Code Documentation

[DricuS]

First of all, I'd like to compliment the developers with the work sofar! I think the new skin engine is a big improvement over the old one from a users standpoint, just because it 'feels' like it's performing a lot better.

A simple suggestion concerning the configuration menu's inside the MP-II GUI:
Just create 1 setting in the external configuration application which allows you to enable/disable configuration inside the MP-II GUI. This would take away the need to manually remove all configuration options from all menu's.

Another issue about the code:
I'm a developer with quite a bit of experience (10 years+). Still, with MP-I I found it quite hard to understand the source code, not just because of the huge amount of it, but also because it's not very well documented and because I couldn't find something like a design. I'd very much like to participate in developing MP, but the lack of documentation for me was the reason not to.
I hoped that that would change with MP-II. However, when browsing through the code I got the impression that this didn't improve.
So a suggestion to encourage new developers to participate in development:
It would be very nice to have some sort of a design document which describes the architecture of MP. I'm not expecting extensive UML models with use-cases, class-diagrams, sequence-diagrams, etc, but a high-level description of the component architecture of MP would be very helpful to get an initial overview of how MP is designed.

Keep up the good work!

Dirk

[edit]
PS: If I can help setting up this kind of documentation, I'd be glad to, although I would need some expert help me understand MP's design .
[/edit]

[James]

Hi Dirk,

I'm glad you want to help. We were hoping that the new code would encourage more developers to help. I think the old code base put many off.

We have started some documentation, but it is not finished

It would have been nice to release everything at the same time and to have things a little bit more advanced, but Christmas was coming and we wanted to move out from our secret development mode.

/James

[miz]

Hello,

I must agree with DricuS.
As an experienced developer (must be ~15 years now...) I would also like to help in developing Media Portal. What kept me off was that there isn't a description of the concepts or architecture so that it is nearly impossible to get to know the software.
The second thing is, that the project pages are packed full of information, but it hard to actually find the useful stuff(which would be the concept and architecture description ;-)
To really start with helping, it would also be nice to have an overview about the current contributers and their respective roles: Who do I have to talk to if I want to do a specific thing in the project? The project planning site is a good start, but unfortuanately, the tasks are not described in detail, and are not assigned to anyone.. where to start...?

So for a start, I think it would be very helpful to separate the Media Portal and MPII pages, so that one knows what is relevant for which version. As a second step, it would be great to have a rough concept description, and a description of what features should be in the first release version. A use case diagram would be really helpful... and someone who feels responsible for these features and can take decisions

Maybe this seems very bureaucratic, but I really think this would help 'outsiders' to get into development of the project and develop the things that are really needed.

Ok, so much for (hopefully positive) critizism. So if I can help you (e.g. with helping you setting up the concept or architecture documentation), please contact me (e.g. send me a private message..).

I would really like to contribute to such a cool project!
Regards,
Michael

[THDBASED]

Originally Posted by miz

Hello,

I must agree with DricuS.
As an experienced developer (must be ~15 years now...) I would also like to help in developing Media Portal. What kept me off was that there isn't a description of the concepts or architecture so that it is nearly impossible to get to know the software.
The second thing is, that the project pages are packed full of information, but it hard to actually find the useful stuff(which would be the concept and architecture description ;-)
To really start with helping, it would also be nice to have an overview about the current contributers and their respective roles: Who do I have to talk to if I want to do a specific thing in the project? The project planning site is a good start, but unfortuanately, the tasks are not described in detail, and are not assigned to anyone.. where to start...?

So for a start, I think it would be very helpful to separate the Media Portal and MPII pages, so that one knows what is relevant for which version. As a second step, it would be great to have a rough concept description, and a description of what features should be in the first release version. A use case diagram would be really helpful... and someone who feels responsible for these features and can take decisions

Maybe this seems very bureaucratic, but I really think this would help 'outsiders' to get into development of the project and develop the things that are really needed.

Ok, so much for (hopefully positive) critizism. So if I can help you (e.g. with helping you setting up the concept or architecture documentation), please contact me (e.g. send me a private message..).

I would really like to contribute to such a cool project!
Regards,
Michael

Couldn't agree more...

[dvdfreak]

I'm currently on vacation, but I noticed an MP-II alpha and its source were release, very exciting!

I too am hoping there's a solid basis this time around, perhaps some one or more of the core developers could give a quick design overview here? As DricuS said, no need for extensive UML diagrams, but just a basic overview of the architecture?

I look forward to checking this out when I get back, and hope to be looking forward to writing my own plugin soon

[dvdfreak]

Hmmm... None of the core devs have five minutes to outline the architecture?

[James]

Sorry, it is being worked on. I just takes a little more than 5 minutes

We hope to have something ready soon.

[eagle]

@James

please announce the release of the documentation on team-mediaportal.com because I do not read everyday the forum and I think more people who are interesseted in the documentation do so

Thanks in advance

eagle

[James]

I have updated the wiki with the first Documentation for MediaPortal II

The documentation is in the MediaPortal Development Section -> http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/MediaPortalDevelopment

Direct links:

Architecture overview -> http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/Med...cture/Overview
Compiling -> http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/Med...tal2/Compiling
Debugging -> http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/Med...tal2/Debugging

@eagle, The full documentation will most likely not be finised until the next release and can be announced then. You can follow the developed in the Project Management System if that is easier for you. There is now a Task for documentation.

[eagle]

Originally Posted by James

The full documentation will most likely not be finised until the next release and can be announced then. You can follow the developed in the Project Management System if that is easier for you. There is now a Task for documentation.

Thanks for the information, James

eagle