Why mess with the Home menu ? (1 Viewer)

[mcraenz]

I think it would be helpful if there was more visibility's of the project. Ideally a project manger. How about this for an idea if there was a list of tasks that needed to be done and I go and pick one up and say "hey I can do that!" I essentially assign it to myself and commit to completing [in a set amount of time]. A bit like the bug tracking system Hey why not us mantis. I dunno maybe it's just more of an overhead? I guess sometimes it's hard to know where to start. I'd feel more enthusiastic about helping if I could work my way though set list of tasks which have been set by someone[people] who has real overall visibility of the project and its' direction. And I guess I'm really talking about about non dev stuff since there is already a bug tracking system.

 

[infinite.loop]

if there was a list of tasks that needed to be done and I go and pick one up and say "hey I can do that!"

like ::mantis:: ?
that would be for the developers.

users which are interested in testing just have to..... use MediaPortal and report issues
users who want to improve the wiki/manual, just have to register in the wiki and start writing

 

[grubi]

If allowed I want to participate in the interresting discussion by posting a few questions.

Is there a roadmap for the project where it is determined what is planned for which milestone?
I'm wondering that there is no feature freeze for 0.2.3 as we are at rc1 state already. For the
projects I'm involved this would be quite usual. IMHO I would focus to get the whole thing stable
and smooth, as for feature richness and customizability I really don't know anything which comes
quite close to MP at all.

Just my 2 cents.

grubi.

 

[THDBASED]

I think it would be helpful if there was more visibility's of the project. Ideally a project manger. How about this for an idea if there was a list of tasks that needed to be done and I go and pick one up and say "hey I can do that!" I essentially assign it to myself and commit to completing [in a set amount of time]. A bit like the bug tracking system Hey why not us mantis. I dunno maybe it's just more of an overhead? I guess sometimes it's hard to know where to start. I'd feel more enthusiastic about helping if I could work my way though set list of tasks which have been set by someone[people] who has real overall visibility of the project and its' direction. And I guess I'm really talking about about non dev stuff since there is already a bug tracking system.

I was having the same thoughts the other day. A system where all the parts of MP are explained, which dev is working on the part (with contact info) and some up to date info on what the dev is doing or going to do on the part he is working on. The thing is that new members that are not really familiar with the project have no clue who is doing what or what is being worked on. This way people can step in pick a thing to work on, post some info about what there are doing that day or at a particular moment.

And it doesn't have to be anything fancy just some basic stuff...

 

[mattyd]

I was having the same thoughts the other day. A system where all the parts of MP are explained, which dev is working on the part (with contact info) and some up to date info on what the dev is doing or going to do on the part he is working on. The thing is that new members that are not really familiar with the project have no clue who is doing what or what is being worked on. This way people can step in pick a thing to work on, post some info about what there are doing that day or at a particular moment.

And it doesn't have to be anything fancy just some basic stuff...

I Agree, i constantly find myself checking the SVN's to see whats happening but i would like to know what the overall direction and status is.

regards
Matt

 

[infinite.loop]

I Agree, i constantly find myself checking the SVN's to see whats happening but i would like to know what the overall direction and status is.

There is no "feature specific roadmap", simply because MediaPortal allready has the most importand and not so importand features.

So the basic "roadmap" is always the same.

• make it running smoother
• make it running more stable
• improve usablility (see redesign of MyTV-GUI i.e.)
• check improvement suggestions from the users and designers to find out what "is needed"

Those who want to help the developers to take some load from their shoulders, could look at the forums (like we do) and try to implement some of the improvement suggestions or fix one of the reported bugs.
which can then be added as patch on sourceforge.

If someone shows efforts and "nice, clean code", he will surely get an invite into the Dev Team.

 

[mattyd]

hmm, id like to do some development and i am pretty competent with C++,C# and DirectX as its my day job.
I'll take a look at possibly getting involved sometime soon but in the meantime can i make a constructive comment
regarding donations ?

From a users point of view if i knew my donated $$$ was going to a specific feature or request and there was a plan from MP devs to implement it and there was some transparency then id feel better about giving $$$.

Id like to open a discussion on this if possible.

ie: Some users have requested feature X or want MP to work with card X. For that to happen we need $X to get
card X to test or whatever. Anyone interested in advancing this feature to near the top of list of things to do by donating $$$ ?

I dont know much about how the donation thing works with open source.
All i know is there's a request for $$$ to make stuff happen and surely people are hesitant when they dont know
where their $$$ really go.

Any thoughts anyone ?

regards
Matt

 

[infinite.loop]

hmm, id like to do some development and i am pretty competent with C++,C# and DirectX as its my day job.

that would we realy great

From a users point of view if i knew my donated $$$ was going to a specific feature or request and there was a plan from MP devs to implement it and there was some transparency then id feel better about giving $$$..

paying for specific features is not how opensource should work imo.
Think about what you allready get for free. thats what should be donated for, not to get featureXY.

i am sure that the mood would drop instandly if we would do that i.e. "why do i have to pay for that?"

but we could list the rought lineup of monthly costs (i.e. the Webservers), so you see whats spend every months.

 

[mattyd]

Ok, made a donation, small but a donation, none-the-less.

regards
Matt

 

[deebo]

google summer of code

'nuff said

i myself have contributed some and tried to contribute more

i make a living on java and c# is similiar, but the free tools for c# are nowhere near the quality of the free java products and this kinda pushes me off, this is especially noticeable since the documentation is lacking and its hard to get around the code when the free c# ides and tools seem to miss simple things like call traces etc

i get on a roll when programming and when im stuck id like to find info asap or ill loose interest pretty fast

its much to ask but some time spent on documentation would help alot

(not a whine as such, i know its a non profit product, and its done on free time)