Oolite Bulletins

Cody wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 2:19 pm

Working here! Can't answer for the expansion manager though.

Works as well - given that it tries to contact oolite.space.

hiran wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 1:38 pm

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 1:24 pm

Is it my imagination, or has Oolite.space now been down for several days?

It is working for me.

Scratching my head. http://www.oolite.space/ fails but http://oolite.space/ is working for me. Is it that Android/Chrome adds the www without me knowing?

hiran wrote: ↑Sun Aug 27, 2023 7:29 pm

hiran wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 1:38 pm

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 1:24 pm

Is it my imagination, or has Oolite.space now been down for several days?

It is working for me.

Scratching my head. http://www.oolite.space/ fails but http://oolite.space/ is working for me. Is it that Android/Chrome adds the www without me knowing?

Thank you Hiran. I never noticed.... (didn't even realise it was possible!)

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Aug 27, 2023 10:16 pm

hiran wrote: ↑Sun Aug 27, 2023 7:29 pm

Scratching my head. http://www.oolite.space/ fails but http://oolite.space/ is working for me. Is it that Android/Chrome adds the www without me knowing?

Thank you Hiran. I never noticed.... (didn't even realise it was possible!)

Meanwhile both domains are up: oolite.space and www.oolite.space, with and without encryption:
http://oolite.space
https://oolite.space
http://www.oolite.space
https://www.oolite.space

hiran wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2023 1:19 pm

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2023 9:40 am

hiran wrote: ↑Mon Aug 14, 2023 11:18 pm

Which again brings us to:
- how do we update our current website?
- how can we release the last three years of development effort?

I get the feeling there is not a single person who can answer these questions. Nobody will do the job for us. So it is us to make a difference.

We should try to find items that need to be looked at. Once we have that, we need to find out who can contribute what. Please be aware: The task is bigger than any of us. But if we collaborate we can club something together. And if it contains bugs or is wrong in some way, then let's fix it and learn.

How does that sound?

While we are in control of the website again, the other topic is still pending.

And the problem is increasing:
Although the developers have little time to invest, the bits they find go into more and more modifications of the nightly build.
But download statistics show it is irrelevant. Users still download the released version.

So how can we benefit from the last three years (and counting) development effort?

hiran wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 4:12 pm

Although the developers have little time to invest, the bits they find go into more and more modifications of the nightly build.
But download statistics show it is irrelevant. Users still download the released version.

So how can we benefit from the last three years (and counting) development effort?

I am not a developer or a programmer of any kind, so my question is naive, but here we go:

Barring any breakage to OXPs in nightly builds above 1.90, what reason would there be not to simply release what exists now as 1.90a or 1.91? Three years seems like a long time to have development ongoing (to any degree, however small) without a public release of any kind.

arquebus wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 3:53 pm

<snip />

I am not a developer or a programmer of any kind, so my question is naive, but here we go:

Barring any breakage to OXPs in nightly builds above 1.90, what reason would there be not to simply release what exists now as 1.90a or 1.91? Three years seems like a long time to have development ongoing (to any degree, however small) without a public release of any kind.

I am a developer just not of Oolite (and not of Objective-C which Oolite is written in) but any software needs to be tested before releasing. So it may be good to go but unless it is properly tested it can't be released without risking breaking things.

Sadly, I don't know what strategy they have for testing (mix of automated and manual I would guess) nor if that is still in place. (Probably not ) Though the 1.x[1/3/5/7/9] odd versions are the unstable releases (and 1.x[0/2/4/6/8] the sable ones) so it maybe we are the manual testers.

I have to note that Enlightenment 17 compositing windows manager for X windows system (*nix) was released in 2014 after a gap of 12 years since the previous version. Hopefully things won't get that bad.

Phantor Gorth.

hiran wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 4:12 pm

So how can we benefit from the last three years (and counting) development effort?

arquebus wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 3:53 pm

I am not a developer or a programmer of any kind, so my question is naive, but here we go:

Barring any breakage to OXPs in nightly builds above 1.90, what reason would there be not to simply release what exists now as 1.90a or 1.91? Three years seems like a long time to have development ongoing (to any degree, however small) without a public release of any kind.

PhantorGorth wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 4:52 pm

I am a developer just not of Oolite (and not of Objective-C which Oolite is written in) but any software needs to be tested before releasing. So it may be good to go but unless it is properly tested it can't be released without risking breaking things.

Sadly, I don't know what strategy they have for testing (mix of automated and manual I would guess) nor if that is still in place. (Probably not ) Though the 1.x[1/3/5/7/9] odd versions are the unstable releases (and 1.x[0/2/4/6/8] the sable ones) so it maybe we are the manual testers.

Good answers, both of you.
Phantor, you nailed it: Developers need some testing and feedback once in a while. Recent proof:
https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=290892#p290892

It does not take developers to do the needful. Even it can be advantageous to look at the same product from different points of view.
Every one of us can contribute in a meaningful way. And testing - well it means to do what we anyway do (play the game) plus feedback our experience, even if it was flawless. That should not be too much effort, should it?

hiran wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 6:16 am

hiran wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 4:12 pm

So how can we benefit from the last three years (and counting) development effort?

arquebus wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 3:53 pm

I am not a developer or a programmer of any kind, so my question is naive, but here we go:

Barring any breakage to OXPs in nightly builds above 1.90, what reason would there be not to simply release what exists now as 1.90a or 1.91? Three years seems like a long time to have development ongoing (to any degree, however small) without a public release of any kind.

PhantorGorth wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 4:52 pm

I am a developer just not of Oolite (and not of Objective-C which Oolite is written in) but any software needs to be tested before releasing. So it may be good to go but unless it is properly tested it can't be released without risking breaking things.

Sadly, I don't know what strategy they have for testing (mix of automated and manual I would guess) nor if that is still in place. (Probably not ) Though the 1.x[1/3/5/7/9] odd versions are the unstable releases (and 1.x[0/2/4/6/8] the sable ones) so it maybe we are the manual testers.

Good answers, both of you.
Phantor, you nailed it: Developers need some testing and feedback once in a while. Recent proof:
https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=290892#p290892

It does not take developers to do the needful. Even it can be advantageous to look at the same product from different points of view.
Every one of us can contribute in a meaningful way. And testing - well it means to do what we anyway do (play the game) plus feedback our experience, even if it was flawless. That should not be too much effort, should it?

Hiran, do we have any automated tests? E.g. unit tests for functions, etc?

Also, developers of any bit of code shouldn't be the testers of that code. (Beyond the basic during development.) This is standard practice.

Phantor Gorth

PhantorGorth wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:57 am

Hiran, do we have any automated tests? E.g. unit tests for functions, etc?

This should answer the question:
https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=288975#p288975

PhantorGorth wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 11:57 am

Also, developers of any bit of code shouldn't be the testers of that code. (Beyond the basic during development.) This is standard practice.

Then let's go ahead. I see lots of people on the forum that are not actively developing Oolite. These are all potential testers.

just stumbled across @Oolite on Twitter ~ doesn't appear to have been posted to since 2016, maybe a few new tempting screenshots etc would get some traffic?

Killer Wolf wrote: ↑Fri Sep 08, 2023 4:08 pm

just stumbled across @Oolite on Twitter ~ doesn't appear to have been posted to since 2016, maybe a few new tempting screenshots etc would get some traffic?

I never used X. Who can post there?
Plus according to https://oolite.space/#community we also have an IRC channel and a gift shop...

hiran wrote: ↑Fri Sep 08, 2023 7:29 pm

I never used X. Who can post there?
Plus according to https://oolite.space/#community we also have an IRC channel and a gift shop...

I used to run the IRC (I am not the owner that was _ds_) but I haven't been in there for something like a decade after the number of visitors dropped off.

Phantor Gorth

As for the Twitter account, that was run by Jens. Consider it dropped.