[Bf-committers] Meeting notes sun may 18

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi All,

Sunday may 18, 16-18h CEST
irc.freenode.net, #blendercoders

Participants:
apheX, intrr, Michel, LarstiQ, Kattkieru, sgefant, desaster, guignot,  
Hos, Shizu, SirDude, kpanic, esrever, UnNamed

Agenda:

1- review of release / recommendations how to do the next better
2- organisation of translation projects
3- proposal for audio integration with sequencer (intrr)
4- other development issues
5- next release! (yes it tastes so good!)


--------------1- review of release

- attendants agree that 2.27 had too much of a time pressure deadline
- main aspect was underestimating the amount of work to finish the  
translation project, especially for installation & release topics.
- recommendation: more people should feel free to work at bf-blender  
directly
- recommendation: make intermediate test releases
- recommendation: we need more docs, functional descriptions

We discussed ways to formalize new development better, especially to  
avoid it all happens in the last week without having thought of all  
consequences. A quite standard checklist could be used to document new  
features, like:

1. functional description (user manual level)
2. technical design (at coder level, incl. new dependencies)
3. test issues (how to test for fitness, demo files)
4. release and install issues
5. future maintenance

With of course the remark that it should remain *fun* to work at  
blender code! Not each new coding project requires such elaborate  
administration.
LarstiQ promised to make a proposal, and post that here later. The doc  
will both cover how new functionality will be organized, as a scenario  
for release organisation.

Another discussion arose about how the decision process on new features  
should happen.  This could be by establishing a 'functionality' board  
(with diehard blender users) and/or by appointing by default a 'buddy'  
for each coder who does a larger coding project. The buddy then can be  
a blender user, or another coder, dependent at the work done.

The simplest construction that could work then:
- put a proposal at the maillist for you what to do (like the previous  
5 steps)
- find yourself at least one buddy who supports it and helps you
- get consensis from the others at the maillist, with a bf-blender  
admin acting as someone who can give an official 'go'.

- release managers!
We still need an active IRIX developer, someone with 3d and opengl  
coding experience.
New Linux intel manager Michel applied
New Windows MSVC 7 manager: jesterKing (Nathan Letwory)
New Windows Cygwin manager: apheX

-------------2- organisation of translation projects

This is the proposal for how we'll organize:

- 1 single Gforge project, with read/write access to cvs for all  
translators.
- 1 central maillist (in english) for general messages (like releases  
and for support).
- 1 central translators forum at www.blender.org (english as well)
- within the gforge project then as many local-language web forums can  
be created as needed.

We also will provide:

- a basic template, to be used from scratch
- docs about how the process works technically
- an easy system to upgrade translations for new releases: we think of  
supplying the translators 2 weeks before a new release a file with all  
changes, which then can be added to the official translation files.

LarstiQ/Phase and I will work on this. I've also volunteered to  
coordinate the whole project, but luckily an experienced person applied  
saturday for it. Still discussing that with him though...

---------- 3. proposal for audio integration with sequencer (intrr)

inttrr expanded the sequencer and 3d anim playback with audio support  
(SDL). It is currently being tested at Linux, and apart from an endian  
issue it can be compiled for other systems now as well.
The sources are here:
http://intrr.org/instinctive-blender.tar.bz2

According to intrr the OpenAL library can reside next to SDL. But SDL  
seems to be much better supported among platforms. Library size is  
about 300k, and can be included with Blender (binary) releases.

intrr now works on finalizing the docs, and will put a proposal for a  
formal review at the maillist. Target is to have it included in the  
2.28 release.

Esrever volunteerded to make the MSVC files for it.

-----------4. development issues

Python:
- we have to think of a method to secure Python scripts. The various  
scenarios for it are still under evaluation.
- the modules 'Object' and "Mesh" are being completed. These are the  
last most complex modules. After that the team will schedule the actual  
replacement in the code.
- new discussion group already has over 30 subscribers
- there's still need for people helping with the end-user docs. Ton  
will mail the docboard for help.

Installation procedure
- all blender help files will move to @HOME/.blender in the next  
release.
- double-clicking a .blend file in windows and osx gives an error  
(.Blanguages not found). Has to be solved... the platform managers look  
at this.
- for windows, the usage of Registries will be evaluated. apheX  
coordinates.

Slow drawing speed new fonts
- the opengl calls in FTGL seem to be not working fast in all OS's.
- not everyone is happy with the new antialiased fonts... the choice  
for the old fonts should remain in Blender
- according to Phase, the code used in FTGL is minimal, and can be  
easily replaced with Blender code. Who likes to do this? If nobody  
picks it up, Ton will look into it.

--------------5 next release

Everyone likes to put down a functional target first, schedule these,  
and then find out when the release can happen.
Agreement is on these features:
- new audio system (intrr)
- python new api

Autoconf could be also a target, but it's not really interesting to  
couple that to a binary release!

Cessens new render code is target candidate, but this should be  
documented and approved on first. Where is cessen!?

We also should fix all of the bugs! Next meeting is an OSX special, so  
the meeting after we can do another bugfest.

On a general remark: I am usually every day (euro daytime) in this IRC  
channel, for questions or help you're welcome to drop in.

Thanks!

-Ton-


------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton@blender.org