Celestia development volunteers?

[t00fri]

Cham, at least you could explain why you are bored... (that was the idea, no?)

Non non mon ami,
there is something SEXY going on on that couch that is just hard to see...I can feel it over here in Germany!

Cheers,
Fridger

[t00fri]

Cham, at least you could explain why you are bored... (that was the idea, no?)

This topic :

It would nevertheless be interesting to read what Martin thinks about multiplying everyone by a factor of two or so

Bye Fridger

PS: Incidentally this little beast,
wouldn't this be a nice Christmas present for Fightspit?

[ElChristou]

Cham, at least you could explain why you are bored... (that was the idea, no?)

This topic :

Cham, at least you could explain why you are bored... (that was the idea, no?)

Non non mon ami,
there is something SEXY going on on that couch that is just hard to see...I can feel it over here in Germany!

Cheers,
Fridger

Dans les deux cas j'comprends plus rien... je crois qu'il se fait tard...

[hank]

This thread perfectly illustrates the problems with trying to use the forum as a medium for shared information.

- Hank

[Cham]

PS: Incidentally this little beast,
wouldn't this be a nice Christmas present for Fightspit?

Hey Fightspit !

[yeus]

ohh guys I have said his over and over again, bu I will try it one more time.... (or girls, whatever )... back to the original thread:

I AM a volunteer and I am here because:

1: I finally want a Version 1.5 to be released...
2: I love celestia
3: I want more versions after Version 1.5

But as a volunteer I also have several requirements to help with the celestia development:

1: it won't make much sense to me right now to work on something new, as long as the comunity isn't even able to release Version 1.5.
2: So I think the best start for the volunteers would be helping with bugs & small tasks for v1.5
3: As I do not have the big picture of the celestia project I would need someone who tells me, what to do
4:I need to be assured, that the work I am going to do is not done by someone else at the same time. Because I am a volunteer and I certainly do not want my work to be of no use to anyone...

For the 4th point a forum-thread or a wiki would be useful, I don't care. I just need to know that I am doin something that the rest of the community KNOWS that I am working on it...

As long as these requirements are not fullfilled, I just can not start working on anything and provide patches. And @ fridge I certainly think it would be in the celestia-projects interest to recruit more developers. So Maybe you could help us "newbys" a little bit more .

Greetings, Tom

[ElChristou]

This thread perfectly illustrates the problems with trying to use the forum as a medium for shared information.k

Hank, I do agree with you here, but what? is that a so BIG problem?
People are here also for pleasure, a bit of humor is not dramatic...
Anyway when a serious process is on track, specially at dev level such off topic post are very rare.
Also we can agree on the way to work on a forum, avoiding off topic or useless comments, etc...

[ElChristou]

4:I need to be assured, that the work I am going to do is not done by someone else at the same time. Because I am a volunteer and I certainly do not want my work to be of no use to anyone...

Tom, actually whatever you will do have very few chance to be done by someone else...

Meanwhile these good people decide what to do with your request (hope they will do something before you run away) , have you read the roadmap?

http://shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11013

[dirkpitt]

Speaking of the roadmap, it ought to be one of the first things that get added to the dev wiki.
Right now the roadmap as it is on the forum is outdated - pre3 was already released
(but cloud shadows are still broken in some cases), script menu is marked for 1.5.1 but is already done,
star orbits can already be toggled, etc.

[hank]

This thread perfectly illustrates the problems with trying to use the forum as a medium for shared information.k

Hank, I do agree with you here, but what? is that a so BIG problem?
People are here also for pleasure, a bit of humor is not dramatic...
Anyway when a serious process is on track, specially at dev level such off topic post are very rare.
Also we can agree on the way to work on a forum, avoiding off topic or useless comments, etc...

I originally created this thread so people could register their interest in volunteering to help Celestia development. It immediately veered off topic. There have been a handful of relevant posts, but interspersed with a lot of off topic discussion. Each time I tried to get the thread back on topic it immediately veered off again. Someone looking at the latest page would have no idea what the thread was for. And there's no easy way to find out who all responded to the original request except by tediously scanning through the posts.

On a wiki there would be a page with a list that people would just add their names to. For an example, look here.

- Hank

[hank]

Speaking of the roadmap, it ought to be one of the first things that get added to the dev wiki.
Right now the roadmap as it is on the forum is outdated - pre3 was already released
(but cloud shadows are still broken in some cases), script menu is marked for 1.5.1 but is already done,
star orbits can already be toggled, etc.

I added the road map to the "Celestians" WikiSpace.

- Hank

[dirkpitt]

Thanks - I didn't realize there already was a wiki. Somewhere in the mass of posts about smilies I must have missed the announcement.

I marked a couple of items on the roadmap as "done". BTW, I want to be able to grey out items or do strikeout formatting but the wiki editor doesn't seem to let me do this.

[hank]

Thanks - I didn't realize there already was a wiki. Somewhere in the mass of posts about smilies I must have missed the announcement.

Sorry, it hasn't been announced yet. I just set it up for experimental use.

I marked a couple of items on the roadmap as "done". BTW, I want to be able to grey out items or do strikeout formatting but the wiki editor doesn't seem to let me do this.

Unfortunatly the markup doesn't seem to support strikeout. Would it work to put the text in brackets? Can you give an example of how you want to use this?

- Hank

[dirkpitt]

For example, when items on the road map are completed I want to somehow cross them out so you can instantly tell what's done and what's not.

E.g., say this item is done ("resolved fixed"):

• Allow star orbits to be toggled separately from planet orbits

I want to be able to write:

• Allow star orbits to be toggled separately from planet orbits - done

This to me seems clearer than putting the item in brackets:

• [Allow star orbits to be toggled separately from planet orbits] - done

[hank]

For example, when items on the road map are completed I want to somehow cross them out so you can instantly tell what's done and what's not.

E.g., say this item is done ("resolved fixed"):

• Allow star orbits to be toggled separately from planet orbits

I want to be able to write:

• Allow star orbits to be toggled separately from planet orbits - done

This to me seems clearer than putting the item in brackets:

• [Allow star orbits to be toggled separately from planet orbits] - done

How about something like:

• DONE: Allow star orbits to be toggled separately from planet orbits

and

• IN WORK/MAC(dirkpitt): Allow star orbits to be toggled separately from planet orbits

and

• DONE/MAC;IN WORK/WINDOWS (chris): Allow star orbits to be toggled separately from planet orbits

- Hank

[mjoubert]

Hi all,

Well, this topic is quite long to read, so I'm not sure that I'm not repeating things...

I'm not involved in Celestia development, but I can advice you the use of subversion + trac : it's done for your situation. It's way more usefull than a wiki or a forum board.

I'm nearly sure that everyone here knows the TRAC and SVN duo, so I'm very surprised that nobody adviced it.

Few links to start, just in case :
http://trac.edgewall.org/
http://trac.edgewall.org/ticket/6007
The roadmap tab would be very interesting for the Celestia project right now.

Each task is linked to a ticket. Each ticket can be attributed to a developer. Each ticket has a dead line. There is an integrated wiki. It's fully linked to subversion (by making rules like you cannot commit if you don't refer to an opened ticket).

It's probably not time to migrate, but this should be a solution for the future.

Mathieu (Spacebel/CNES)

[ElChristou]

This thread perfectly illustrates the problems with trying to use the forum as a medium for shared information.k

Hank, I do agree with you here, but what? is that a so BIG problem?
People are here also for pleasure, a bit of humor is not dramatic...
Anyway when a serious process is on track, specially at dev level such off topic post are very rare.
Also we can agree on the way to work on a forum, avoiding off topic or useless comments, etc...

I originally created this thread so people could register their interest in volunteering to help Celestia development. It immediately veered off topic. There have been a handful of relevant posts, but interspersed with a lot of off topic discussion. Each time I tried to get the thread back on topic it immediately veered off again. Someone looking at the latest page would have no idea what the thread was for. And there's no easy way to find out who all responded to the original request except by tediously scanning through the posts.

Hank, I'm sorry but if you wanted it THAT focused, there are simple solutions:

- You write it clearly when opening the thread (see this thread, and despite I was in the community for only 2 months, no one break the rule)
- You ask the mod for special attention on your thread in case of (note that this second point is really optional, is point one is correctly done, no problemo.

[hank]

For example, when items on the road map are completed I want to somehow cross them out so you can instantly tell what's done and what's not.

As an experiment I've created a Tasks page where each item is a link to a Task Page for the specific Task. The links are grouped by status: PENDING, IN WORK, PENDING TEST, IN TEST, PENDING INTEGRATION, IN INTEGRATION, COMPLETED (for example). To change the status of a task the developer just moves the link (cut and paste; takes 10 secs) from one group to the other. For IN ... statuses the developer would add their name after the link to indicate who is working on that task phase. The task page for a task need not exist, although it usually will. If it doesn't exist you create it just by clicking on the link and editing the new page. The task page can contain any information about the task. At a minimum it should contain the task description. Developers can add whatever additional info they feel is useful. When the task is ready to be moved from IN WORK, a link to the code patch or updated files could be put on the task page where they'd be accessible for testing and integration. The intent is to keep it very quick and easy to use. Please take a look here and let me know if you think this might be usable.

- Hank

[hank]

I'm not involved in Celestia development, but I can advice you the use of subversion + trac : it's done for your situation. It's way more usefull than a wiki or a forum board... Each ticket has a dead line... It's probably not time to migrate, but this should be a solution for the future.

Mathieu (Spacebel/CNES)

Thanks, Mathieu. This is something we may be ready for at some point. Right now I think it may be too big a step for us. (And I think our developers don't like to hear any talk about "deadlines". ) The simple wiki approach is appealing to me because it could be quick and easy to use while meeting the minimum needed for developer activity coordination.

- Hank

[t00fri]

Hank,

could you please explain, why you have now added plenty of real coding tasks to that particular Wiki, although NOONE of your volunteers list is able to code properly and all but Cham lack astrophysical expertise??

I thought Chris L. did install a Wiki precisely for such real developer matters in SF. So all this is getting increasingly confusing!

Are you suggesting that we give up the dev list at the same time? Why? It has worked well for years (provided we do some actual coding work ). The present lame development will certainly NOT be improved by starting a multitude of confusing Wikis


Bye Fridger