Re: [Basket-devel] Basket interested developer

[<sl...@li...>]

> I'm also looking for an opportunity to start with developing something for
> KDE. I like basket application very much.
> So, I think I can help you with porting to KDE4. I know C++ good enough,
> but QT/KDE just small experience.
> Maybe you can suggest some small introducing job (junior job). And what's
> the current state of basket ?
> Of course, I have kde4 installation from svn. So, it won't be a problem.

Good.

The most urging task for now is porting to KDE 4.
The port has started, but is now stalled (as is the project as a whole).

If you want to participate, send me a private email with a username and=20
crypted password.

To encrypt the password, you can use the Linux command "htpasswd -n=20
YOURUSERNAME".
Or you can generate the password yourself using that website:
     http://shop.alterlinks.com/htpasswd/passwd.php

You will have SVN account.
The KDE 4 port is in the branch "kde4port".

If you want, I'm sometimes on IRC (#basket-devel on irc.freenode.net).

And for JJ, I sent a mail several months ago about them:

Hello all,

As requested, here are a handful set of tasks to do that do not require to=
=20
touch to too much classes at once, so you can learn the code internals bett=
er=20
while being quickly rewarded with a finished and useful feature.

As they are here for you to familarise with the code, I propose you to do t=
hem=20
in trunk, instead of the KDE 4 branch. I think changes can easily be merged=
=20
between two branches.
And why not, if a few new features are interesting we can release a version=
=20
1.1.
I'm thinking to "Cheap Document-Like Interface", "'Reload Basket' DCOP=20
Call", "Insert a Computation", "Import From Other Softwares", "Automaticall=
y=20
Title new Links" for instance. Any of them is important enough to let us=20
release a new version.


=2D Filter by Several Tags:

=A0 By entering such term in the filter text field:
=A0 'aStringToSearch tag:"To Do" tag:Important'

=2D Menu Entry "Split Note":

=A0 Only enabled when a text note is currently edited.
=A0 When pressing it, the program retreive the cursor position of the text =
edit,
=A0 "cut" the text after the cursor and "paste" it in a new note just bello=
w the
=A0 current note.
=A0 Bonus: if the cursor was at the start or at the end of a line, the empty
=A0 line should be removed.
=A0 Bonus 2: another action "Transform First Line to Title", enabled when a=
 text
=A0 note is selected (not mandatory editing). This will extract the first l=
ine
=A0 of the note, create a new note on top, paste the text, assign the "Titl=
e"
=A0 tag to it, group those two notes, and start editing the second note if =
it
=A0 was editing before the "make title/content and group".

=2D Cheap Document-Like Interface:

=A0 Pressing the Down key while the cursor is at the last line of a text ed=
itor,
=A0 retreive the cursor X position, end the edition, start the edition of t=
he
=A0 text note just below and set the X cursor position.
=A0 This will be the begin and a cheap way to implement the "document-like
=A0 interface". I especially would like this feature a lot, and I think I'm=
 not
=A0 alone!
=A0 The goal is to automate the mode change, and make the whole basket like=
 one
=A0 big document
=A0 Bonus: do the same thing with the Up key, to move the cursor to the text
=A0 note just above the currently edited one. This is less important than t=
he
=A0 Down key.

=2D "Reload Basket" DCOP Call:

=A0 The SuperKaramba "DesktopBasket" applet is retreiving the notes with
=A0 the "Desktop" tag assigned to them, to make them always available.
=A0 The interface allows the user to edit a note right on the desktop.
=A0 BasKet Note Pads is noticed that the note file was modified, and then r=
eload
=A0 the note in live.
=A0 But there is something that DesktopBasket cannot do: add a new note, or
=A0 remove one. Because BasKet Note Pads will not reload the whole basket.
=A0 The goal of this JJ is to add a new DCOP call (the project already have=
 a
=A0 DCOP interface, so only a new call need to be implemented) with one
=A0 parameter: the URL of the basket folder. The call will retreive a Basket
=A0 pointer that match the folder URL, end the note edition, if any, put
=A0 Basket::m_loaded and Basket::m_loadingLaunched to false, and it should
=A0 suffice to trigger a new reload the next time it is needed. Yes there w=
ill
=A0 have memory leaks but guess what, there are already a lot of them :-/
=A0 Bonus: a call "Reload all Baskets" that could be called after a script =
sync
=A0 baskets between two computers using rsync, unison or a similar technolo=
gy...

=2D "Add Selection to Current Basket" Extension for Konqueror and/or Firefo=
x:

=A0 Add a new DCOP call addPlainTextNote(text) and addRichTextNote(html) ca=
lls.
=A0 Then make a Konqueror or Firefox extension to add a toolbar icon in tho=
se
=A0 applications, that will call either one or the other DCOP call.
=A0 Be careful: the current basket can be not loaded yet (the application w=
as
=A0 restored from another session and not displayed yet): the basket should=
 be
=A0 loaded prior to add the new note. Look at how global keyboard shorctuts=
 are
=A0 coded and copy/paste/modify the code: if the basket is not loaded, they=
 load
=A0 it and display a passive popup "Basket Loading...".
=A0 Alternatively, to avoid digging to learn how to do Konqueror/Firefox
=A0 extensions, you can do a Konqueror Service Menu to copy or move a file =
to
=A0 the current basket. Service Menu are the actions available when doing a
=A0 right click on a file and choosing "Action -> *". They are easy to crea=
te
=A0 and well documented.

=2D Usage Statistics:

=A0 Count the number of baskets the user has, the averagde number of notes =
in
=A0 baskets, the total number of notes in every baskets, the number of note=
s of
=A0 every types (how many people use the Color note type?), how deep note g=
roups
=A0 are on their computers, how much each standard tags are used, how much
=A0 custom tags people have added...
=A0 This would be useful for beta versions where people can send anonymous
=A0 statistics about their usage of BasKet Note Pads. It can be interesting=
 to
=A0 know if people use Image notes a lot, if they have very long baskets or=
 not
=A0 (if we should optimize that use case), if they ever used "Unknown" note
=A0 type...
=A0 While this JJ is not a priority, it is easy to do: just a matter of bro=
wsing
=A0 all baskets recursively, load them if not done yet, browse the notes
=A0 recusrively. It will be yet another help to help usability work, especi=
ally
=A0 "how deep note groups are": there was a question on the Usability Proje=
ct if
=A0 we either change the Group notion and restrict how deep they can be, or=
 if
=A0 deep groups of groups of notes are really needed/used. The "how much ea=
ch
=A0 standard tags are used" could be as helpful by pointing tags that can s=
afely
=A0 removed in order unclutter the default application.

=2D Mix Colors:

=A0 If two or more color notes are selected, that action will be enabled.
=A0 It will merge both colors (do the average of both) and insert a third c=
olor
=A0 note with the result just below the second note.
=A0 It will be very helpful for web-designers who keep a color palette bask=
et
=A0 and want to do quick mixes.

=2D Insert a Computation:

=A0 When a person is editing a text note and press the key "=3D", the code =
should
=A0 look at what is before the "=3D" character. If it is a mathematical
=A0 expression, it compute and insert the result.
=A0 Imagine: you type "18 + 2 * 76.4 ", then press "=3D" and the text is
=A0 automatically completed to become: "18 + 2 * 76.4 =3D 170.8".
=A0 Very handy!
=A0 Note: you will use a library to do the computation, perhapse take the s=
ame
=A0 library as Alt+F2 minicli use. With a library, this JJ is easy.
=A0 Bonus: if the "=3D" is preceded by a space, add a space between the "=
=3D" and
=A0 the result. If not (the "=3D" is stricked to the computation), then add=
 no
=A0 space. Example : "1+1=3D" becomes "1+1=3D2" and "1+1 =3D" becomes "1+1 =
=3D 2".

=2D Sort Notes Alphabetically:

=A0 This action will be quite complicated because it requiere to deal with
=A0 recursion and the quite bad state of the code I produced to
=A0 insert/remove/move notes in the hierarchy.
=A0 But it can be interesting.

=2D Fold all Groups Except the Current One:

=A0 Quite easy to do, browse every notes recursively, and if it is a group =
that
=A0 is not folded AND it is not one of the parent notes/groups of the curre=
ntly
=A0 focused one, then fold it.

=2D Bug: New Tags not Added to the "Filter Tag" Listview:

=A0 When using the "Customize Tags..." window, if you every create a new ta=
g or
=A0 state, you will see that it is not added in the "Filter Tag:" combobox.
=A0 At every change of the tag collection, that list should be reconstructe=
d.

=2D Only Show Assigned Tags & States in the "Filter State" Listview:

=A0 It's a bit more complicated, but at every basket change, that list shou=
ld be
=A0 reconstructed, looking for every tag and states if it is assignated to =
one
=A0 note or not. Be careful: show all tags if global filtering is activated,
=A0 because we can't load every baskets to be able just to fill that list.
=A0 This "optimization" will be handy because in every baskets, people only=
 put
=A0 2 or 3 tags. They need to scroll a long list while they want to filter =
one
=A0 tag, whereas a lot of them will return no result at all!
=A0 This will also make more obvious that this list is not to ASSIGN tags (=
it is
=A0 the role of the Tags menu) but to FILTER tags.

=2D Import From Other Softwares:

=A0 If you have another note taking application you would want to import da=
ta
=A0 from, then there is one class dedicated to import in the code source, f=
or
=A0 instance a Windows application, like Treepad or Keynotes (we will need =
this
=A0 since BasKet Note Pads 2.0 will be available for Windows, and anyway, a=
 lot
=A0 of switchers need to convert their notes to Linux).
=A0 This is an easy enough task, as it only involves working with a few cla=
sses.
=A0 For instance, you could do "Import Bookmarks" from Konqueror or Firefox=
, to
=A0 create a basket with links (and groups of links).

=2D Automatically Title new Links:

=A0 When pasting a new link, a background processing should be launched to
=A0 retreive the first 100 bytes of the file. If it is an HTML file and tho=
se
=A0 first bytes contains the <title> tag, then assign that value to the Link
=A0 title.
=A0 Imagine, you paste "http://dot.kde.org/1184809999/" and a second later,=
 the
=A0 link now displays "TechBase Hits 1,000,000".
=A0 It is more user-friendly!

=2D When Moving a Free Note, Drop it Where it Was Picked

=A0 When dragging a free note, the top-left corner of this note is dropped =
at
=A0 the cursor position.
=A0 This JJ would requiere storing the X,Y position clicked while starting =
the
=A0 drag, and shift the dropped note so that the X,Y point on the dragged n=
ote
=A0 becomes just under the mouse.

=2D Drop a Color List

=A0 Try copy this two-lines text and paste it in a basket:
#bbb
#00dd00
=A0 It is pasted as a text. Now, copy/paste one of those lines: it is corre=
ctly
=A0 pasted as a color note.
=A0 The goal of this JJ is to recognise a text list of colors and paste two
=A0 color notes in this example.
=A0 This is already done for text-list of URLs like that:
http://basket.kde.org/
http://dot.kde.org/
=A0 Bonus: would be cool if a list of mixed URLs and Colors would paste the=
 good
=A0 type of notes. For instance copying that text of 4 lines will create two
=A0 Link notes and two Color notes:
http://basket.kde.org/
#bbb
#00dd00
http://dot.kde.org/

Happy Hacking,
S=E9bastien Lao=FBt.