Community meeting on IRC 13th April 2023

Announcements
#1

Schedule: Thursday 2023-04-13T07:00:00Z   :world_map:   :date:

Topic proposals for the meeting:

  • Add your name/nick using the template below to suggest a topic.
  • Indicate how much time you’ll need so we can time-box the meeting accordingly.
  • Please be as thorough as you can with your question/topic.
  • If you can’t make the meeting please ask and name a substitute.

It is expected that you show up and present your topic, or name a substitute and make sure they attend in your absence. These IRC meetings are for real time participation and live discussions, otherwise you can post the topic on here and get responses that way.

We need you to be present to clarify details in the topic, and to ensure the discussion is leading to the answers you are looking for! If you do not participate or your question/topic isn’t clear enough it will be postponed. Also: always ask for more time than you anticipate your topic needs!

Please have your topics ready at least 3 days before the meeting so we can prepare good answers. Topics announced afterwards will be postponed to the next meeting.

Template for topic proposal: (post your topic proposals as comments to this forum topic).

* Name/IRC nick:
* Topic:
* Some details about the topic:
* Approx. time needed:
* Substitute (optional):

Open Pull Requests:
If you have, or know of, a pull request that’s been open for at least 3 weeks, but which you think deserves attention, please add a comment using the template below and we’ll consider it during the next meeting.

* Name/IRC nick:
* Open PR URL:

#2

I know it’s very late to post a new topic, but this is more of a “look at this”/FYI than a question.

  • Name/IRC nick:nephros
  • Topic: Support for passing QR-read Wifi information to Networksettings
  • Some details about the topic:
    There have been some efforts to make it possible to support wifi: strings as used in QR codes for network configuration.
    In case there is interest at Jolla, please use the github repo for any comments, and if you like, git apply https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nephros/wifi-qr-handler/master/patch/unified_diff.patch
  • Approx. time needed: 3-5 Minutes
  • Substitute (optional): I’m sorry but I will not be able to be there - work. attah was the main conspirator and may be able to contribute to any discussion.
7 Likes
Community meeting on IRC 30th March 2023
#3
  • Name/IRC nick:nephros
  • Topic:Community contributions to Jolla closed components
  • Some details about the topic:

Over the years, there have been several modifications done to Jolla-distributed apps by community hackers. (Sometimes distributed as so-called Patchmanager Patches, sometimes as separate packages, or just locally).

While many of these have been hacks and other modifications not suitable for inclusion in the original apps, often they are fixes to small annoyances, bugs, or provide additional features.

Some of the latter category may warrant inclusion in the original app or component.

Just for sake of discussion I’ll select the following some examples:

  • A small but useful new feature: Sandbox Indicator link - 500+ activations
  • Annoyance fix: Allowed Orientation patch link - 1800+ activations
  • A new/missing feature: wifi-qr-handler - as discussed in the other meeting topic

Now for the questions (note that they do not mean the examples above explicitly, but in general):

  1. Is there interest from Jolla, and a conceivable way to upstream some of those?
  2. If yes, what would be the preferred avenue of communication from the community to Jolla?
  3. If yes, what are requirements from Jolla to consider inclusion?

If there is interest, I would propose something similar to the Bug Coordination team who would vet any community-nominated candidates against Jolla requirements, and propose them in a way similar to we do it with bugs or PRs now.

  • Approx. time needed: 10min
  • Substitute (optional): everyone who has ever modified a proprietary QML file
8 Likes
#4

Untracked bug reports

ID Comments Additional Information
9822
9814
4723
6309
1619
7759
4484 SIM card selection as secondary user is not possible but secondary user can change SIM card use for mobile network.
11834
7819
4844
1 Like
#5

I always wondered why Jolla does not seem to consider to integrate often installed Patches (or certain aspects of them), because they obviously address users’ needs.

But for the absolute classic on your exemplary list (I know these Patches were meant just as that: examples)

Annoyance fix: Allowed Orientation patch link - 1800+ activations

Many years ago the argument against this (i.e., to enable orientations defined in dconf /desktop/sailfish/silica/default_allowed_orientations for all applications) was, that not all applications work well in both orientations (portrait and landscape) and that it is up to the application author to explicitly allow for any other orientation than portrait, but as a matter of fact, many don’t. AFICS the first part of argument has become obsolete for long, and the second part is just a matter of defining the default: application authors can still set their own supported orientations and disallow anything overriding these settings.

But then it also makes sense to set the allowed orientations to 0b1011, i.e., portrait, landscape and inverted landscape orientations, because depending on the device and if one is right- or left-handed the charging cable is in the way to hold the device in one of the two landscape orientations, plus the Gemini PDA’s orientation with its keyboard open is inverted landscape.
This is what this Patch does.

The original Patch where all these orientation Patches are derived from (well, it is just a single line, which is patched in an obvious way) is available from Patchmanager’s webcatalog (another 2000+ activations) and OpenRepos. But allowing for inverted portrait orientation is a bad idea™, because for most Sony Xperia devices one cannot easily determine if the phone is held upside-down or not, which becomes an issue when you receive a call.

Unfortunately OpenRepos only allows maintainers to see the download numbers for packages in their own RPM repositories, but the sum of 4000 activations at PM’s webcatalog alone clearly shows the demand for this functionality.

Sorry to have dived into specific aspects of the orientation Patches, which was originally just meant as an example. But IMO an excellent one, because this functionality is apparently the most requested change of behaviour for SailfishOS’ GUI.

P.S.: I do not understand, what @elros’ statement “It contains also fix for rotation bug in lipstick code introduced in sailfish 3.3.0 (sic!)” addresses without analysing this Patch, but this hint also might be of interest for Jolla.

5 Likes
#6

Thanks for expanding in this.

Though I will not on the subject of orientation itself because we want this specific thread here to stay on topic of Meeting questions, the activation/download count can be a useful measure for both demand and maturity of any modifications. (Although a bit flawed because older patches obviously will have more).

#7

This should not a be question, which is answered by “yes” or “no”. It should be answered only by “when” and “how”.
Some time ago I joined sailmaites to support faster software development and bug fixing. In the corresponding thread, I asked if Jolla would merge the bug-fixed versions in a timely manner - which was answered in the affirmative (subject to a self-evident review).

#8
  • Name/IRC nick: remote (won’t be present)
  • Topic: can we get Filter pulley menu in Messages app to search by a contact name/phone?
  • Some details about the topic: sometimes I have to scroll for way too long to reach the conversation I need
  • Approx. time needed: 3 min
2 Likes
#9

Perhaps not an ideal solution, maybe I miss something but in the meantime: you can access a specific discussion through the People app, by hitting thu bubble near the contact’s mobi)e number.

1 Like
#10

yeah, I know
but most of the time I go to Messages hoping it will be not far away, and then you scroll-scroll-scroll and hesitate if you should go back to People app of continue scrolling since you already did a lot of it.
besides it doesn’t work for Banks names, etc, who are not in Contacts

#11

Oh, ok, I see. You are right, it is annoying with unregistered numbers like banks or services.

#12
  • Name/IRC nick: rinigus
  • Topic: GCC update
  • Some details about the topic: We are currently on GCC 8 which is showing its limitations. It would make sense to take GCC update into the pipeline. Any plans regarding it? Corresponding bug report: GCC update from GCC 8
  • Approx. time needed: 10 min
  • Substitute (optional): I’ll be most probably absent. Please include it into the discussion anyway.
2 Likes
#13

Minutes:
https://irclogs.sailfishos.org/meetings/sailfishos-meeting/2023/sailfishos-meeting.2023-04-13-07.00.html
Minutes (text):
https://irclogs.sailfishos.org/meetings/sailfishos-meeting/2023/sailfishos-meeting.2023-04-13-07.00.txt
Log:
https://irclogs.sailfishos.org/meetings/sailfishos-meeting/2023/sailfishos-meeting.2023-04-13-07.00.log.html

2 Likes
#14

@nephros: I’m some sorry for you, because you didn’t get a positive answer to your request:

1. From this particular set of patches we probably wouldn’t be merging any. (ViGe, 07:11:17)

Nevertheless, I hope, that some of your patches will find their way in SFOS, even Jolla will rewrite them in their desired manner.

1 Like
#15

While the answer given is a bit discouraging, it wasn’t actually my goal to get anything in particular merged or accepted. What I’m interested in is how to communicate about areas where something like github issues are not available, and a mere bug report or feature request seems inadequate.

Perhaps my questions should have been clearer, or not select these examples, or not mention patches or any give any example at all.

I feel the core questions have not been answered:

what would be the preferred avenue of communication from the community to Jolla?
what are requirements from Jolla to consider inclusion?

Some constructive answers to those might have paved a way for closer collaboration, and better quality core components, but alas! it appears it shall not be.

9 Likes
OAuth2 for IMAP Email
#16

I think they intended to say that after signing a NDA ( non disclosure agreement) you get access to some infrastructure (private github? Internal gitlab?) and can open a pull request (PR) directly for the closed source components

3 Likes
#17

Thanks, that was indeed the intended message. Sorry that it was a bit cloaked, I guess we concentrated too much on the details of the mentioned patches.

4 Likes
#18

Maybe some guidance what this involves, how to apply etc would be something for a newsletter, or a docs.s.o page?

2 Likes
#19

Thanks for the idea! It’s not going to be in the upcoming newsletter, but perhaps in some future one.