From chuck.brotman at gmail.com Sat Jun 25 13:56:28 2005 From: chuck.brotman at gmail.com (Chuck Brotman) Date: Sat Jun 25 16:32:13 2005 Subject: [FR-devel] Re: [FR-users] FreeRIDE project - Call for help References: <422315F5.1070308@xrce.xerox.com> Message-ID: I would like to help with FreeRIDE. Probably could help most in Documentation (to start). Will write more about myself when I see this make it to the mailing list... (it's my third try...) "Laurent Julliard" wrote in message news:422315F5.1070308@xrce.xerox.com... > All, > > Since its inception in September 2001, FreeRIDE, the 100% Ruby IDE, > has made a lot of progress (http://freeride.rubyforge.org). The > current version has quite a large number features and, above all, the > underlying plugin architecture (FreeBASE databus) has proven to be > stable and perfectly suited for this type of application. > > As of today, Curt Hibbs and I are the only active project members with > Curt focusing on the delivery of the Windows installer and myself on > the software development activities. FreeRIDE has reached a point > where it has plenty of nice features that makes it appealing but it > also has weaknesses that can be (really) annoying. > > Most notably we are looking for help in the following areas: > > - Documentation: FreeRIDE has a user guide but it is quite outdated. I > have just started revamping it but I definitely need help in this > area. It's not a big thing as FreeRIDE is quite easy to use. In a > second step the user guide needs a better integration in FreeRIDE. > This means deciding on a format that is suitable for online publishing > and viewing within the FOX framework. > > - Windows platform: this is where the most urgent need is. I am mostly > a Linux developer and although I'm doing some testing on Win XP > (through VMware), FreeRIDE is less stable on > Windows than on Linux. For instance we need to improve the debugger, > the script runner by making a batter use of the Windows Operating > system capabilities, removing slowness in some places... Win2K > and Win XP are the target platforms. > > - MacOSX platform: there has been some attempt lately to deliver a > FreeRIDE installer for MacOSX but I need an active person in the core > team responsible for driving the MacOSX community and organizing the > work and/or building the MacOSX installer like Curt does for Windows > and I do for Linux. > > - Testing, testing, testing...: testers are > badly needed. By testers I mean people that use FreeRIDE but are also > willing to identify the root cause of a bug and fix it. I use FreeRIDE > myself for FreeRIDE development but I tend to always do the same > operations which is not o good way of testing. > > If you are interested in helping us then drop me a mail telling me > where you want to contribute and subscribe to the FreeRIDE developers > mailing list (see http://rubyforge.org/mail/?group_id=31). Working on > FreeRIDE is a lot of fun and it is extremelly rewarding because as a > Ruby developer you'll be improving a tool that makes Ruby programming > even more fun. > > Thanks for all your help! > > Laurent Julliard From laurent at moldus.org Mon Jun 27 04:22:12 2005 From: laurent at moldus.org (Laurent Julliard) Date: Mon Jun 27 04:17:47 2005 Subject: [FR-devel] Re: Request for help in FreeRide-dev --response In-Reply-To: <200506251916.j5PJGFBH016939@ms-smtp-01-eri0.southeast.rr.com> References: <200506251916.j5PJGFBH016939@ms-smtp-01-eri0.southeast.rr.com> Message-ID: <42BFB734.9070108@moldus.org> Chuck Brotman wrote: > Laurent, > > > > I?ve tried several times, apparently all unsuccessful, to offer my help > on the freeride mailing lists (both user and developer --accessed > through Gmane.org, maybe that?s the problem). > > Chuck, I'm sorry I could not react earlier to your email. I have seen your messages on FR-users and FR-devel. I'll reply on the DL soon. My recommandation is to not use Gmane to post messages. Rather subscribe to FR-xxxx DL and then you can deactivate mail sending on the DL if you prefer to read messages from Gmane. But at least you can post to the DLs directly > > In any case let me try once again: > > > > My name is Chuck Brotman. > Pleased to meet you ! > > > I have decades of programming experience. (But only recently started > using OO & Ruby) > > > > I am a Windows XP user. > That's a ggod start. I am a Linux user mysefl and one of the things that we have been missing a lot are XP users and testers. > > > I?ve been trying to use Freeride, but have been frustrated, mostly by > the documentation & lack thereof. > I understand. Documentation is really lagging behind. There were 2 volunteers 2 months ago but they never did any work. I'm going to resend the message where I explained to them back then how to contribute to the documentation > > > I?d like to help. > I'd like you to help :-) > > > I don?t think I can help much with coding (not yet, anyway). Still, I > can likely help with testing and UI improvements. > > > > I could start helping with the Documentation immediately > Absolutely. Plus the fact that you update the user guide will make you familiar with th FreeRIDE functionalities. For debugging: do you have a Linux machine running somewhere where you could run FR as well. That's important for debugging because I think many of the problems we see on FR these days are really specific to the Windows version. Again thanks a lot for your message and I look forward to your contribution. Laurent From laurent at moldus.org Mon Jun 27 04:32:38 2005 From: laurent at moldus.org (Laurent Julliard) Date: Mon Jun 27 04:27:54 2005 Subject: [FR-devel] Guidelines for FR documentation Message-ID: <42BFB9A6.1020909@moldus.org> Checuk, As I promised in my previous email you'll find below the instructions I sent to Biran Moelk and Adele Hartley last March. It is still applicable. You can find it on our FR-devel archive at http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/freeride-devel/2005-March/000232.html Let me know if you have questions. Laurent From chuck.brotman at gmail.com Mon Jun 27 12:48:42 2005 From: chuck.brotman at gmail.com (Chuck Brotman) Date: Mon Jun 27 12:42:33 2005 Subject: [FR-devel] Re: Request for help in FreeRide-dev --response References: <200506251916.j5PJGFBH016939@ms-smtp-01-eri0.southeast.rr.com> <42BFB734.9070108@moldus.org> Message-ID: Lauent, Thanks for your reply! Apparently there were delayed messages regarding user validation from Gname. It seems that it's fix=ed now that I've received and responded to the messages. Now that it works, is there any reason I should avoid Gname??? I'll take a look at what you've sent and dig in as soon as I can. It may take me a while to get used to this Web-based development process. WIKIs are kind of new to me; I've read them in the past, but never acted as a conbtributer. "Laurent Julliard" wrote in message news:42BFB734.9070108@moldus.org... Chuck, I'm sorry I could not react earlier to your email. I have seen your messages on FR-users and FR-devel. I'll reply on the DL soon. My recommandation is to not use Gmane to post messages. Rather subscribe to FR-xxxx DL and then you can deactivate mail sending on the DL if you prefer to read messages from Gmane. But at least you can post to the DLs directly > > In any case let me try once again: > > > My name is Chuck Brotman. > Pleased to meet you ! | Likewise, I'm sure! > > I have decades of programming experience. (But only recently started > using OO & Ruby) > > > I am a Windows XP user. > That's a ggod start. I am a Linux user mysefl and one of the things that we have been missing a lot are XP users and testers. > > I've been trying to use Freeride, but have been frustrated, mostly by the > documentation & lack thereof. > I understand. Documentation is really lagging behind. There were 2 volunteers 2 months ago but they never did any work. I'm going to resend the message where I explained to them back then how to contribute to the documentation > > I'd like to help. > I'd like you to help :-) > > I don't think I can help much with coding (not yet, anyway). Still, I can > likely help with testing and UI improvements. > > > I could start helping with the Documentation immediately > Absolutely. Plus the fact that you update the user guide will make you familiar with th FreeRIDE functionalities. For debugging: do you have a Linux machine running somewhere where you could run FR as well. That's important for debugging because I think many of the problems we see on FR these days are really specific to the Windows version. Again thanks a lot for your message and I look forward to your contribution. Laurent From laurent at moldus.org Mon Jun 27 13:20:20 2005 From: laurent at moldus.org (Laurent Julliard) Date: Mon Jun 27 13:15:35 2005 Subject: [FR-devel] Re: Request for help in FreeRide-dev --response In-Reply-To: References: <200506251916.j5PJGFBH016939@ms-smtp-01-eri0.southeast.rr.com> <42BFB734.9070108@moldus.org> Message-ID: <42C03554.1080408@moldus.org> Chuck Brotman wrote: > Lauent, > > Thanks for your reply! Apparently there were delayed messages regarding > user validation from Gname. It seems that it's fix=ed now that I've received > and responded to the messages. Now that it works, is there any reason I > should avoid Gname??? If it works then just keep it that way. I'll take a look at what you've sent and dig in as > soon as I can. It may take me a while to get used to this Web-based > development process. WIKIs are kind of new to me; I've read them in the > past, but never acted as a conbtributer. > Don;t hesitate to ask if you have questions Laurent From laurent at moldus.org Wed Jun 29 02:32:53 2005 From: laurent at moldus.org (Laurent Julliard) Date: Wed Jun 29 02:28:07 2005 Subject: [FR-devel] Re: Guidelines for FR documentation In-Reply-To: <200506290008.j5T08tY4029363@ms-smtp-03-eri0.southeast.rr.com> References: <200506290008.j5T08tY4029363@ms-smtp-03-eri0.southeast.rr.com> Message-ID: <42C24095.4080500@moldus.org> Chuck Brotman wrote: > Laurent, > > Thanks! I have to admit I'm a bit overwhelmed by how much "stuff" is on the > site and with navigating the complexities of an online collaborative > development environment. Also, though I'm somewhat familiar with the concept > of CVS, I am not conversant with it. I'm not really sure where to begin > with the documentation (it seems like someone's already staked out the Users > guide.) Maybe I should start with the program help files, since I actually > have some ideas of how that might be improved. Can you point me to the > source files which implement the help menu/system and contain the existing > help text??? Any other suggestions or ideas would be gladly accepted. > > Thanks, > Chuck > Chuck, No fear you can do all this step by step. a) If you want to contribute to Open Source projects in general then becoming familiar with CVS is almost a pre-requisite. There are tons of tutorial on CVS all over the net. You can try that one to start with: https://www.cvshome.org/docs/blandy.html b) regarding the help. Forget about the FreeRIDE Wiki site. For now the only file that really matters is freeride/doc/userhelp.wiki that is in the CVS repository. As explained in the guidelines the idea is to write the doc in this source file, then generate an HMTL version of it through the FreeRIDE wiki, paste the HTML rendenring in freeride/doc/userhelp.html and then commit both files. As far as the integration with the FreeRIDE application is concerned it is very basic: when one uses the Help menu, FR fires up a browser (IE on Win32 or Netscape/Mozilla on Linux) and display the freeride/doc/userhelp.html file. It's as simple as that. Now as I suggest in the guidelines note, there are many ways to improve this. Like using a format that Ruby can process directly and render with the FOX library for instance. But the first priority is really to have a mre detailed and accurate content in the help file. Laurent -- Laurent JULLIARD http://www.moldus.org/~laurent From chuck.brotman at gmail.com Wed Jun 29 11:44:29 2005 From: chuck.brotman at gmail.com (Chuck Brotman) Date: Wed Jun 29 11:37:35 2005 Subject: [FR-devel] Re: Request for help in FreeRide-dev --response References: <200506251916.j5PJGFBH016939@ms-smtp-01-eri0.southeast.rr.com> <42BFB734.9070108@moldus.org> Message-ID: Laurent, Sorry, I curreently have no Linux Machine available. I can look into making a double boot configuration... "Laurent Julliard" wrote in message news:42BFB734.9070108@moldus.org... Chuck Brotman wrote: > Laurent, > > > I’ve tried several times, apparently all unsuccessful, to offer my help on > the freeride mailing lists (both user and developer --accessed through > Gmane.org, maybe that’s the problem). > > Chuck, I'm sorry I could not react earlier to your email. I have seen your messages on FR-users and FR-devel. I'll reply on the DL soon. My recommandation is to not use Gmane to post messages. Rather subscribe to FR-xxxx DL and then you can deactivate mail sending on the DL if you prefer to read messages from Gmane. But at least you can post to the DLs directly > > In any case let me try once again: > > > My name is Chuck Brotman. > Pleased to meet you ! > > I have decades of programming experience. (But only recently started > using OO & Ruby) > > > I am a Windows XP user. > That's a ggod start. I am a Linux user mysefl and one of the things that we have been missing a lot are XP users and testers. > > I’ve been trying to use Freeride, but have been frustrated, mostly by the > documentation & lack thereof. > I understand. Documentation is really lagging behind. There were 2 volunteers 2 months ago but they never did any work. I'm going to resend the message where I explained to them back then how to contribute to the documentation > > I’d like to help. > I'd like you to help :-) > > I don’t think I can help much with coding (not yet, anyway). Still, I can > likely help with testing and UI improvements. > > > I could start helping with the Documentation immediately > Absolutely. Plus the fact that you update the user guide will make you familiar with th FreeRIDE functionalities. For debugging: do you have a Linux machine running somewhere where you could run FR as well. That's important for debugging because I think many of the problems we see on FR these days are really specific to the Windows version. Again thanks a lot for your message and I look forward to your contribution. Laurent Laurent, Sorry, I curreently have no Linux Machine available. I can look into making a double boot configuration...