Unity Contributor Report for 14 June

By jcastro | Published: 2011-06-14

Unity Updates

Alright, welcome to another dose of Unity contributor news. We’ve got a bunch of new rockstars since the last status report from 11.04, so let’s do a little catch up to what’s been going on:

  • Daniel van Vugt has fixed Bug #773946 – “Launcher missing Eject/Remove/Unmount options for eSATA drives”, Bug #783813 – “Fix duplicate names for Unity MT Grab Handles”,
  • Marius Gedminas has fixed a nice multi monitor bug, #778256 – “Notification area (‘system tray’) missing when using dual monitors of different sizes, with their bottoms aligned”
  • Manuel Nicetto’s fixed another annoying bug, making the launcher avoid focus switching when opening quicklists: Bug #750781 – “Opening quicklist with launcher keynav returns focus to previous window”
  • Jeremy Bicha, famous for his GNOME3 integration work brings in a quick fix to whitelist system-config printer in the whitelist, Bug #771562.
  • Nico van der Walt fixed it so the combo box resizes in the Dash when you change the font (no bug # listed) and Bug #759886 – “indicator font does not update when changing font in Appearance Preferences.”
  • Cameron Heart fixed Bug #750349 – “Clicking on a app icon to spread the windows must always show all the windows, regardless of whether or not some of the windows are minimised”

And that’s just the new people, here’s some more hot action from now-familiar names:

  • Marco Biscaro’s added an option to adjust the automaximize value, Bug #754214, and Made sure the ubuntu home button obey’s your panel opacity (hey, it’s the little things) – Bug #767733, and was the one that added the look to make the home button look depressed when you actually push it as well as 754095 fixing the mail shortcut in the Dash.
  • Oliver Sauder ‘s fixed an annoying one, Bug #746382 – “Make the application-name in the panel obey the system-wide set font”
  • And lastly, Andrea Azzarone has been on fire since UDS, here’s the list from the Italian Stallion:
    • Bug #735031 – “If you pull down the application panel, the context menu pop up”
    • Bug #677594 – “Workspace switcher useless with one workspace”
    • Bug #687956 – “should display the launcher tooltips after a delay”
    • Bug #750778 – “Menu key should open quicklist for the selected item in the launcher.”
    • Bug #722178 – “window’s title does not fade in the right position”
    • Bug #718185 – “Keep launcher hidden when modal dialog is opened”

The Big List

Here’s a list of targetted bugs that the design team has picked out as a result of user testing and feedback that would make Unity nicer to use. Here’s the full list if you want to dig in.

  • 676453 Launcher – Add ‘installing’ animation for when app is installed via drag & drop
  • 767075 Launcher – when the user reveals the Launcher by moving the pointer to the left side of the screen, the Launcher should unfold at exactly the point entered
  • 616866 Installation of apps by dragging them to the launcher
  • 750375 Dash – Cursor navigation allows the user to keep scrolling down indefinitely
  • 723866 Dash file Lens – Rename “Favourite Folders” category header to “Folders”
  • 765715 Launcher – When a app icon de-couples from the Launcher a small shadow should appear on the bottom and right sides of the icon
  • 767272 Top bar menus – there should be a very quick and subtle fade out/in effect when a user shifts from one menu to another or closes a menu

How to Get Involved

1. Get the Code

Follow the Step by Step Instructions and Wiki Page. This will get the code from Launchpad, set up your development environment, and getting you used to the Launchpad workflow.

2. Pick a Bug

Here’s the full list, or you can just join the team and watch them roll in and pick what you’d like.

3. Fix your bug and then get your code into Unity

Don’t worry we won’t leave you hanging, you can get a-hold of a Unity developer through many different ways:

  • Join the ~unity-community-hackers team and start digging in.
  • We now have a Weekly Meeting at 000UTC on #ayatana on Freenode IRC if you feel like hanging with us and getting organized and ask questions
  • #ayatana on freenode IRC during European and American workdays. Or you can post to the mailing list if you have a question.
  • We also have weekly IRC Q+A for any developer who wants to dive in and ask a Unity developer. 7pm-8pm UTC (That’s 2pm EST) every Friday!

Help Testing Translations in the New Natty Language Packs

By David Planella | Published: 2011-06-14

Forwarding the call for language pack testing from the original announcement by Kenneth Nielsen on the Ubuntu Translators mailing list

Remember that you don’t have to be a translator to test language packs. It’s really easy, and by contributing to testing, you’ll help delivering new translations to thousands of users in your language!

Here’s how:

  1. Enable the Natty proposed updates repository
  2. Follow the instructions for testing near the bottom of the language pack updates page
  3. Leave the feedback of your testing in the table near the top of the language pack updates page

Call for testing

Hi translators,

After a small delay the next set of language packs for Ubuntu 11.04
“Natty Narwhal” are now ready.

PLEASE NOTE !!!
There has been a change in how Firefox handles its localization, so
please take extra care to test that the localization of Firefox works
as well as it did before.
PLEASE NOTE !!!

We’ve uploaded the language packs and the new Firefox packages to the
natty-proposed repository for you to test before they are released to
all users. These should contain all your updates and fixes in
translations done since the release date.

I’d like to ask teams to test them and provide an indication that
they’ve done so by following some simple steps and submitting a
signoff, so that we know that translations have been successfully
tested.

Simply follow the instructions in this page and add your team’s
signoff in the appropriate table:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/LanguagePackUpdatesQA

The deadline for the testing is the 15th of June (in a week’s time).
After that, we’ll update the language packs we’ve received feedback
for into natty-updates, so that all users can benefit from the new
translations and fixes.

Remember that you’ll have to to enable the natty-proposed repository
to get these updates:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed

Notes
—–

Remember that now you can subscribe to the iCal feed to stay up to
date with language pack updates and better coordinate your work:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Translations/NattyLanguagePackReleaseSchedule

REMEMBER to test the Firefox localization thoroughly.

Thank you for your help in testing translations for all users in your language!

Regards,
Kenneth.

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 220

By nhandler | Published: 2011-06-13

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is Issue #220 for the week of June 6 – June 13, 2011, and the full version is available here.

In this issue we cover:

The issue of The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Nathan Handler
  • Elizabeth Krumbach
  • Liraz Siri
  • Robert Wall
  • Mike Holstein
  • Nigel Babu
  • Jens Leineweber
  • And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, content in this issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License BY SA Creative Commons License

Unity Community Contributor plans for 11.10

By jcastro | Published: 2011-06-07

For 11.04 we made an effort to make Unity easy to contribute to so that anyone who wanted to participate could help out and help drive the development of Unity forward.

During UDS in Budapest, Hungary, we had a session on how we’re going to improve this program. As luck would have it this was a video’ed session, and what you’ll read in this post is a result of that session and some other feedback from people.

The first adjustment we’re going to make is add what we’re calling “backlog” bugs. These are bugs that the design team has completed, are approved, but just need to be implemented. What’s great about these bugs is that they’re (mostly) design improvements made as a result of user testing or little bits of design that directly improve using Unity, basically, it’s a hit list of things that we can do early in the cycle that would really help the overall Unity experience.

So what do these bugs look like? Here’s the full list, and here’s a sampling of what this sort of bug looks like.

  • 676453 Launcher – Add ‘installing’ animation for when app is installed via drag & drop
  • 767075 Launcher – when the user reveals the Launcher by moving the pointer to the left side of the screen, the Launcher should unfold at exactly the point entered
  • 616866 Installation of apps by dragging them to the launcher
  • 750375 Dash – Cursor navigation allows the user to keep scrolling down indefinitely
  • 723866 Dash file Lens – Rename “Favourite Folders” category header to “Folders”
  • 765715 Launcher – When a app icon de-couples from the Launcher a small shadow should appear on the bottom and right sides of the icon
  • 767272 Top bar menus – there should be a very quick and subtle fade out/in effect when a user shifts from one menu to another or closes a menu

These bugs are a bit more than bitesized, in fact, we’ve started a team, ~unity-community-hackers for people who want to step up from bitesize bugs and tackle larger feature implementations. The team is open and gets assigned bugs that you can work on.

Don’t worry, we still have Bitesize bugs, however at this point in the cycle we’re going to concentrate on feature development, you’ll see me ramp up bitesize bugs as we move out of the Alpha stage. When I return next week we’ll get started on the new contributors that have joined in and do a weekly play-by-play of Unity development!

How to Get Involved

1. Get the Code

Follow the Step by Step Instructions and Wiki Page. This will get the code from Launchpad, set up your development environment, and getting you used to the Launchpad workflow.

2. Pick a Bug

Here’s the full list, or you can just join the team and watch them roll in and pick what you’d like.

3. Fix your bug and then get your code into Unity

Don’t worry we won’t leave you hanging, you can get a-hold of a Unity developer through many different ways:

  • #ayatana on freenode IRC during European and American workdays. Or you can post to the mailing list if you have a question.
  • We also have weekly IRC Q+A for any developer who wants to dive in and ask a Unity developer. 7pm-8pm UTC (That’s 2pm EST) every Friday!

 

Cool Projects That Need Your Help

By pleia2 | Published: 2011-06-03

I just wanted to highlight a few awesome projects going on that are looking for help and could provide a rocking place to get involved for coders, testers, translators, docs writers and more. Of course there are many other projects that need help, but I just wanted to highlight these few near and dear to me.

Lernid

The result of Jono writing code, and then someone else re-writing it so it actually works.

Lernid is a tool I wrote a while to provide a simple, integrated interface for joining our many different online events. In it it supports presentation slides, viewing web pages, tuition event schedules and more.

John S. Gruber is now maintaining Lernid, and his focus is on stability and getting the bug list in shape and bugs fixed. Again, this is a Python application, and if you are a Python developer, I am sure John would value the help. See the Launchpad Project, grab the code and rock on it. Be sure to join #lernid on freenode.

Ubuntu Tweak


Tweak ’till Hammersmith.

As I have blogged about recently, the author of Ubuntu Tweak has been keen to join the recently formed Ubuntu Power Users community and has identified the follow key areas of focus for the new 0.6 series of releases for the app:

  • Safety – building in support to backup and undo changes so users can easily roll back config settings if they don’t work for them.
  • Pluggability – support installing and loading plug-ins from $HOME/.local/ubuntu-tweak/plugins and separate “Application/Source Center” as a plug-in (Install from PPA, package name: ubuntu-tweak-community-plugins) – this will tend to the current concerns about installing untrusted PPAs inside the app.
  • Janitor – the previous “Package Cleaner” will be renamed to “Janitor”, to instead the “Computer Janitor”, it will support plug-in too.

If you are interested in getting involved and writing some code (in Python), see this guide, If you want to test and report bugs, see this guide. If you are interested in writing plug-ins for Ubuntu Tweak, see this guide.

Ubuntu LoCo Team Portal


Kind of like Second Life, but in the real world.

You know it as loco.ubuntu.com, and I have talked recently about some goals for improving it to better serve the growing LoCo Team community. To summarize the goals:

  • provide a central point in which you can find out about all the incredible work going on in the community.
  • encourage best practice and skills acquisition across different LoCo teams.
  • encourage and inspire teams to participate by seeing the great work and ideas from other teams.

To find out how to get involved, first read this guide. It is also recommended that you join this mailing list and feel free to ask questions in #ubuntu-website on freenode.

There are a number of people actively involved and working on the site, and it is a fun project to be a part of and key piece in helping us to grow and inspire LoCo teams for a growing generation of Ubuntu community members.

Originally posted here by Jono Bacon on Friday June 3rd, 2011.