20080526219 | New Bounty Ideas

I've been approached recently by two community members about starting some new bounties.

1) Documentation bounty:

Developer emitrax writes - "Documentation is as import as code, if not more. As Haiku is getting closer and closer to R1, the need of documentation is increasing, as new curious developers (who does not know BeOS) wants to have a look at Haiku and it's API, either to start contributing at a kernel level or start developing an application for it (even though there are many (OLD) BeOS R5 applications out there).

The best way to welcome new developers, and to make their development life easier, we (haiku fans) need to provide them good documentation.

Now, since most of dev are already busy coding, the best way (IMHO) is to provide a little incentive (e.g. bounties) to start writing small howto about UI, sockets, FS API, Replicants and much more. Since we are talking about relative small documents, bounties shouldn't be more than 50-100 €.

2) ~~Hardware 3D Acceleration:~~

User MaxOS likes this idea from Haiku's 2008 GSOC list - "Design or port an existing 3D driver interface. See for example the Gallium3D project. Another option is to write a compatibility layer to load binary Linux 3D graphics drivers. There should probably still be our own 3D acceleration API for drivers.'

* Skill set: graphics drivers, API design"

From the community, what do you think the targets should be for these bounties? Should we attempt to seek out a developer/writer for these bounties before collecting money? Other comments/ideas???

*Update...

tonestone57 and Philippe Houdoin give a fair assesment as to why such a bounty wouldn't be a good idea at this time. You can read about that here.

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anders said:

	We have two areas here that we want covered. I think we should suggest these solutions to the developers, and then let them give input on the means before any bounties are set up. Personally I'd still gladly contribute to a flash-bounty, and from what I've read I think it shouldn't be impossible to port the "swfdec" opensource flash implementation.
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May 26, 2008
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thenerd said:

	I think it would be best to ask the developers about the documentation, especially since it's about dev stuff. I think 3d acceleration would be good. I would love to see Haiku's own implementation rather than a port but that might not be feasible.
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May 26, 2008 | url
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BrunoBratwurst said:

	I think I will leave it up to the developers, what they decide to do next. Better to support their running projects now. Than sooner they are finishing their projects they sooner they will likely start on new projects. As I know there are not that much developers in the community. Some of them are excellent but they need their time.
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May 27, 2008
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karl said:

	See the link provided at the end of the article.
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May 27, 2008
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MaxOS said:

I think 3d acceleration would be good. I would love to see Haiku's own implementation rather than a port but that might not be feasible.

Heh, I don't understand. OpenGL ( and Mesa too) is multiplayer standard. Own? What this means?

Personally I'd still gladly contribute to a flash-bounty, and from what I've read I think it shouldn't be impossible to port the "swfdec" opensource flash implementation.

So. It's good idea. I favour and I am ready to contribute.

Whatever. Probably however it stays us to wait from this Hardware 3D with one year ( maybe it then will be already Haiku Beta R1)

PS. Someone compiled already port of webkit on Haiku from gcc4 ( this should be now main "branch" Haiku)?

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May 27, 2008
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thenerd said:

	MaxOS - I see what you are getting at. That stems from my lack of development knowledge
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May 27, 2008 | url
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MaxOS said:

	Not exactly. I no have on thought this.
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May 28, 2008
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emitrax said:

	How about the documentation bounties ?
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May 31, 2008
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aphex said:

	What about starting writing the opengl drivers now and then improving them once the linux drivers are finished?
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May 31, 2008
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karl said:

I'd be in favour of the documentation and flash bounty, but not so much the 3D one given you'll need to raise probably at least $2000, and there aren't any developers available. If there were a suitable developer that someone could find that would say, raise x amount of money and I'll do it, then that would be ideal to start a 3D bounty. I'll open the other two in the next week, or if opinions differ, I'll open up a 3D one as well, I just don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.

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May 31, 2008
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emitrax said:

Documentation requests on top of my head are:
- HowTo use UI Layout.
- HowTo use BMessage: what are BMessages and how to send and receive them.
- HowTo use Replicants: what are replicants. How to make your application Replicant-capable. How to be able to "contain" a replicant (perhaps showing a container replicant apps).
- ...

I know the BeBook explains this stuff, but the BeBook is more an API reference than a howto. In fact all this documentation, should include sample working code.

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May 31, 2008
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MaxOS said:

	I am for Flash. In future week I can already a bit throw on this aim. But let deadline bounty carries out 9 - 12 months.
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May 31, 2008
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aphex said:

	I'd like to see a flash bounty too
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May 31, 2008
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karl said:

	Ok, guys give me a bit of time please. I'll get it done and make an announcement shortly
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May 31, 2008
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karl said:

	Anyone want to chime in on what the requirements/goals of these bounties should be?? Please
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June 02, 2008
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emitrax said:

As for the documentation, I think the goal of each Howto should be to provide an exhaustive resource about the document topic (Replicants, UI Layout, BMessages, UI in general, Audio|Video Media Nodes etc.), along with working (sample) code. The format of the document shouldn't be a problem, as long as it is easily convertible to another format. I'd say HTML pdf (thus printable) should be ok. The most important thing (IMHO) is that the author does not make any assumption about the reader being familiar with BeOS.

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June 02, 2008
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MaxOS said:

	So. Gnash Bounty. Porting Gnash 0.8.2 for Haiku Bounty is on same player as well as prepared plug-in to Firefox'a. Deadline for bounty 9 months.
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June 03, 2008
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anders said:

	Is it really a good idea to set up a bounty specifically for Gnash and Firefox? IMO swfdec and the native webkit browser seems more promising in the long run. I'd propose either a bounty for any of the two flash implementations, or a bounty for swfdec. In both cases I think webkit is more relevant than Firefox.
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June 03, 2008
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MaxOS said:

	If only source code would be public, we will can make on webkita plug-in, however if it mind about swfdec: [urlhttp://blue-gnu.biz/node/53] "How does Gnash compare (in your view) to other Flash clients? Gnash is the most advanced of any of the free Flash players. Swfdec also handles YouTube video, but is less focused on general flash playingcompliance."
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June 03, 2008
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karl said:

	Please read up on why gnash may not be a good idea... http://www.haikuware.com/forum...upport#288
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June 03, 2008
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MaxOS said:

	Yes karl I reading this, but Haiku bring in some changes now: -GCC 4 -API more compatible with POSIX It seems me, that Gnash would be more future solution, however we do not know if Swfdec also it will not cause near porting problems.
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June 03, 2008
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anders said:

	I'm no coder, but to me it seems like swdec has got the advantage. 1. The swfdec code is more well structured and probably easier to port to Haiku 2. Swfdec seems to handle flash better than Gnash in Linux 3. Swfdec is LGPL whereas Gnash is GPL
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June 03, 2008
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MaxOS said:

Ok. But:
ad1. We don't no what is truth, Gnash use ACC and Haiku support this...
ad2. I hear on this subject different opinions, however with advantage, that this Gnash is better
ad3. Well, Haiku is MIT (LGPL, GPL, MIT, this all depends from programmers)

Swfdec seems me generally it is less popular from Gnash, it can more slowly develop and more slowly to repair bug

Whatever, maybe this way:

Flash Bounty.

Porting Gnash 0.8.2 or Swfdec 0.6.6 for Haiku
Bounty is on same player as well as prepared plug-in to Firefox'a.
Deadline for bounty 9 months.

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June 03, 2008
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anders said:

	Is it really a good idea to specify certain versions? Don't we want a port that is kept up to date with coming versions? Also I'm sceptical to the Firefox port. I'd much rather see flash working in webkit, though I suppose it will become available to all browsers on Haiku once it's ported. However I think that if we should focus on a certain browser, it should be on the webkit-based one.
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June 03, 2008
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MaxOS said:

	I had on thought, version not older than the newest release. I would like to see acting port WebKit on Haiku (I have not time so far to have fun in compilations). However We have port FF ready to use.
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June 03, 2008
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anders said:

I don't think it matters much what web broswser we have today. The relevant questions is what web browser we want to premiere in the future. But maybe we shouldn't focus on any browser at all. Maybe the ported flash implementation could be wrapped in a kit?

Bounty for flash kit? Should be ported in a fashion that makes it easy to keep in sync with the latest versions. It would be nice to hear the opinion of a developer though.

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June 03, 2008
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MaxOS said:

	Flash Kit? Hard to say. But developers opinion would be really kindly seen on this subject.
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June 03, 2008
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MaxOS said:

	OK gentlemen , do not to enlarge and to wait in infinity on opinions. Let's make this. Flash Bounty. Porting Gnash 0.8.2 (or newest) or Swfdec 0.6.6 (or newest) for Haiku Bounty is on same player as well as prepared plug-in to Firefox'a or Webkit port. Deadline for bounty 12 months.
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June 04, 2008
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thenerd said:

	I'm guessing the versions change often because so we should be specific which version is to be ported so it will be easier to evaluate the end product. A changing target would hinder the development cycle (I would think but what do I know ) I vote for Gnash...
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June 04, 2008 | url
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karl said:

	@MaxOS hehe, I should have it up by tomorrow. @thenerd we'll just make it a flash bounty. if a developer applies, they can decide what would be best/is the most viable.
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June 04, 2008
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