SàT progress note 2019-W27

goffi 5 years ago jabber-xmpp-en SàT project libre SàT progress

Hello,

this week note will be short, first because I've mainly fixed bugs, second because I've pain in my wrist and it's not comfortable to write.

The most visible part of this week work is the addition of some installation instructions on the front page of https://salut-a-toi.org, which render like this:

capture of installation icons from https://salut-a-toi.org

(this is a screenshot, this image is not clickage, check https://salut-a-toi.org to see the real clickable version)

Thanks to the work explained in previous notes, we're getting closer to an easy installation in a few clicks. We're not exactly there yet though, as Flatpak still needs to be installed in most distributions (I think, I don't know exactly where it's installed by default), Libervia (web frontend) is not installed this way (but I'll update the Docker image at some point which is also easy to install/run), and there are maybe other tweaks to do (for instance on Android you must activate the installation from external sources). Please note than when SàT is available natively in the distribution, it's the recommended way to install it.

Also the many ways to install + different frontends/versions (and I've not put yet Libervia + packages for others platforms like Windows or Mac OS) may be confusing. Maybe a platform detection could help to highlight the most probable package in the future.

Another thing which can cause trouble with SàT specific architecture is the backend: for Flatpak I've made a wrapper to launch it automatically if it's not already, otherwise the running backend is used. It works but there is a risk of troubles when the package will be updated and the running backend version may be older than the expected one. I'll have to modify the backend to check that at some point (probably in 0.8).

An other necessary improvement for 0.8 will be the login screen: for now it's really confusing for somebody not used to XMPP (you have to create a profile with a jid and a password, then click on it, then you land to widget selector). I have several ideas on how to change that, but I'll work on it only after release and python 3 port.

That's all for this week note, as I've said in the first paragraph I've mainly done debugging which is not really interesting to explain here. I'm a bit annoyed to lack the time to do more, as I've put aside some external things that I need to finish: I have 2 XEPs to update, and a pull request for Twisted that I've opened months ago and I need to update too. I haven't had much time either to follow standard mailing list, which is a pity because some really interesting things are happening there like the long awaited full stanza encryption.

I hope to be able to fix enough bugs in the incoming week to finally release the 0.7, I'm looking forward for it, and I'm sorry that the release will happen during the summer when many people will be on holidays (well I'm happy for people being on holidays, it's just that it's not the best time to have the release being noticed).

E

edhelas 5 years ago