/missing as explained in the bug.