Calling for Software Developers, do you know any??? Everyone please read...

[colinjones]

Software Developers are geeks!

Geeks like gadgets

LMCE is the ultimate gadget...

Then why, from this simple sylogism, do we not have a plethora of development resources on this project?

Problem: the LMCE development team is tiny, and this is now seriously hamstringing the progress of LMCE in bug fixes, releases, new features, etc.

However, there are many hundreds of non-developers active regularly on these forums....

Request: I would like everyone to have a good long think about everyone they know personally (friends, family and acquaintances) and professionally (colleagues, associates, historical and current), and try to come up with at least 5 developers you can think of that you could personally spend some time introducing them to LMCE and generally being a LMCE "evangelist". The objective is to get them interested at a personal level in LMCE for their own use, but also to try to entice them into thinking of it as a potential personal project they could contribute to.

Another approach is to post here suggestions of organisations, groups, teams, projects and contacts that might provide an angle for us to approach, and getting people we don't yet know involved in the project. For instance, someone has suggested the Google Summer of Code annual project. We need to access sources of FOSS programmers and encourage/entice... our most serious problem is exposure....

Come on guys, lets get innovative, find ways to network and hook into others that could help us out!!

Either way, please post here - how many people you thought of and whether you have approached them yet; any suggested entities/approaches to get introductions to other developers we do not yet have contact with; and other innovative ideas for raising the exposure of LMCE in a way that is likely to find new sources of development skill.

Remember the objectives of all these points are not to find new users, but to find new development resources.... if we were to lock down only 5 new pairs of hands, after the learning curve, in 3-6 months we will have at least doubled our development capacity.

This is a task for YOU, not the developers!! GO GO GO!

[dlewis]

I plan to look into the GSoC and Season of Usability for next year.

[chipppy]

What about teaching some of use newbies that have no idea how to develop stuff.

I am 1 example.  I have the will but not the knowledge.  I know what an IDE is but tats as far as my programming skills go.  I am slowly learning though.

Are people like me of any use?
Can people like me help move things along??

Cheers
chipppy

[Techstyle]

What about teaching some of use newbies that have no idea how to develop stuff.

I am 1 example.  I have the will but not the knowledge.  I know what an IDE is but tats as far as my programming skills go.  I am slowly learning though.

Are people like me of any use?
Can people like me help move things along??

Cheers
chipppy

I second that, not so much the teaching part but a 'how to start developing' on the Wiki may be good.  I know there is a 'programming guide' but that assumes a certain level of knowledge.  The page I am talking about may be as simple as - go get these books and read them.  Hopefully it includes a section of code with explainations of what is doing what.

Personally, I have tried some scripting (http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7636.0) but struggled a little.  Some pointers would be great.

Thanks,
Techstyle

[dlewis]

I've asked tschak999 to provide guidance... He's thinking about the best approach before posting. Have you seen this: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Developers_Guide ? It gives much more details than the 'programming guide'.

[Techstyle]

I have looked at both, the programmers guide sites the developers guide as a better place to start.

I look forward to Thom's guide.

Thinking about this more, I am sure there are areas that are easier than others and it may be good to start the beginners (like me) on things like device templates and basic scripts (if these are a good starting point?) which will give the community the best return on developers investment (trainning literature time).  just a thought

Techstyle

[tschak909]

I agree.

-Thom

[dlewis]

yes, device templates are a good place to start. You can use the protocol documents for said device you want to create the template for as a guide on how the template should be created.

[patmankn]

I second the idea with the templates. Since tschaak came up with the video about how to use the Designer, more and more guys came up with ideas, PoCs etc. even whole implementation. I get some kind of frustrated when i do a whole reinstall with my specific hardware. e.g. DVB-T-USB-Sticks, my DVB-T PCI card. As far as i know, everything could be handled via templates, that communicate with the DCE. The templates can download stuff, make/compile, install new code all this... AS it is mention some time "guys, create templates for your stuff, for the sake of the community", i guess some of us would take a shot to support even more hardware as most of us have specific at their home. Am i asking for "Create-LMCE-Templates/Packages-for-Dummies"?... i guess i DO! ;O)

[ramonh]

I could imagine that schools or universities could be a good place to find help. Maybe as some sort of project that students could participate. They could program new functions as a semester work or something like this?

[dlewis]

I could imagine that schools or universities could be a good place to find help. Maybe as some sort of project that students could participate. They could program new functions as a semester work or something like this?

I would bet there are a few students on this forum...

[ramonh]

For sure. But if they'd program anything they probably do it in their free time.

Maybe there are universities that would create projects that count for their studies?

[dlewis]

For sure. But if they'd program anything they probably do it in their free time.

Maybe there are universities that would create projects that count for their studies?

Do you want to look into this?

[ramonh]

I want to, but I can't at the moment.
Until September I have absolutely no time and I have no clue, what have to be done in LinuxMCE.
But I could give you the address from ETH in Switzerland. I'm studying electrotechnics there and there are also lots of informatics students.

[dlewis]

Does anyone on the list (preferably in Europe) want to take on this task?