From kde-edu-devel Thu Apr 15 07:39:24 2010 From: "Anne-Marie Mahfouf" Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:39:24 +0000 To: kde-edu-devel Subject: Re: [kde-edu]: KEduca resurrection (possible GSoC project) Message-Id: <201004150939.26542.annemarie.mahfouf () free ! fr> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-edu-devel&m=127131752909354 Hi, I read on a blog that some work started for KEduca-New, is it in playground yet? Best regards, Anne-Marie On Sunday 28 March 2010 15:10:26 Mauricio Piacentini wrote: > Hi, list. I am currently working on a proposal to GSoC to resurrect KEduca, > but before I commit to it I would like to get some feedback from the list. > As you guys know, there are several schools and institutions down here in > Brazil (and I am sure in other countries as well) that still use KEduca for > tests, even if there are several known bugs and the app is not ported to > KDE 4. This is from an IRC log between Anne-Marie and me, from 2007: > > --- > > <*piacentini*> Another guy was consterned when I told you about KEduca not > being in 4.0 > <*piacentini*> He says he used it already for test with more than 45,000 > students > <*annma*> oh > <*annma*> really? > <*piacentini*> And he changed his lecture when I told you this > <*annma*> :( > <*piacentini*> Gonna tell people that they need to colaborate, participate, > or products can die > <*annma*> yes > <*annma*> whenever we looked at KEduca it did not work > <*piacentini*> I hinted (he works on a government) that he could even > sponsor someone to work on it > <*annma*> but if we had use cases we would have fix it > <*piacentini*> Yes, I asked him for a list of things he likes, things he > does not like, what he uses > <*piacentini*> And we talked a bit about it > <*piacentini*> He says (really) that he estimates that the state has saved > R$ 15.000 in printing when he switched to KEduca tests > <*piacentini*> That is about U$10.000 > <*piacentini*> per quarter > <*piacentini*> Notice that these are tests applied on free courses to a > poor community, where they train people in free software and also in other > stuff like mechanics, cooking, etc > <*piacentini*> So for this sort of feedback events like this are good imo, > hopefully he will get back to me, and we can use this story to motivate > someone to port KEduca to KDE4, and address its shortcomings. I got moved, > but my plate is more than full for now :) > > -- > > After that Matt Williams did some work on KEduca, but as his plate is also > more than full (between PhD, lots of projects and being the KDE Games > module coordinator) the effort got stalled again. > > KEduca ships by default in the KDE 3.5.9 based Linux Educacional distro, > delivered to thousands of schools by the Brazilian government. ( > http://piacentini.livejournal.com/7871.html). So its user base is actually > increasing, which is a problem as these people will get orphaned soon (next > year) when Linux Educacional finally makes the switch to KDE 4.x. > > I realized that we will possibly loose KEduca for good if we do not find an > alternative way of supporting the port. This is why I considered applying > for a GSoC slot as a student to do it. Several people tried to work on it > on their spare time. but the results are not good after several years. > Working in KEduca is not "sexy". The 3.x code base is, well, not easy to > navigate around. Matt (with the advice of Pino) decided to rewrite it back > in 2007, but this is an effort that takes a lot of free time, which is > something most of us do not have, considering our current projects. And, > more importantly, I think we need someone that could not only do the port > as a quick summer job, but really take over the application and become its > maintainer for at least two release cycles. This is involves an attempt to > maintain > compatiblity (write a converter) for older tests, and follow through with > everything necessary to make sure the application gets included in KDE 4.6. > So it is something that would start as a GSoC project (and with the initial > monetary help that comes with it), but needs to go beyond that, with at > least a 18-24 month commitment in maintaining it. > > At the same time, I am currently working on my Master thesis at PUC-SP, > related to educational open source software, its social and cognitive > impact, which limits the time I have for open source development related > to, for example, KDE Games. But it is possible that this work on KEduca > could be featured a part of my thesis, so by doing this work as part of > GSoC I could possibly tie several loose ends: > > - the need to port KEduca > - get Google to support the initial part of this effort (pay for it), as > voluntary work on this project has failed a couple of times > - reuse research work done as part of my thesis in the project > > All in all it seems like a good thing to do, but for this I need to know > what you people think about it, and (very important!), if one of you is > willing to do the mentoring (Matt, Anne, Albert, Pino, Aleix, ..?) I also > want to make sure the GSoC money is used for something that will be > long-lived: there is a mix of applications between those that attract > newcomers (which sadly go away as soon as the project is complete), those > that manage to attract new and committed contributors (great!), and some > that are used to support the work of existing community members, like this > one. > > So, opinions on this? Should I post the idea and submit a proposal for it? > Or is it a waste of a good project slot :) ? > > Regards, > > Mauricio Piacentini _______________________________________________ kde-edu mailing list kde-edu@mail.kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-edu