[Opencd-devel] Update

[Henrik N. O. <h....@bt...>]

Dear List,

I'm sending out this email to any email address I could find of people
who have expressed an interest in the project, in order to catch people
up on what we're doing.  Many of you will get this twice.

- Henrik

----------------------------------------------------------



Hello,

This email goes out to anyone who has shown an interest in the OpenCD
project from the start (and whose email address I could find).  The
reason  for this is to notify you of the current state of play.  This
does not mean that you have been added to some mailing list from which
you will be receiving lots of emails; It's a one-time message meant
catch up those who may have lost interest while we were debating the
issue (and had a forum crash), but who still have an interest in
contributing.  If you've been keeping up with the mailing list and/or
the forum, most of this will be old news.

We now have a clear picture of what we need to do before our first
release.  To summarize:

** 1st beta release scheduled for July 15th 2002
** Final release August 15th 2002
** We will focus on the Windows version this time; Mac may come later
** A list of possible software candidates has been compiled and can be
seen at http://theopencd.org/thelist/  This list is now closed for
additions for this release.
** We need to test all the software on this list using the criteria (see
http://theopencd.org/thelist/) and the available testing form.  Some
software can be quickly eliminated if it fails one of the basic
criteria.  Such software clearly doesn't need to undergo the full
battery of test; a simple reason for why it doesn't qualify will suffice
(such as non-OSD license)
** HTML work and documentation writing needs doing for the installer and
the public site (many things can be duplicated, such as the overview of
program functionality)
** Technical coding work needs doing to make an installer shell that can
run off a CD and display the informative web-pages and launch the
program installers. 


The list of software:
=====================

We now have a long list of software suggestions, from which we must
select the best.  The current list is simply a list off reasonable
suggestions.  It is NOT the list that will be included on the CD, as it
is much too long, and further investigation will no doubt reveal that
many of these programs do not qualify for inclusion.  What we now need
to do is to properly test these programs to determine which can be
included.  So, if you are interested in doing testing, please pick a
couple of apps from the list, take them for a spin, and file a report. 
This should be filed under "Software Testing Results" in the forum using
the criteria and testing form found at theopencd.org/thelist/ .  It is
also advisable to check the forum to see which programs have already
been tested.  Some duplications is fine, but we could easily get 27
reviews of AbiWord, and none of TightVNC (say).  

'Confirmed' List
----------------
We should already now make a list of programs that we know for certain
will be included, because then other people can get on with the tasks of
packaging and documentation.  One example is Celestia, reviewed by
Selanit, which seems to be very cool but lacks some documentation. 
Another is Abiword, which seems like a killer app, but would also
benefit from having more spell checkers bundled.  This list will
obviously not be very long to start with, but having 5-10 confirmed apps
would let people get on with writing documentation and installer stuff
for them.  I suggest these to start: AbiWord, Audacity, Celestia,
Ghostview, and K-Meleon.  Some of these need some more documentation.

Eliminated List
---------------
This is also important.  The current list is very long, but this is
because it was intended to be comprehensive.  The task at hand now is to
start narrowing it down.  It is important that obviously disqualified
apps be removed from the list so that testers don't spend needless hours
on these.  However, instead of just erasing them, we should make a list
of eliminated software, with a brief description of why it's been
eliminated.  In this way we can refer to this list when new participants
make (old) suggestions.  And members of the original software
development teams can see why their program didn't qualify.  Perhaps
this will encourage them to make the required changes.  Examples of
eliminated programs seem to be:

7zip (non-OSD), VirtualDub (non-OSD), Dia (too buggy), FoxServ, Posadis,
Privoxy, WarFTP, GameDev (too technical).


The installer:
==============

The installer is starting to look like it might be the weak point in our
plan.  Our aim is to adapt an open source browser such as K-meleon so
that it will run directly from the CD, provide useful information and
finally launch the executable files of the individual program
installers.  However, this requires some coding in C++.  Although some
people have started looking at this, it doesn't seem like we have a
critical mass of developers yet.
	Fortunately, an advantage of using an HTML based installation is that
we can fall back to the option of using the default browser (which I
guess we can safely assume that nearly every computer will have); at
least for the first version.  We can get on with the task of writing the
HTML content for the installer, under the assumption that an installer
shell will be ready, and with the assurance that we can fall back on
using a default browser if need be.  (True, this is not ideal, but such
is life)


Finally, let me present a working Todo list, containing the main things
we need to get on with.  This is not meant as a complete road map to the
first release, but rather a suggestion as to where to start.  

A Working Todo List:
====================

Software testing and selection:
- Eliminate obvious loosers quickly
- Test the remaining candidates using the standard forms and post the
results to the forum.

Documentation:
- Write some improved documentation for Celestia

Installer (HTML):
- Design main screen from which the user can:
     Read about apps, about OSS, Install apps, Uninstall apps, etc.
- Write program overview (HTML) and install guides for:
  AbiWord, Audacity, Celestia, Ghostview, and K-Meleon .

Installer (Shell):
- Manage to get a Browser to run from a CD
- Create a stripped down version of this browser with very few options
and buttons



- Henrik Nilsen Omma

-- 

Henrik Nilsen Omma             Theoretical Physics, Oxford
35 Frenchay Road               1 Keble Road
Oxford OX2 6TG                 Oxford OX1 3NP
h....@bt...          he...@th...