'[kde-promo] OpenSync interview for the dot finished'

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List: kde-promo
Subject: [kde-promo] OpenSync interview for the dot finished
From: Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab () web ! de>
Date: 2006-05-16 6:17:24
Message-ID: 200605160817.24771.arne_bab () web ! de
[Download RAW message or body]

[Attachment #2 (multipart/signed)]

[Attachment #4 (multipart/mixed)]

Hi, 

I've attached the Interview in plain html, in pdf and in odt and also the 
pictures used in the pdf/odt so they can be included in the Interview for the 
dot. 

Also I've prepared submitting the story to several sites, so I can push them 
out with a click of 8 buttons or so :) 

So, could someone who has the rights take the html and put it on the Dot? I'll 
then modify the articles for the newspapers to include the link to the dot. 

I should be able to put them out today. 

Best wishes, 
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
Heißt politsch sein
Ohne es zu merken. 
- Arne Babenhauserheide ( http://draketo.de )

["armin.png" (image/png)]
["cornelius.png" (image/png)]
["opensync-interview-structure.png" (image/png)]
["opensync-interview-code-plugin-info.png" (image/png)]
["OpenSync-Interview-without-headers.html" (text/html)]

<h1>OpenSync</h1>
<h3>synching on the free desktop</h3>
<p><i>&quot;It's the first time I feel well when thinking about \
synching.&quot;</i><br>- Cornelius, one of the OpenSync developers</p>

This interview intends to get you some insight into OpenSync, the upcoming free \
unified synching solution for the free desktop.

It was done and formatted by Arne Babenhauserheide in April 2006 via e-mail and \
KOffice.

<p><i>&gt; Hi Cornelius, Armin and Tobias,</i></p>

As you are now getting close to version 1.0 of OpenSync, which is expected to \
become the new synchronisation framework for KDE and other free desktops, we are \
quite interested in the merits it can provide for KDE users and for developers, as \
well as for the Open Source Community as a whole. So there's one key-question before \
I move deeper into the details of OpenSync:

<h2>Basics</h2>

<p><i>&gt; What does OpenSync accomplish, that noone did before?</i></p>

<p>Cornelius: </p>
<p>First of all it does its job of synchronizing data like addressbooks and calendars \
between desktop applications and mobile devices like PDAs and cell phones.</p>

But the new thing about OpenSync is that it isn't tied to a particular device or a \
specific platform. It provides an extensible and modular framework which is easy to \
adopt for application developers and people implementing support for syncing with \
mobile devices.

OpenSync is also independent of the desktop platform. It will be the common \
syncing backend for at least KDE and GNOME and other projects are likely to join. \
That means that the free desktop will have one common syncing solution. This is \
something really new.

<p><i>&gt; How do the end-users profit from using synching solutions which interface \
with OpenSync as framework?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
First, the users will be able to actually synchronize all their data. By using one \
common framework there won't be any &quot;missing links&quot;, where one application \
can sync one set of devices and another application a different one. With OpenSync \
all applications can sync all devices.

Second, the users will get a consistent and common user interface for syncing \
across all applications and devices. This will be much simpler to use than the \
current incoherent collection of syncing programs you need if you have more than the \
very basic needs.

<p><i>&gt; How does OpenSync help developers with coding?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
It's a very flexible and well-designed framework which makes it quite easy for \
developers to add support for new devices and new types of data. It's also very easy \
to add support for OpenSync to applications.

The big achievement of OpenSync is that it hides all the gory details of syncing \
from the developers who work on applications and device support. That makes it \
possible for the developers to concentrate on their area of expertise without having \
to care what's going on behind the scenes. I have written quite a lot of \
synchronization code in the past. Trust me, it's much better, if someone just takes \
care of it for you, and that's what OpenSync does.

<p>Tobias:</p>
<p>Another point to mentioned is the python wrapper for opensync, so you are not \
bound to C or C++, but can develop plugins in a high level scripting language.</p>

<p><i>&gt; Why should producers of portable devices get involved with your \
team?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
OpenSync will be the one common syncing solution for the free desktop. That means \
there is a single point of contact for device manufacturers who want to add support \
for their devices. That's much more feasible than addressing all the different \
applications and solutions we had before. With OpenSync it hopefully will become \
interesting for manufacturers to officially support Linux for their devices.

<p><i>&gt; Do you also plan to support applications of OpenSync in proprietary \
systems like OSX and Windows?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
OpenSync is designed to be cross-platform, so it is able to run on other systems \
like Windows. How well this works is always a question of people actually using and \
developing for this system. As far as I know there isn't a real Windows community \
around OpenSync yet. But the technical foundation is there, so if there is somebody \
interested in working on a unified syncing solution on Windows, everybody is welcome \
to join the project.

<p><i>&gt; What does your synchronisation framework do for KDE and for KitchenSync in \
particular?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
OpenSync replaces the KDE-specific synchronization frameworks we had before. Even \
in KDE we had several separate syncing implementations and with OpenSync we can get \
replace them with a common framework. We had a more generic syncing solution in KDE \
under development. This was quite similar from a design point of view to OpenSync, \
but it never got to the level of maturity we would have needed, because of lack of \
resources. As OpenSync fills this gap we are happy to be able to remove our old code \
and now concentrate on our core business. <h2>Who, How and Why?</h2>

<p><i>&gt; What was your personal reason for getting involved with OpenSync?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
I wrote a lot of synchronization code in the past, which mainly came from the time \
where I was maintaining KOrganizer and working on KAddressBook. But this always was \
driven by necessity and not passion. I wanted to have all my calendar and contact \
data in one place, but my main objective was to work on the applications and user \
interfaces handling the data and not on the underlying code synchronizing the \
data.

So when the OpenSync project was created I was very interested. At GUADEC in \
Stuttgart I met with Armin, the maintainer of OpenSync, and we talked about \
integrating OpenSync with KDE. Everything seemed to fit together quite well, so at \
Linuxtag the same year we had another meeting with some more KDE people. In the end \
we agreed to go with OpenSync and a couple of weeks later we met again in Nuernberg \
for three days of hacking and created the KDE frontend for OpenSync. In retrospect it \
was a very pleasant and straightforward process to get where we are now.

Armin: 
My reason to get involved (or better to start) OpenSync was my involvement with \
its predecessor Multisync. I am working as a system administrator for a small \
consulting company and so I saw some problems when trying to find a synchronization \
solution for Linux.

At that point I joined the Multisync project to implement some plugins that I \
thought would be nice to have. After some time I became the maintainer of the \
project. But I was unhappy with some technical aspects of the project, especially the \
tight coupling between the syncing logic and the GUI, its dependencies on GNOME \
libraries and its lack of flexibility.

Tobias:
Well, I have been a KDE PIM developer for several years now, so there was no way \
around getting in touch with synchronization and KitchenSync. Although I liked the \
idea of KitchenSync, I hated the code and the user interface [...]. So when we \
discussed to switch to OpenSync and reimplementing the user interface, I volunteered \
immediately.

<p><i>&gt; Can you tell us a bit about your further plans and ideas?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
The next thing will be the 1.0 release of OpenSync. We will release KitchenSync as \
frontend in parallel.

Armin: 
There are of course a lot of things on my todo and my wishlist for opensync. For \
the near future the most important step is the 1.0 release, of course, where we still \
have some missing features in OpenSync as well as in the plugins.

One thing I would really like to see is a thunderbird plugin for OpenSync. I use \
thunderbird personally and would really like to keep my contacts up to date with my \
cellular, but I was not yet able to find the time to implement it.

Tobias:
One thing that would really rock in future versions of OpenSync is an automatic \
hardware detection mechanism, so when you plugin your Palm or switch on your \
bluetooth device, OpenSync will create a synchronization group automatically and ask \
the user to start syncing. To bring OpenSync to the level of _The Syncing Solution \
[tm]_ we must reduce the necessary configuration to a minimum.

<p><i>&gt; What was the most dire problem you had to face when creating OpenSync and \
how did you face it?</i></p>

<p>Cornelius: </p>
<p>Fortunately the problems which I personally would consider to be dire are solved \
by the implementation of OpenSync which is well hidden from the outside world and \
[they are] an area I didn't work on ;-)</p>

<p>Armin: </p>
<p>I guess that I am the right person to answer this question then :)</p>

<p>The most complicated part of OpenSync is definitely the format conversion which is \
responsible for converting the format of one device to the format that another device \
understands.</p>

There are a lot of subsystems in this format conversion which makes it so complex, \
like conversion path searching, comparing items, detection of mime types and last but \
not least the conversion itself. So this was a hard piece of work.

<p><i>&gt; What was the greatest moment for you?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
I think the greatest moment was when, after three days of concentrated hacking, we \
had a first working version of the KDE frontend for OpenSync. This was at meeting at \
the SUSE offices in Nuernberg and we were able to successfully do a small \
presentation and demo to a group of interested SUSE people.

Armin: 
I don't remember a distinct &quot;greatest moment&quot;. But what is a really \
great feeling is to see that a project catches on, that other people get involved, \
use the code you have written and improve it in ways that you haven't thought of \
initially.

Tobias:
Hmm, also hacking on OpenSync/KitcheSync is much fun in general, the greatest \
moment was when the new KitchenSync frontend synced two directories via OpenSync the \
first time. But it was also cool when we managed to get the IrMC plugin working again \
after porting it to OpenSync.

<p><i>&nbsp;</i></p>
<p><i>&gt; As we now know the worst problem you faced and your greatest moment, the \
only one missing is: What was your weirdest experience while working on \
OpenSync?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
Not directly related to OpenSync, but pretty weird was meeting a co-worker at the \
Amsterdam airport when returning from the last OpenSync meeting. I don't know how \
high the chance is to meet somebody you know on a big random airport not related at \
all to the places where you or the other person live, but it was quite \
surprising.

Tobias:
Since my favorite language is C++, I was always confused how people can use plain \
C for such a project, half the time your are busy with writing code for \
allocating/freeing memory areas. Nevertheless Armin did a great job and he is always \
a help for solving strange C problems :)

<h2>Devices and Programs</h2>

&gt; Now I'd like to move on to some more specific questions about current and \
planned abilities of OpenSync. As first, I've got a personal one: I have an old iPod \
sitting around here. Can I or will I be able to use a program utilizing OpenSync to \
synchronize my calendars, contacts and music to it? &nbsp;
Cornelius: 
I'm not aware of any iPod support for OpenSync up to now, but if it doesn't exist \
yet, why not write it? OpenSync makes this easy. This is a chance for everybody with \
the personal desire to sync one device or another to get involved.

Armin: 
I dont think that there is iPod support yet for OpenSync. But it would definitely \
be possible to use OpenSync for this task. So if someone would like to implement an \
iPod plugin, I would be glad to help :)

<p><i>&gt; Which other devices do you already support?</i></p>

<p>Cornelius: </p>
<p>At this time, OpenSync supports Palms, SyncML and IrMC capable devices.</p>

<p><i>&gt; Which programs already implement OpenSync and where can we check back to \
find new additions?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
On the application side there is support for Evolution [GNOME] and Kontact with \
KitchenSync [KDE] on the frontend side and the backend side and some more. I expect \
that further applications will adopt OpenSync once the 1.0 version is released.

Armin: 
Besides kitchensync there already are a command line tool and a port of the \
multisync GUI. Aside from the GUIs, I would really like to see OpenSync being used in \
other applications as well. One possibility for example would to be integrate \
OpenSync into Evolution to give users the possibility to synchronize their devices \
directly from this application. News can generally be found on the OpenSync web site \
 (<a href="http://www.opensync.org">www.opensync.org</a>).

<h2>Technical Dive</h2>

&gt; So far for questions for users. I think it is time to give the developers \
something to devour, too. I'll keep this as a short twice-fold technical dive before \
coming to the takeoff question, even though I'm sure there's information for a \
double-volume book on technical subleties. &nbsp;
As first dive: How did you integrate OpenSync in KitchenSync, viewed from the \
coding side?

Cornelius: 
OpenSync provides a C interface. We wrapped this with a small C++ library and 
put KitchenSync on top. Due to the object oriented nature of the OpenSync \
interfaces this was quite easy.

Recently I also started to write a D-Bus frontend for OpenSync. This also is a \
nice way to integrate OpenSync which provides a wide variety of options regarding \
programming languages and system configurations.

<p><i>&gt; And for the second, deeper dive: Can you give us a quick outline of those \
inner workings of OpenSync, from the developers view, which make OpenSync especially \
viable for application in several different desktop environments?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
That's really a question for Armin. For those who are interested I would recommend \
to have a look at the OpenSync website. There is a nice <a \
href="http://www.opensync.org/file/trunk/docs/OpenSync-WhitePaper.pdf?format=raw">white \
paper</a> about the internal structure and functionality of OpenSync.

Armin: 
OpenSync consists of several parts:
First there is the plugin API which defines what functions a plugin has to \
implement so that OpenSync can dlopen() it. There are 2 types of plugins:

A sync plugin which can synchronize a certain device or application and which \
provides functions for the initialization, handling the connection to a device and \
reading and writing items. Then there is a format plugin which defines a format and \
how to convert, compare and detect it. The next part is a set of helper \
functions which are provided to ease to programming of synchronization plugins. These \
helper functions include things like handling plugin config files, HashTables which \
can be used to detect changes in sets of items, functions to detect when a resync of \
devices is necessary etc.

The syncing logic itself resides in the sync engine, which is a separate part. The \
sync engine is responsible for deciding when to call the connect function of a \
plugin, when to read or write from it. The engine also takes care of invoking the \
format conversion functions so that each plugin gets the items in its required \
format.

<p>If you want more information and details about the inner workings of OpenSync, you \
should really visit the opensync.org website or ask its developers.</p>

<h2>Takeoff</h2>

<p><i>&gt; To add some more spice for those of our readers, whose interest you just  \
managed to spawn (or to skyrocket), please tell us where they can get more \
information on the OpenSync Framework, how they can best meet and help  you and how \
they can help improving sync-support for KDE by helping OpenSync.</i></p>

Cornelius: 
Again, the OpenSync web site is the right source for information. Regarding the \
KDE side, the kde-pim@kde.org mailing list is probably the right address. At the \
moment the most important help would be everything which gets the OpenSync 1.0 \
release done.

[And even though] I already said it, it can't be repeated too often: OpenSync will \
be the one unified syncing solution for the free desktop. Cross-device, \
cross-platform, cross-desktop. It's the first time I feel well when thinking \
about syncing ;-).

<p>Armin: </p>
<p>Regarding OpenSync, the best places to ask would be the opensync mailing lists at \
sourceforge or the #opensync irc channel on the freenode.net servers.</p>

There are always a lot of things where we could need a helping hand and where we \
would be really glad to get some help. So everyone who is interested in OpenSync is \
welcome to join.

<p><i>&gt; Many thanks for your time!</i></p>

Cornelius: 
Thanks for doing the interview. It's always fun to talk about OpenSync, because \
it's really the right thing.

Armin: 
Thank you for taking your time and doing this interview. I really appreciate your \
help!

Tobias:
Thanks for your work. Publication and marketing is something that is really \
missing in the open source community. We have nice software but nobody knows ;) \
Further Information on OpenSync can be found on the OpenSync Website: <a \
href="http://www.opensync.org">www.opensync.org</a>

&nbsp;
This Interview was written by Arne Babenhauserheide 
on behalf of himself, the OpenSource Community, SpreadKDE.org and the Dot (<a \
href="http://dot.kde.org">dot.kde.org</a>). It was first published on \
the Dot and is licensed under the <a \
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/">cc-attribution-sharealike-license</a>.
 I hope it got your mouth wet on the thought of the upcoming OpenSync.
A pdf-version with pictures can be found at <a \
href="http://draketo.de/dateien/opensync-interview.pdf">draketo.de</a> (<a \
href="http://draketo.de/dateien/opensync-interview.odt">odt-version \
(koffice)</a>) And if you want to make me happy, just take a look at my \
website and read some of my shortstories, poems and strange ideas or listen to some \
of my songs. Or donate me 10 M&#8364;, so I will never have to work again and \
can commit all my time to my hobbies :) <a>- Arne Babenhauserheide (<a \
href="http://draketo.de">http://draketo.de</a>)-

["opensync-interview-gnustep.png" (image/png)]
["OpenSync-Interview.html" (text/html)]

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" \
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<meta name="Generator" content="KWord HTML Export Filter Version 466447 ">
<title>OpenSync-Interview.html</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>OpenSync</h1>
<h3>synching on the free desktop</h3>
<p><i>&quot;It's the first time I feel well when thinking about \
synching.&quot;</i><br>- Cornelius</p>

This interview intends to get you some insight into OpenSync, the upcoming free \
unified synching solution for the free desktop.

It was done and formatted by Arne Babenhauserheide in April 2006 via e-mail and \
KOffice.

<p><i>&gt; Hi Cornelius, Armin and Tobias,</i></p>

As you are now getting close to version 1.0 of OpenSync, which is expected to \
become the new synchronisation framework for KDE and other free desktops, we are \
quite interested in the merits it can provide for KDE users and for developers, as \
well as for the Open Source Community as a whole. So there's one key-question before \
I move deeper into the details of OpenSync:

<h2>Basics</h2>

<p><i>&gt; What does OpenSync accomplish, that noone did before?</i></p>

<p>Cornelius: </p>
<p>First of all it does its job of synchronizing data like addressbooks and calendars \
between desktop applications and mobile devices like PDAs and cell phones.</p>

But the new thing about OpenSync is that it isn't tied to a particular device or a \
specific platform. It provides an extensible and modular framework which is easy to \
adopt for application developers and people implementing support for syncing with \
mobile devices.

OpenSync is also independent of the desktop platform. It will be the common \
syncing backend for at least KDE and GNOME and other projects are likely to join. \
That means that the free desktop will have one common syncing solution. This is \
something really new.

<p><i>&gt; How do the end-users profit from using synching solutions which interface \
with OpenSync as framework?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
First, the users will be able to actually synchronize all their data. By using one \
common framework there won't be any &quot;missing links&quot;, where one application \
can sync one set of devices and another application a different one. With OpenSync \
all applications can sync all devices.

Second, the users will get a consistent and common user interface for syncing \
across all applications and devices. This will be much simpler to use than the \
current incoherent collection of syncing programs you need if you have more than the \
very basic needs.

<p><i>&gt; How does OpenSync help developers with coding?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
It's a very flexible and well-designed framework which makes it quite easy for \
developers to add support for new devices and new types of data. It's also very easy \
to add support for OpenSync to applications.

The big achievement of OpenSync is that it hides all the gory details of syncing \
from the developers who work on applications and device support. That makes it \
possible for the developers to concentrate on their area of expertise without having \
to care what's going on behind the scenes. I have written quite a lot of \
synchronization code in the past. Trust me, it's much better, if someone just takes \
care of it for you, and that's what OpenSync does.

<p>Tobias:</p>
<p>Another point to mentioned is the python wrapper for opensync, so you are not \
bound to C or C++, but can develop plugins in a high level scripting language.</p>

<p><i>&gt; Why should producers of portable devices get involved with your \
team?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
OpenSync will be the one common syncing solution for the free desktop. That means \
there is a single point of contact for device manufacturers who want to add support \
for their devices. That's much more feasible than addressing all the different \
applications and solutions we had before. With OpenSync it hopefully will become \
interesting for manufacturers to officially support Linux for their devices.

<p><i>&gt; Do you also plan to support applications of OpenSync in proprietary \
systems like OSX and Windows?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
OpenSync is designed to be cross-platform, so it is able to run on other systems \
like Windows. How well this works is always a question of people actually using and \
developing for this system. As far as I know there isn't a real Windows community \
around OpenSync yet. But the technical foundation is there, so if there is somebody \
interested in working on a unified syncing solution on Windows, everybody is welcome \
to join the project.

<p><i>&gt; What does your synchronisation framework do for KDE and for KitchenSync in \
particular?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
OpenSync replaces the KDE-specific synchronization frameworks we had before. Even \
in KDE we had several separate syncing implementations and with OpenSync we can get \
replace them with a common framework. We had a more generic syncing solution in KDE \
under development. This was quite similar from a design point of view to OpenSync, \
but it never got to the level of maturity we would have needed, because of lack of \
resources. As OpenSync fills this gap we are happy to be able to remove our old code \
and now concentrate on our core business. <h2>Who, How and Why?</h2>

<p><i>&gt; What was your personal reason for getting involved with OpenSync?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
I wrote a lot of synchronization code in the past, which mainly came from the time \
where I was maintaining KOrganizer and working on KAddressBook. But this always was \
driven by necessity and not passion. I wanted to have all my calendar and contact \
data in one place, but my main objective was to work on the applications and user \
interfaces handling the data and not on the underlying code synchronizing the \
data.

So when the OpenSync project was created I was very interested. At GUADEC in \
Stuttgart I met with Armin, the maintainer of OpenSync, and we talked about \
integrating OpenSync with KDE. Everything seemed to fit together quite well, so at \
Linuxtag the same year we had another meeting with some more KDE people. In the end \
we agreed to go with OpenSync and a couple of weeks later we met again in Nuernberg \
for three days of hacking and created the KDE frontend for OpenSync. In retrospect it \
was a very pleasant and straightforward process to get where we are now.

Armin: 
My reason to get involved (or better to start) OpenSync was my involvement with \
its predecessor Multisync. I am working as a system administrator for a small \
consulting company and so I saw some problems when trying to find a synchronization \
solution for Linux.

At that point I joined the Multisync project to implement some plugins that I \
thought would be nice to have. After some time I became the maintainer of the \
project. But I was unhappy with some technical aspects of the project, especially the \
tight coupling between the syncing logic and the GUI, its dependencies on GNOME \
libraries and its lack of flexibility.

Tobias:
Well, I have been a KDE PIM developer for several years now, so there was no way \
around getting in touch with synchronization and KitchenSync. Although I liked the \
idea of KitchenSync, I hated the code and the user interface [...]. So when we \
discussed to switch to OpenSync and reimplementing the user interface, I volunteered \
immediately.

<p><i>&gt; Can you tell us a bit about your further plans and ideas?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
The next thing will be the 1.0 release of OpenSync. We will release KitchenSync as \
frontend in parallel.

Armin: 
There are of course a lot of things on my todo and my wishlist for opensync. For \
the near future the most important step is the 1.0 release, of course, where we still \
have some missing features in OpenSync as well as in the plugins.

One thing I would really like to see is a thunderbird plugin for OpenSync. I use \
thunderbird personally and would really like to keep my contacts up to date with my \
cellular, but I was not yet able to find the time to implement it.

Tobias:
One thing that would really rock in future versions of OpenSync is an automatic \
hardware detection mechanism, so when you plugin your Palm or switch on your \
bluetooth device, OpenSync will create a synchronization group automatically and ask \
the user to start syncing. To bring OpenSync to the level of _The Syncing Solution \
[tm]_ we must reduce the necessary configuration to a minimum.

<p><i>&gt; What was the most dire problem you had to face when creating OpenSync and \
how did you face it?</i></p>

<p>Cornelius: </p>
<p>Fortunately the problems which I personally would consider to be dire are solved \
by the implementation of OpenSync which is well hidden from the outside world and \
[they are] an area I didn't work on ;-)</p>

<p>Armin: </p>
<p>I guess that I am the right person to answer this question then :)</p>

<p>The most complicated part of OpenSync is definitely the format conversion which is \
responsible for converting the format of one device to the format that another device \
understands.</p>

There are a lot of subsystems in this format conversion which makes it so complex, \
like conversion path searching, comparing items, detection of mime types and last but \
not least the conversion itself. So this was a hard piece of work.

<p><i>&gt; What was the greatest moment for you?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
I think the greatest moment was when, after three days of concentrated hacking, we \
had a first working version of the KDE frontend for OpenSync. This was at meeting at \
the SUSE offices in Nuernberg and we were able to successfully do a small \
presentation and demo to a group of interested SUSE people.

Armin: 
I don't remember a distinct &quot;greatest moment&quot;. But what is a really \
great feeling is to see that a project catches on, that other people get involved, \
use the code you have written and improve it in ways that you haven't thought of \
initially.

Tobias:
Hmm, also hacking on OpenSync/KitcheSync is much fun in general, the greatest \
moment was when the new KitchenSync frontend synced two directories via OpenSync the \
first time. But it was also cool when we managed to get the IrMC plugin working again \
after porting it to OpenSync.

<p><i>&nbsp;</i></p>
<p><i>&gt; As we now know the worst problem you faced and your greatest moment, the \
only one missing is: What was your weirdest experience while working on \
OpenSync?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
Not directly related to OpenSync, but pretty weird was meeting a co-worker at the \
Amsterdam airport when returning from the last OpenSync meeting. I don't know how \
high the chance is to meet somebody you know on a big random airport not related at \
all to the places where you or the other person live, but it was quite \
surprising.

Tobias:
Since my favorite language is C++, I was always confused how people can use plain \
C for such a project, half the time your are busy with writing code for \
allocating/freeing memory areas. Nevertheless Armin did a great job and he is always \
a help for solving strange C problems :)

<h2>Devices and Programs</h2>

&gt; Now I'd like to move on to some more specific questions about current and \
planned abilities of OpenSync. As first, I've got a personal one: I have an old iPod \
sitting around here. Can I or will I be able to use a program utilizing OpenSync to \
synchronize my calendars, contacts and music to it? &nbsp;
Cornelius: 
I'm not aware of any iPod support for OpenSync up to now, but if it doesn't exist \
yet, why not write it? OpenSync makes this easy. This is a chance for everybody with \
the personal desire to sync one device or another to get involved.

Armin: 
I dont think that there is iPod support yet for OpenSync. But it would definitely \
be possible to use OpenSync for this task. So if someone would like to implement an \
iPod plugin, I would be glad to help :)

<p><i>&gt; Which other devices do you already support?</i></p>

<p>Cornelius: </p>
<p>At this time, OpenSync supports Palms, SyncML and IrMC capable devices.</p>

<p><i>&gt; Which programs already implement OpenSync and where can we check back to \
find new additions?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
On the application side there is support for Evolution [GNOME] and Kontact with \
KitchenSync [KDE] on the frontend side and the backend side and some more. I expect \
that further applications will adopt OpenSync once the 1.0 version is released.

Armin: 
Besides kitchensync there already are a command line tool and a port of the \
multisync GUI. Aside from the GUIs, I would really like to see OpenSync being used in \
other applications as well. One possibility for example would to be integrate \
OpenSync into Evolution to give users the possibility to synchronize their devices \
directly from this application. News can generally be found on the OpenSync web site \
 (<a href="http://www.opensync.org">www.opensync.org</a>).

<h2>Technical Dive</h2>

&gt; So far for questions for users. I think it is time to give the developers \
something to devour, too. I'll keep this as a short twice-fold technical dive before \
coming to the takeoff question, even though I'm sure there's information for a \
double-volume book on technical subleties. &nbsp;
As first dive: How did you integrate OpenSync in KitchenSync, viewed from the \
coding side?

Cornelius: 
OpenSync provides a C interface. We wrapped this with a small C++ library and 
put KitchenSync on top. Due to the object oriented nature of the OpenSync \
interfaces this was quite easy.

Recently I also started to write a D-Bus frontend for OpenSync. This also is a \
nice way to integrate OpenSync which provides a wide variety of options regarding \
programming languages and system configurations.

<p><i>&gt; And for the second, deeper dive: Can you give us a quick outline of those \
inner workings of OpenSync, from the developers view, which make OpenSync especially \
viable for application in several different desktop environments?</i></p>

Cornelius: 
That's really a question for Armin. For those who are interested I would recommend \
to have a look at the OpenSync website. There is a nice <a \
href="http://www.opensync.org/file/trunk/docs/OpenSync-WhitePaper.pdf?format=raw">white \
paper</a> about the internal structure and functionality of OpenSync.

Armin: 
OpenSync consists of several parts:
First there is the plugin API which defines what functions a plugin has to \
implement so that OpenSync can dlopen() it. There are 2 types of plugins:

A sync plugin which can synchronize a certain device or application and which \
provides functions for the initialization, handling the connection to a device and \
reading and writing items. Then there is a format plugin which defines a format and \
how to convert, compare and detect it. The next part is a set of helper \
functions which are provided to ease to programming of synchronization plugins. These \
helper functions include things like handling plugin config files, HashTables which \
can be used to detect changes in sets of items, functions to detect when a resync of \
devices is necessary etc.

The syncing logic itself resides in the sync engine, which is a separate part. The \
sync engine is responsible for deciding when to call the connect function of a \
plugin, when to read or write from it. The engine also takes care of invoking the \
format conversion functions so that each plugin gets the items in its required \
format.

<p>If you want more information and details about the inner workings of OpenSync, you \
should really visit the opensync.org website or ask its developers.</p>

<h2>Takeoff</h2>

<p><i>&gt; To add some more spice for those of our readers, whose interest you just  \
managed to spawn (or to skyrocket), please tell us where they can get more \
information on the OpenSync Framework, how they can best meet and help  you and how \
they can help improving sync-support for KDE by helping OpenSync.</i></p>

Cornelius: 
Again, the OpenSync web site is the right source for information. Regarding the \
KDE side, the kde-pim@kde.org mailing list is probably the right address. At the \
moment the most important help would be everything which gets the OpenSync 1.0 \
release done.

[And even though] I already said it, it can't be repeated too often: OpenSync will \
be the one unified syncing solution for the free desktop. Cross-device, \
cross-platform, cross-desktop. It's the first time I feel well when thinking \
about syncing ;-).

<p>Armin: </p>
<p>Regarding OpenSync, the best places to ask would be the opensync mailing lists at \
sourceforge or the #opensync irc channel on the freenode.net servers.</p>

There are always a lot of things where we could need a helping hand and where we \
would be really glad to get some help. So everyone who is interested in OpenSync is \
welcome to join.

<p><i>&gt; Many thanks for your time!</i></p>

Cornelius: 
Thanks for doing the interview. It's always fun to talk about OpenSync, because \
it's really the right thing.

Armin: 
Thank you for taking your time and doing this interview. I really appreciate your \
help!

Tobias:
Thanks for your work. Publication and marketing is something that is really \
missing in the open source community. We have nice software but nobody knows ;) \
Further Information on OpenSync can be found on the OpenSync Website: <a \
href="http://www.opensync.org">www.opensync.org</a>

&nbsp;
This Interview was written by Arne Babenhauserheide 
on behalf of himself, the OpenSource Community, SpreadKDE.org and the Dot (<a \
href="http://dot.kde.org">dot.kde.org</a>). It was first published on \
the Dot and is licensed under the <a \
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/">cc-attribution-sharealike-license</a>.
 I hope it got your mouth wet on the thought of the upcoming OpenSync.
A pdf-version with pictures can be found at <a \
href="http://draketo.de/dateien/opensync-interview.pdf">draketo.de</a> (<a \
href="http://draketo.de/dateien/opensync-interview.odt">odt-version \
(koffice)</a>) And if you want to make me happy, just take a look at my \
website and read some of my shortstories, poems and strange ideas or listen to some \
of my songs. Or donate me 10 M&#8364;, so I will never have to work again and \
can commit all my time to my hobbies :) <a>- Arne Babenhauserheide (<a \
href="http://draketo.de">http://draketo.de</a>)- </body>
</html>

["tobias.png" (image/png)]
["OpenSync-Interview.pdf" (application/pdf)]
["OpenSync-Interview.odt" (application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text)]
[Attachment #17 (application/pgp-signature)]

_______________________________________________
This message is from the kde-promo mailing list.

Visit https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-promo to unsubscribe, set digest on \
or temporarily stop your subscription.

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 