[Sugar-devel] ASLO activities with no repository

[Tony Anderson]

Hi, James

Thank for these details. I am trying to find out what the standards are 
for these repositories.

Tony Forster contacted me by private email to let me know that 
textdungeon did not have a repository. Version 4 is version 3 with the 
removal of

import simplejson

which causes an activity to fail with python 2.7.

In summary, in making a repository:

     * the commits need
             --author
             --date
             --compiled files such as .pyc should be deleted
      *git history should show each available version when created from 
a bundle
      *delete MANIFEST
      *add a .gitignore file (I understand this to be the same for all 
activities)

Regarding thoughts:
         b) how is an installed activity to work without these files in 
the bundle? How is source code for object files kept in the repository 
(e.g. box2d)?
         c) this is the goal. However, how do you do this for an 
activity for which there is no repository?
         d) I don't understand you here. Any developers will see an 
activity with a link to a repository. How is that confusing?
         e) A repository provides a standard way to document problems 
that prevent the activity from working. Many activities in github may 
not work at a given time in the development, maintenance cycle. This has 
no effect until the bundle is released to ASLO. We have a fact that 
there are many (about one-half) bundles in ASLO that do not work. The 
best I can do is test and write an issue as to why they don't work. As 
volunteers get time, they can address the issues.
         I am not a 'maintainer' on ASLO. This permission would be helpful.

Tony


On 05/23/2017 09:54 AM, James Cameron wrote:
> Thanks Walter.
>
> Tony, looking at https://github.com/sugarlabs/textdungeon just added,
> and compared to each bundle of the same name on
> activities.sugarlabs.org,
>
> 1.  there's no evidence of contact with Tony Forster to locate a
> repository,
>
> 2.  the commits do not have an author of Tony Forster, please use
> --author option in git commit,
>
> 3.  the commits do not have a date corresponding to release, please
> use --date option in git commit,
>
> 4.  versions 1 and 2 of the activity were lost from history, please
> add them,
>
> 5.  version 4 is not in activities.sugarlabs.org, and the git history
> does not say where it came from, who made the change, or why,
>
> 6.  compiled python files have been added; those .pyc files should be
> avoided as they were not in the bundles, are not source code, are not
> necessary, and cause difficulty for maintainers,
>
> 7.  if the activity is being maintained, the MANIFEST file is
> deprecated, and should have been removed,
>
> 8.  if the activity is being maintained, the activity should have been
> ported to GTK+ 3.
>
> All the above changes can be made without deleting and recreating the
> repository; rewrite the history and "git push" with the --force option.
>
>
> --
>
> My thoughts on the discussion;
>
> a.  we already have the bundles, and putting them in git adds no
> significant value,
>
> b.  bundles may not contain all source code; such as files used to
> make the source files or imagery in the bundle,
>
> c.  our normal practice is to create bundles from a git clone, so to
> do the reverse is arse-about-face and triggers a disgust response,
> which one has to continually suppress; doable, but an extra hurdle,
>
> d.  doing it arse-about-face also confuses new developers, and makes
> the project as a whole look rather unusual to experienced developers,
>
> e.  we should strive for code quality and maintenance in the project
> as a whole, and adding non-working code without any maintenance goes
> against that.
>
> What we need is activity maintainers.  What is stopping you from
> joining in to do that?  Can the rest of us help you over those
> hurdles?
>