Streamline development effort : Backlog capture and planning

[hiran]

I'd like to suggest we capture work that needs to be done such that we do not forget and everybody can see what is pending. Hopefully that would encourage more people to actively contribute.

Github already has a ticket system that seems to be looked at sporadically only but which at the same time can do more than that.

Github Issues can be organized into tables or views through use of Github Projects.
https://docs.github.com/en/issues/plann ... t-projects

Any other ideas or objections?

[mcarans]

I can give brain dump of some ideas I have in mind not necessarily in this order and not necessarily feasible (at least from point 5 onwards):

1. Currently, I'm working on removing all downloading from happening during builds, so that once you have run the initial setup steps, you could do a build without requiring anything else to be pulled over the network. This was initially in response to another_commander's concerns about the downloading of pdfs during NSIS generation but I realised that it could be considered as a broader design philosophy. I am moving away from downloading things like linuxdeploy during builds instead installing them up in the initial setup stages. It also requires making things optional like some might not need to build the documentation so don't need to have LibreOffice or some might not care about building flatpak etc.

2. Switch Linux Clang build to be like Windows and use lld (a trivial change now I've rebuilt the JavaScript library on Linux on Ubuntu 22)

3. AnyLinux AppImage possibly built with the Flatpak builder (but separately from the Flatpak itself as requirements would probably be very different) enabling the use of the exact same library versions in both. EDIT: this has been done using Arch AUR: viewtopic.php?p=304680#p304680

4. Build with Meson (which has GNUstep support) or CMake (which I already got working before on Linux) and pass the Oolite version from Git rather than hardcoding them.

5. Update to SDL3

6. Update from OpenGL to Vulkan

7. Update JavaScript

8. HDR on Linux

9. Get build working again on Mac

[Cholmondely]

8. Get build working again on Mac

Do you have a Mac?

[mcarans]

8. Get build working again on Mac

Do you have a Mac?

I have a PC but I bought my son a Mac for school to replace his 10 year old former laptop of mine so maybe one day I can requisition the Mac

I've never done any Mac development, but then I'd not done any Objective-C or MinGW development and my last C++ development had been a couple of decades ago. Let's see how far I can get with those other massive challenges which need to be overcome before attempting to create a Mac version.

[hiran]

Three replies. None of them relate to my initial post.
Maybe I should take that as an answer.

[mcarans]

Three replies. None of them relate to my initial post.
Maybe I should take that as an answer.

Happy for you to set up GitHub Projects. It is not something I have time to look into given the long list in the backlog I already shared, but I would add my items to the project once you set it up if you wish to do so. I can't speak for other devs of course.

[hiran]

Three replies. None of them relate to my initial post.
Maybe I should take that as an answer.

Happy for you to set up GitHub Projects. It is not something I have time to look into given the long list in the backlog I already shared, but I would add my items to the project once you set it up if you wish to do so. I can't speak for other devs of course.

Actually we are not even dependent on Projects. All we need to do is log our ideas for changes as Github Issues.
Projects allows us to get organized on the issues, but that's it. To get going on projects we need more privileges on the repository. Who can give us that?

And I am also wondering whether it is just the two of us who would be active.

[Cholmondely]

And I am also wondering whether it is just the two of us who would be active.

Hiran... I'm very impressed with your relentless optimism that there is anybody else on the surface of our planet who understands any of this!!

[hiran]

And I am also wondering whether it is just the two of us who would be active.

Hiran... I'm very impressed with your relentless optimism that there is anybody else on the surface of our planet who understands any of this!!

Vice versa: When I was more pessimistic it was you who brought me back again. Remember?

[Cholmondely]

brought me back again...

I have to say that your OXZ database has proved invaluable to my wiki work.

Having read so many dozens of posts on this forum wishing for multi-player Oolite, I also have to say that I'm astounded that your  Nexus project never got much attention.

[hiran]

I have to say that your OXZ database has proved invaluable to my wiki work.

Having read so many dozens of posts on this forum wishing for multi-player Oolite, I also have to say that I'm astounded that your  Nexus project never got much attention.

Thank you.

I guess it is all bad timing. Those wishing for muliplayer will have moved to games that offer multiplayer. Now with modern and easy to distribute formats this might change a bit - but not too much I guess.