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Porteus Poolers (Give back in Time)

Posted: 15 Jan 2015, 00:35
by Bogomips
From around September-October time been mulling this over. However having since found out that brokenman doesn't exist, makes the requested information all the more pertinent for me at least.
  • Knowledge
    At the moment it's all over the place, and for a still relative newcomer, not easy to find. Apart from the HOWTOs, haven't found any one place on the forum where one can refer to for up-to-date information. It would be convenient if all the answers could be in one place.

    So would like to float the somewhat utopian idea of a knowledge pool, a sub-section say of Community Effort, where those who wish can pool their knowledge, and learn from each other. Would have a format somewhat like Porteus Praisers, where questions would be the exception, rather than the rule. Would envisage affirmations, corrections of these and additions/explanations. Not HOWTOs, but how I do/did it, where someone might offer a better way etc.

    If at any one time it's just a handful of people keeping the section going, IMHO it will be worth it.
    • Time
      fanthom wrote:You're looking for a ways to reduce your workload (sorry, didn't find a better word)?
      Ahau left the project so Jay and me have to do approx 33% more work than before so the answer is yes - i'm trying to reduce workload wherever i can (or just 'do things smarter' like brokenman said). that's why i did not bother with proprietary drivers for rc1/rc2, we never provide language files before userland is frozen, LXDE->RazorQT merger comes handy (one DE less to maintain), etc...
      Just only recently found out that brokenman doesn't exist in this context. So, doing some simple arithmetic: before there were three, but now there are only two, and two is a precarious number.

      The problem is that at the moment have no idea of what's being done or what is needed to keep the distro afloat. Just what's been gleaned so far:
      brokenman wrote:The operating system is modular. It consists of a kernel, an initrd, and the modules. The base modules 000, 001 and 002 are maintained by Fanthom. The desktops are separate. Maintenance involves compiling or downloading each slackware package individually, unpacking into a folder, running a cleanup script (different for each module) and then repacking it into a single module.

      So the answer is actually yes, you can recompile Porteus totally but not as a single event. You need to compile the kernel, then the core, then the desktop modules. After that there is the addons such as printing, skype, browsers, video drivers etc.
      Questions regarding
        • Documentation
          Is there
          1. A Road Map
          2. Project Documentation
          3. Sources Listing
          available for perusal?
          • Skills needed
            1. Programming skills
            2. Programming languages
            3. Scripts
          If only a brief description could be provided of just what is needed to be done in order to keep things ticking over, one could see if this falls within one's area of competence. And if one could step into the breach in an unforeseen situation.

          Dare say a lot of us always have the odd hour to spare here and there, which could be dedicated to helping out. Devs could place sticky posts in this section, with requests for testing, troubleshooting, debugging, or maybe to read up on something very boring, in order to help work things out like say, udev rules, would be sacrifice one is prepared to make in return for high quality distro.

        Re: Porteus Poolers (Give back in Time)

        Posted: 15 Jan 2015, 01:10
        by brokenman
        Hey! I do exist. I am right here. :Yahoo!: My mother refuses to call me by my nick (brokenman) and insists on calling me Jay. I guess it's my own fault as I keep answering her when she calls me that.

        I like the idea of a unified documentation. There is quite a bit of documentation scattered and the majority of the core documentation is on the website. Perhaps a better home for it would be the forum but that introduces problems also.

        I will monitor this thread and chime in when I have something useful to say.

        Documentation
        Is there
        A Road Map
        Not that I am aware of.
        Project Documentation
        On the website
        Sources Listing
        We can upload all sources somewhere (I think fanthom already has for qt desktops)

        Skills needed
        Programming skills
        We will take whatever you can give.
        Programming languages
        We will take whatever you can give. PHP, gtkdialog, C++

        Our immediate goal is to make things maintenance friendly. This means documentation should be constructed in a way that requires little future maintenance. If the community wants to create a documentation center then that may be a great idea but isn't it just adding another place with documentation to the existing pile? I honestly wonder how many people really read the docs. Even something as simple as the cheatcode doc.

        Re: Porteus Poolers (Give back in Time)

        Posted: 22 Jan 2015, 23:46
        by bips
        Looks like just you and me, mate :( :x
        brokenman wrote:I like the idea of a unified documentation. There is quite a bit of documentation scattered and the majority of the core documentation is on the website. Perhaps a better home for it would be the forum but that introduces problems also.
        Did not have in mind documentation.
        brokenman wrote:Moderators will be expected to ... remove spam, mark threads as FAA, move topics to relevant categories when posted incorrectly
        There are informative posts in various topics, which could be moved to a knowledge pool section. For example the REISUB posts in the USM Bugs thread, usage of optional directory at boot time, from my Transition trials thread, Slaxmax's posts on X fonts, etc. Also idiosyncracies could rate a mention, like preventing character repeats in normal typing, without losing out on character repeats when needed under KDE, by changing keyboard repeat delay from 660 ms (default) to 661 ms, etc.

        If there was to be a knowledge pool of this sort, should be no problem moderating it.

        brokenman wrote:Skills needed
        Programming skills
        We will take whatever you can give.
        Programming languages
        We will take whatever you can give. PHP, gtkdialog, C++
        Well, I'd hate for Porteus to go down the tubes. Suppose could help out a bit with some low priority stuff, and see how it goes. So for what it's worth: Javascript, HTML => jit gtkdialog; Ass, C, (OO) Java. C++ not language of choice, but at a pinch could probably find way around a C++ program, aided by C++ for Java Programmers gathering dust on the bookshelf.
        If no one else has responded in the interim, could look like two and a half men on the job. :beer: