Barry, Do you have any suggested projects for contributors?

[rarsa]

Hi Barry, (hopefully the title of the post will attract you):

Are there any particular projects that have a higher priority for you?

I've just been wetting my paws here and there without concert.

My contributions up to date have been self serving: To make puppy do what I want to use it for.

Now, It's just as I like it:
- Standard Puppy includes most of it (including wireless out of the box)
- I can remote to and from work (VPN, VNC),
- I can print to my remote printer (CUPS),
- It looks nice (themes),
- I have my favorite browser (Opera).
- I can do video conferencing (Mercury).

Some of those contributions are complete (VNC, themes, Opera), Some have been no more than glorified HOWTOs as I haven't seen more interest. (VPN, CUPS, Mercury)

I have other projects in mind:
- A real wireless wizard
- Extend the HW detection/configuration
- A visual JWM theme editor (that can be contributed back to Joe)
- Implement XDG based menus with menu creation at startup for all WM
- Review existing scripts looking for improvements.
- Establish structure around Dotpups (hierarchical repositories with versioned packages)
- Implement an existing package manager (apt-get, yum, autopackage, etc) that handles dependencies.
- Provide technical guidance to documenters.
- Create DotPup guidelines.

I know about other projects that may be necessary, though not all of them in my sphere of interest:
- Review and catalog the existing documentation to identify 'version dependent' documentation that needs to be reviewed.
- Redesign and restructure the puppy web site. Now there is way more information than there used to be when I first came.
- Review the forum identifying pattern questions to update and extend the FAQ
- Work on giving Puppy a graphic facelift.
- Package more DotPups
- Review that the DotPups follow the guidelines, if not, update them.

But this list is by no means complete. These are just examples.

So, Barry: Do you have any preferences? Are there any other projects I haven't included that you'd like help with?

I'd like to use my time as efficiently as possible to improve Puppy.

[ozboomer]

I have other projects in mind:
[...]
- A visual JWM theme editor (that can be contributed back to Joe)
- Implement XDG based menus with menu creation at startup for all WM
- Review existing scripts looking for improvements.
- Establish structure around Dotpups (hierarchical repositories with versioned packages)
- Implement an existing package manager (apt-get, yum, autopackage, etc) that handles dependencies.
- Provide technical guidance to documenters.
- Create DotPup guidelines.
[...]
- Redesign and restructure the puppy web site. Now there is way more information than there used to be when I first came.
- Review the forum identifying pattern questions to update and extend the FAQ
- Work on giving Puppy a graphic facelift.
- Package more DotPups
- Review that the DotPups follow the guidelines, if not, update them.

I agree that these are some of the more important things... but I'd also add into the 'priority blender':-
- robust upgrading
- all the above being aware and respectful of user customizations
- customizable startup scripts (if site-specific script exists... do...endif)
- specific system-based 'standard' applications (cron, backups)

...and others.

There have been a few pearls already, with the dotpup manager (incorporate in pupget - what's the difference between DotPups and PupGets - they're all add-ins that may or may not be registered for remastering), the idea of usr_devx.sfs (love this - development included or not, at my choice!) and of course, the original magic of Puppy that is the pup001 file and 'permanent' RAM disk loading.

In short, I think we still need to get some of the fundamentals working a bit better (like upgrades, startup and shutdown, easier sysadmin) and put some effort into building the FAQs and web site before we worry too much about getting an esoteric device/application working. We should be helping Puppy walk well and reliably before we give him the diamond-studded collars

[rarsa]

Barry,

No response means
A) that you didn't read the post
or does it mean that
B) you prefer not to give direction for the projects?

In case it's A, I'm bumping this thread up.
In case it's B, I'm fine with going where the wind takes me

[quote="ozboomer"]I agree that these are some of the more important things... but I'd also add into the 'priority blender':-]I'm sure there are more projects than time

[Lobster]

Barry,
In case it's B, I'm fine with going where the wind takes me

I am wind powered too (mostly hot air)


John Murga hosts and improves this forum
Flash saw the need to organise the forum and he does so
Mark Ulrich (MU) saw the need to provide PuppyBasic and a front end to GuestToos (G2) Dotpups
AlienX provides Icewm themes
ThoughtJourney provided JWM support
Klh has taken over the wikkanews
Ian Mul is working on a new finance program
Dewdrop supported you in creating Cups support
Puppian is improving the wiki

We have people creating graphics, hosting files, making dotpups. We have a promotion week coming up. Raffy is promoting the foundation.

. . . on and on it goes . . .

It depends on ability, inclination and priority.
You are doing good work rarsa - what you prefer and find fun will influence and enhance Puppy. Just say woof woof and "remember you're a womble"

[PeterSieg]

Hi, rarsa. I liked the work you have done so far for Puppy!
Lot of people would have given up with cups, but you not and made it a
success story! Great.

As I mentioned here already on the forum, looking to other 50m distros,
I think Puppy has the potential to take the lead - IF...

* Foreign keyboards must be supported better/correct. My german keyboard
still does not work right When you read/search the forum for that, you
find same stories for other countries... Some keys do work, but most
special keys dont..

* Supporting USB keyboards (+mouse) out of the box. Works in DSL!

* Internet streams offered at gxine menues.. some are working, most don't.
There should be only working items.. since none working ones distract
users. This combined with radio3 and the update wizards and cleaned up,
would be great. This counts for internet radio and TV! Of course due to
limitted space, only some station can be supported from the standard
puppy. More should be available as dotpup etc.

* USB pen drives are not so good supported in Puppy. That is true also for
most other distributions There are a lot of hardware related issues
here... But other linux guys have managed it. I posted that here also
on the forum elsewhere.. goggle for makebootfat / AdvanceCD ...

I think, these are real issues, that must be addressed to bring Puppy up the
latter on distrowatch

Other interessting projects already somehow in progress are:
* Wine as dotpup or *.sfs
* How about a OpenOffice 2.x as a dotpup or *.sfs?

It would be great, if you could help in the above areas!!!

Another thing could be now the free opera version.. I don't know the
size compared to Mozilla Browser+Sylpheed+xxx. But I don't like, that
opera is NOT open source...

PS

[BarryK]

I only just now have read this thread!
It's a real challenge for me some days, to read all of the new posts on the forum.

I think highest priority is to improve the wireless wizard.

If that means putting Perl into the base Puppy, so be it.

If Perl was there, that would be a big jump, wouldn't it?
The Wizard could start "Please insert your Windows driver CD..."
WAG will come into it, perhaps improved, as I found the buttons a
bit confusing at first.
Finally it will have to remember the settings for the next bootup.

[rerwin]

Response to rarsa'a statement:

Some have been no more than glorified HOWTOs as I haven't seen more interest. (VPN, CUPS, Mercury)

rarsa, please do not conclude that there is little interest in your CUPS accomplishments. I followed your progress with dewdrop and am pleased with the outcome. I have it working for my network HP printer.

I feel that making CUPS an integral part of Puppy is essential to wide acceptance of Puppy as a desktop replacement. I work with an independent computer repair store, where I hear the objection to going with Linux is that the printer support is weak. Puppy is now half way toward resolving that issue.

Please continue with integrating CUPS and suggesting how to add more drivers. I am willing to help, particularly because I need to add a Lexmark driver. Thanks, again for all your effort on CUPS.

Richard

[Pizzasgood]

rarsa, please do not conclude that there is little interest in your CUPS accomplishments.

Yeah. I haven't gotten around to trying to get my printer running yet, so I'm not sure if I will need cups yet, but I probably will. Printing is pretty much at the bottom of my priority list, so I haven't looked into it yet. Someday I will, and I'll be very grateful then. So I guess I'll just say thanks ahead of time. Thanks!

[rarsa]

The Wizard could start "Please insert your Windows driver CD..."
WAG will come into it, perhaps improved, as I found the buttons a
bit confusing at first.
Finally it will have to remember the settings for the next bootup.

Great: that's along the line of what I was thinking for the wizard.

I'm still not convinced about the need for perl in the base Puppy. Anyway I will investigate.