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List: kde-community
Subject: Re: 2020 HackIllinois hackathon: after-action report
From: Valorie Zimmerman <valorie.zimmerman () gmail ! com>
Date: 2020-03-03 5:32:53
Message-ID: CACpu025ub+R_J_2TTeR3a=iuuttDZvv4mNXFZMjuR8uiJF+Okg () mail ! gmail ! com
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Very cool, Nate! Thanks for the report.
Valorie
On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 5:40 PM Nate Graham <nate@kde.org> wrote:
> Greetings KDE friends!
>
> This weekend I attended the 2020 HackIllinois event in Champaign-Urbana
> as a FOSS mentor, representing KDE. I'd like to present my after-action
> report:
>
>
>
> *Overview*
>
> First the good news: the KDE team won!
>
> My students reported that the judges were impressed with their results,
> excitement, and passion, and the fact that one of the submitted patches
> (https://invent.kde.org/kde/konsole/-/merge_requests/68) has already
> been merged.
>
> My students principally worked on building a visualizer for plasma-pa's
> microphone audio input level
> (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=411563) and managed to put
> together a pretty decent proof-of-concept:
> https://phabricator.kde.org/F8146046 (code is available at
> https://github.com/NSLeung/KDE-Neon-HackIllinois2020/commits/joey_branch).
>
> The code is not in a merge-worthy state, but could definitely get there
> eventually.
>
> They also submitted some nice smaller patches: the aforementioned
> Konsole fix, and one for Dolphin too:
> https://phabricator.kde.org/D27757. They also made a thorough
> investigation of a significant Yakuake issue that has been affecting two
> of them: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=389448.
>
> Two of the students in particular seem quite eager to continue their
> contributions.
>
>
>
> *Promo & social observations:*
>
> Nobody had an unkind or negative word for KDE. People who had heard of
> us really seemed to love us.
>
> The other FOSS mentors at the event who I talked to had all heard of KDE
> and some had used Plasma in the past or still do. While most of the
> students I talked to had never heard of KDE, most of the ones who had
> were already using a Plasma-based distro (mostly KDE Neon, with some
> Manjaro)! Several GNOME-using students were impressed by what they saw
> and eager to help out, and the students already using KDE software were
> super duper enthusiastic. Most had never filed any bug reports or
> submitted patches, but eagerly jumped into this. They did not find the
> process of doing so especially difficult, so I suspect that a lack of
> outreach was principally what had kept them from doing so before.
>
> Students were especially impressed with Yakuake, the embedded terminals
> in Dolphin and Kate, and Plasma itself. They all thought it was very
> attractive and polished-looking.
>
>
>
> *Onboarding & technical observations:*
>
> Overall, the process of setting up a KDE development environment from
> scratch was not a major pain point, especially for the Linux-using
> students. However a number of build failures took a lot of time to
> investigate and teach people how to work around:
> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418328,
> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418330,
> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418331,
> https://phabricator.kde.org/D10041. Please help to keep the master
> branches of your projects compilable with default CMake settings, common
> compilers, and easily installable dependencies, everyone! :)
>
> The students using Apple laptops had to set up their development
> environments in virtual machines due to a lack of macOS support in our
> current developer tooling and documentation. I had them install Neon
> Developer Edition, which worked fine overall, but it occurred to me that
> this edition would be more useful for its stated purpose if it shipped
> with a pre-generated .kdesrc-buildrc config file, plus kdesrc-build
> itself and all necessary dependencies from
>
> https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Build_from_source/Install_the_dependencies#KDE_neon.2C_Debian.2C_Ubuntu.2C_Kubuntu.
>
> These enhancements would have yielded been significant time savings for
> my VM-using students.
>
>
>
> *Hardware observations:*
>
> From my observations, at least 70% of the students attending the event
> were using Apple hardware running macOS. Most of the remaining students
> were using non-Apple hardware running some flavor of Linux, about a
> 60/40 mix of Plasma and GNOME, respectively. I did not see a single
> student using a PC running any version of Windows.
>
>
>
> Overall it felt like a worthwhile endeavor! Now time for some sleep...
>
> Nate
>
--
http://about.me/valoriez - pronouns: she/her
[Attachment #3 (text/html)]
<div dir="ltr"><div>Very cool, Nate! Thanks for the \
report.</div><div><br></div><div>Valorie</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div \
dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 5:40 PM Nate Graham <<a \
href="mailto:nate@kde.org">nate@kde.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote \
class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid \
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Greetings KDE friends!<br> <br>
This weekend I attended the 2020 HackIllinois event in Champaign-Urbana <br>
as a FOSS mentor, representing KDE. I'd like to present my after-action <br>
report:<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
*Overview*<br>
<br>
First the good news: the KDE team won!<br>
<br>
My students reported that the judges were impressed with their results, <br>
excitement, and passion, and the fact that one of the submitted patches <br>
(<a href="https://invent.kde.org/kde/konsole/-/merge_requests/68" rel="noreferrer" \
target="_blank">https://invent.kde.org/kde/konsole/-/merge_requests/68</a>) has \
already <br> been merged.<br>
<br>
My students principally worked on building a visualizer for plasma-pa's <br>
microphone audio input level <br>
(<a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=411563" rel="noreferrer" \
target="_blank">https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=411563</a>) and managed to put \
<br> together a pretty decent proof-of-concept: <br>
<a href="https://phabricator.kde.org/F8146046" rel="noreferrer" \
target="_blank">https://phabricator.kde.org/F8146046</a> (code is available at <br> \
<a href="https://github.com/NSLeung/KDE-Neon-HackIllinois2020/commits/joey_branch" \
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://github.com/NSLeung/KDE-Neon-HackIllinois2020/commits/joey_branch</a>). \
<br> The code is not in a merge-worthy state, but could definitely get there <br>
eventually.<br>
<br>
They also submitted some nice smaller patches: the aforementioned <br>
Konsole fix, and one for Dolphin too: <br>
<a href="https://phabricator.kde.org/D27757" rel="noreferrer" \
target="_blank">https://phabricator.kde.org/D27757</a>. They also made a thorough \
<br> investigation of a significant Yakuake issue that has been affecting two <br>
of them: <a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=389448" rel="noreferrer" \
target="_blank">https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=389448</a>.<br> <br>
Two of the students in particular seem quite eager to continue their <br>
contributions.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
*Promo & social observations:*<br>
<br>
Nobody had an unkind or negative word for KDE. People who had heard of <br>
us really seemed to love us.<br>
<br>
The other FOSS mentors at the event who I talked to had all heard of KDE <br>
and some had used Plasma in the past or still do. While most of the <br>
students I talked to had never heard of KDE, most of the ones who had <br>
were already using a Plasma-based distro (mostly KDE Neon, with some <br>
Manjaro)! Several GNOME-using students were impressed by what they saw <br>
and eager to help out, and the students already using KDE software were <br>
super duper enthusiastic. Most had never filed any bug reports or <br>
submitted patches, but eagerly jumped into this. They did not find the <br>
process of doing so especially difficult, so I suspect that a lack of <br>
outreach was principally what had kept them from doing so before.<br>
<br>
Students were especially impressed with Yakuake, the embedded terminals <br>
in Dolphin and Kate, and Plasma itself. They all thought it was very <br>
attractive and polished-looking.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
*Onboarding & technical observations:*<br>
<br>
Overall, the process of setting up a KDE development environment from <br>
scratch was not a major pain point, especially for the Linux-using <br>
students. However a number of build failures took a lot of time to <br>
investigate and teach people how to work around: <br>
<a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418328" rel="noreferrer" \
target="_blank">https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418328</a>, <br> <a \
href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418330" rel="noreferrer" \
target="_blank">https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418330</a>, <br> <a \
href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418331" rel="noreferrer" \
target="_blank">https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=418331</a>, <br> <a \
href="https://phabricator.kde.org/D10041" rel="noreferrer" \
target="_blank">https://phabricator.kde.org/D10041</a>. Please help to keep the \
master <br> branches of your projects compilable with default CMake settings, common \
<br> compilers, and easily installable dependencies, everyone! :)<br>
<br>
The students using Apple laptops had to set up their development <br>
environments in virtual machines due to a lack of macOS support in our <br>
current developer tooling and documentation. I had them install Neon <br>
Developer Edition, which worked fine overall, but it occurred to me that <br>
this edition would be more useful for its stated purpose if it shipped <br>
with a pre-generated .kdesrc-buildrc config file, plus kdesrc-build <br>
itself and all necessary dependencies from <br>
<a href="https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Build_from_source/Install_the_dependencies#KDE_neon.2C_Debian.2C_Ubuntu.2C_Kubuntu" \
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Build \
_from_source/Install_the_dependencies#KDE_neon.2C_Debian.2C_Ubuntu.2C_Kubuntu</a>. \
<br> These enhancements would have yielded been significant time savings for <br>
my VM-using students.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
*Hardware observations:*<br>
<br>
From my observations, at least 70% of the students attending the event <br>
were using Apple hardware running macOS. Most of the remaining students <br>
were using non-Apple hardware running some flavor of Linux, about a <br>
60/40 mix of Plasma and GNOME, respectively. I did not see a single <br>
student using a PC running any version of Windows.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Overall it felt like a worthwhile endeavor! Now time for some sleep...<br>
<br>
Nate<br>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" \
class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><a href="http://about.me/valoriez" \
target="_blank">http://about.me/valoriez</a> - pronouns: \
she/her<br><br><br></div></div></div></div>
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