Since LaKademy post, many changes happened, i will not tell you ALL my life, but here some points related to KDE and FLOSS. You can jump to my small resumé or directlly to Randa part if you want ;-)

First, here in Brazil, almost all universities and federal institutes (a kind of tecnical school) was at strike until some weeks ago. This mean that i still giving the class about development practices and now i am using the Rocs all days on the data structures class (we are talking about graphs);

Second this week (yesterday), i sent my master’s thesis. Now i have one less ‘worry’ and is just one more step (i must defend it in about one month) to get my master’s degree \o/

And the last one, at FISL (http://softwarelivre.org/fisl13) i met some old friends from kde-Brasil (Filipe, Sandro, Tomaz, Diogo, Melissa,…), Knut from Qt (this is the 4º year in a row that we met, and this year he dance a lot :-D ). Off course that i don’t forget about new faces, some designers (Iaina, Viviane, Julia and Bruna), Sebas, many new faces from Brazil (Daker and his crowed talk, André Loureiro) and many others. And how i will forget the Konqui? (and yes, i cannot resist to became Konqui)

Enough of personal experiences, let’s talk about KDE. :)

Just a small background about my life and KDE relationship

I start to colaborate to KDE in 2009. In 2010 i participated the GSoC. In 2011, my master’s course starts to take more time and i began to work as Professor at UNIPAMPA. I contribute very little that year.

This year i am back. I made a new plugin to Rocs (rooted tree data structures), fix some crashs and i still trying to involve my students with KDE or FLOSS (there is just one JJ in Nepomuk fixed until now. They are also contribuing to other small FLOSS projects). But, i feel that i can do more. Now that i finished my thesis, i will have more time to work on KDE. I want to revive the KDE-RS (our local group, an arm (or finger) of KDE-Brasil), give more talks about ‘How KDE and FLOSS can help the students in thiers homework’ and some talks in elementary schools about how the teachers can use all the power of our softwares (just a small point, here in Brazil, almost all school have labs running KDE, an ancient version 4.4, even 3.5 in some cases, but still being KDE :) ). We did that courses to teachers las year, was great and kde on windows(tm) was very helpfull (teachers isn’t used to Linux). To do this, i need to review my priorities. Used to be Master’s degree, now i want to Focus KDE again, and not only in Rocs, i want to spread my wings.

Randa meetings

To those that are arriving from Moon today and don’t yet read the news, friday starts the Randa Meetings 2012. As you can read in all these other blog posts, Randa is a SMALL village sorrounded by mountains, isolated from the outter world (but we will have internet access. It’s Magic! In my city, internet is a luxury :( ). One place like Randa is wonderfull to do intelectual work (like hack and planning).

I will attend to Randa this year, and it will be GREAT. First because it’s my first sprint outside Brazil (it’s not my first sprint, i participate from Akademy-BR and LaKademy). I will meet peoples that i only have contact by internet. I will know more about others KDE projects by it’s own authors, what is good if you want to fix a bug or even start to help the projetct. And last but not least, i will know europe (at least it’s airports :) )

I have some plans to do in Randa, most related to Rocs, other to kde-edu module:
-Create a ‘non-gui’ mode (or cmake target) to run batch tests in Rocs;
-Create a comparation framework to help professors to evaluate students works;
-Fix the annoying crash in Rooted tree (‘I hate my life’);
-Separate dynamic properties to use new type system. (create new type of property: ‘Global in Type’, or a better name);
-Verify with ‘kde-edu’ers, the unmaintained projects;
-Know more about others projects

The title of this post is what i’m felling. I will reboot at Randa and start a new upgraded system :)

This post was to be wrote some weeks ago, but i had many activities to do before leave to Randa (we are at and of semester on university so tests, works, many doubts from students,…). But, i love my life (i’m looking at you, Sebas :p )

As final word, i want to thank Mario and other organizers for theirs great job organizing this Randa Meetings, and also to every one that colaborated (or that will colaborate) with our Pledgie. You still have time to donate, so if have conditions, please support the KDE Hackers to enhance our so loved KDE.

Faz um certo tempo que estou sumido, mas agora estou de volta.

Primeiro, para quem estava de férias em Marte nos últimos meses, está ocorrendo desde sexta-feira (27/03) em Porto Alegre o LaKademy (Conferência latino-americana de colaboradores do KDE – http://br.kde.org/LAkademy). Essa é a primeira edição desse evento e posso adiantar que não será a última.

Para quem não sabe o que pessoas colaboradoras de um projeto de software livre fazem em um evento desse tipo, segue uma breve explicação. Esses eventos tem por objetivo de estreitar os laços entre os colaboradores, além de propiciar um ambiente MUITO produtivo. Para isso, esses eventos são em uma casa/hotel/hostel/fazenda… onde as pessoas sonham com códigos, traduzem documentação para o café da manhã, escovam bits e jantam idéias de como podemos ser mais úteis à comunidade (e ao mundo, em consequência).

Como reunimos um grande número de colaboradores do KDE, conseguimos ter uma grande bolha de conhecimento onde sempre existe alguém que sabe resolver algum problema que estamos enfrentando, além é claro de conseguirmos ter melhores idéias quando pensamos coletivamente.

Mas bem, eu vou dar um breve relato dos acontecimentos aqui do LaKademy:
Eu cheguei na noite anterior ao início do evento (quinta) pois estava aqui na região resolvendo uns problemas de um outro projeto de pesquisa que participo. Rapaz! foi muito bom rever os amigos (alguns que não via a mais de 2 anos) e também conhecer novos amigos.

Durante o primeiro dia, me concentrei em colocar o plugin de árvores enraizadas no repositório do Rocs. Ele estava em um repositório paralelo e teve que sofrer algumas atualizações (o git estava bloqueado na universidade e devido a péssima qualidade do serviço de internet estamos sem internet em casa, isso significa que minha base de código estava desatualizada). Andreas Cord-Landwehr (CoLa) está trabalhando numa nova funcionalidade que permitirá ter camadas de grafos tanto em nível de arestas quanto de nós (Good work CoLa!), por isso precisei refatorar parte do código do plugin de árvores. Esse plugin já está no repositório e pode ser baixado e testado.

No segundo dia nós fomos para o FLISOL, Festival Latino Amricano de Instalação de Software Livre (http://www.installfest.net/FLISOL2012/Brasil/PortoAlegre) com a palestra (conversa/debate/fórum) “KDE, a vida, o universo e tudo mais” (muito obrigado pelo convite Luiz H. Rauber e aos patrocinadores pelo apoio ao Flisol). Nós ficamos quase todo o dia por lá, então foi legal que algumas pessoas vieram na sala que estavamos fazendo o sprint para saber mais sobre o KDE. Durante a palestra, nós conversamos com os presentes para responder dúvidas e acabar com mitos como de que o KDE é pesado, lento e instável. Nós percebemos que as pessoas tem essa visão que o KDE não bom baseado em uma versão muito antiga do KDE (4.0 que foi lançada em 2008). Para acabar com esse mito, foi apresentamos alguns dados para mostrar que o KDE evoluiu e que o que as questões de lentidão, instabilidade e consumo de recursos não são mais um problema nas versões atuais. Sábado foi basicamente isso, depois voltamos e codificamos mais um pouco.

No Domingo (terceiro dia) foi o dia de nos reunirmos para analisar como o KDE está na américa latina e quais são as ações futuras. Um dos principais pontos é como expandir nossos territórios :). Brincadeiras a parte, nós levantamos alguns pontos como por exemplo como nós como KDE podemos apresentar nossas soluções de software para as pessoas que nunca ouviram falar em KDE? ou como mostrar para um novato no mundo de desenvolvimento como o KDE pode facilitar a vida dele? Esses foram alguns pontos mais de provocação, mas já temos algumas linhas de ações que serão disponibilizadas pelo KDE-Brasil em breve.

A segunda foi um dia que teve um ótimo rendimento para os hackers do KDE, não tivemos reuniões nem pessoas chegando, ou seja, todos estavam imersos nos seus computadores. No Rocs consegui resolver alguns defeitos e implementar uma funcionalidade que impede o uso ferramentas específicas para uma estrutura de dados em outra (não faz sentido gerar um grafo completo se estamos trabalhando com um lista ligada, ou faz?).

A terça foi um dia de muitas caras tristes. Tudo tem um fim. Uma parte do pessoal foi embora de madrugada, então na segunda a noite já estávamos nos despedindo e já sentindo uma pontinha de saudade. No restante do dia fomos tentando trabalhar enquanto nos despediamos dos nossos amigos e anfitriões.

Para finalizar, eu vejo o LaKademy, como outros tipos de sprints, como sendo um ótimo evento para conhecer os novos colaboradores e também para unir ainda mais os colaboradores antigos. Em uma metodologia de desenvolvimento de software distribuido, esses encontros são, ao meu ver, funcamentais, deles saem novas ideias e novos projetos (fiquem de olho no liveblue.wordpress.com nos próximos dias).

Ainda estou aqui em Porto Alegre, mas já estou ancioso pelo próximo evento :)

First, i was a bit away of blogs (near a year now), but not away from KDE.

At the end of the last year, I and my wife (a newcomer here in LaKademy), started to work as teachers. A good way to spread the FOSS among students. As result of being teacher, i wrote a new plugin to rocs, the Rooted tree data structure to teach trees to my students. Also, in this period, i am giving a class about development tools and good practices (all using FOSS tools and communities as examples). I hope to see some patchs in KDE’s review board from my students.

The rooted tree plugin was presented to other students (another class) and they like a lot (they can ‘see’ the pointers), but i will talk more about it in another post (maybe with some photos).

Well, as you all should know (unless you live in another planet), today LaKademy started, here is some pics http://t.co/PL70O7a0 and http://t.co/PL70O7a0 .

Today i moved the Rooted tree plugin, that was in my scratch repo, to rocs source, so give a try and tell me what you think. There is a example script that implements a simple BST (with rotation, search and insert).

Well, our day started at 8:00 and we still have some hours of work, so I still working in some tests cases.

Bye for now!

Date: Next Saturday, day 28 of January.
Time: Start at 17h.
Where: Eldenaer Straße 28A, an easy walk away from S/U-bahn station Frankfurther Alee:

And for those who prefer it a Google maps link.

Who can come: anyone who can claim a passing relationship to either KDE, openSUSE, Jos or me is more than welcome. Having read this blog counts…
What to bring: We’d appreciate it if you bring a happy disposition as well as as well as something to drink and possibly snack.
What will happen:

• First, we’ll welcome-hug you. Sorry, but there’s no way around it.
• Second, you’ll get fed. Jos will unleash his cooking mania in the kitchen. Be aware: some of you will be put to work, either cooking or cleaning. The food will be vegan. Probably curry-like but no promises.
• The plan is to then all indulge ourselves on a variety of liquids – depends on what you bring, but we’ll have some real Brazilian caipirinha too. If you don’t want to carry anything, there’s a Lidl on the other side of the street and a 24h shop downstairs ;-)

What to do to be there: comment below and/or sign up on the release party page. And put it in your agenda…

Love,
C&J

I know I’ve been away, for personal reasons, but KDE’s always there, on my machine.
It was through this community that I met great friends, here e and around the world…e the love of my life.

That’s where I learned to hug who I had never seen before, it was where I learned to speak English, was where I learned to program and that’s where I found many elegant, beautiful and sincere people.

Congratulations KDE!!  Thanks for everything!

Eu sei que ando sumida, por motivos pessoais, mas o KDE tá sempre lá, na minha máquina.
Foi através dessa comunidade que eu conheci grandes amigos, daqui e do mundo inteiro…e o amor da minha vida.

Foi onde eu aprendi a abraçar quem eu nunca tinha visto antes, foi onde eu aprendi a falar em inglês, foi onde eu aprendi a programar e foi onde eu descobri muita gente elegante, bonita e sincera.

Parabéns KDE! E obrigada por tudo!

Desktop Summit

It was awesome because:

• It was really nice to see new brazilian people (good friends!) attending and doing good work for KDE. You can see pictures here.
• Really good keynotes, like the Stuart Jarvis’s about “Why are we here? (Community Keynote)“. The graphics and the quotes in the slides were very intersting (they’ll be put on the website soon).

• I got a Tablet in the “Intel AppUp Application Lab for Meego“! Good workshop and good Tablet =)
• I attended in the BoF of KDE-Promo were Stuart Jarvis, Carl Symons, Frank Karlitschek , Thomas Thym and others discussed about the KDE birthday (october!) , about the KDE People from Latin America that should try to publish more news from these countries in the dot.kde.org (that’s important!) and that we need more documentation about how to get more companies “involved” with KDE. (you can follow the KDE Promo e-mail list to know more)
• I attended in the Kolab: The Groupware for the Free Desktop BoF, where I figured out that I need to study about KDE PIM ;-)
• I also figured out that Mai Tai is really dangerous – don’t drink more than two or you will
  try to hug and say how much you love people you never saw before!
• I met Jonathan Riddellin person, my GSoC Mentor.

The only bad thing about Desktop Summit 2011:

• The potatoes were awesome, but the most of the dishes were with pork! I don’t feel like eating pork meat for the rest for the year…

GSoC

The difficulties:

• The lack of knowledge in C++/Qt. I didn’t have a lot of experience with C++/Qt when I started which made me lose some time with stupid errors, but I believe I wasn’t the only one with this problem in GSoC.
• In the beginning I was afraid about the changes that I should do in Umbrello, how to do it properly, the best way to do it.
• I took some time to communicate properly with my mentor. I shouldn’t feel so insecure about it.
• I didn’t enjoy too much to work from home.
• Concluding: my difficulties weren’t so much about the code, but more personal difficulties. I think I wrote a ambitious project which would wait more dedication from me and I didn’t give all the needed dedication. So I didn’t conclude the project in time.

What I did to overcome it:

• Looking for help! Mainly from KDE people that I already knew in person.
• With this help, I had good ideas about how to proceed properly with the port:  keep the old canvas working with the new canvas to keep comparing the code, using preprocessor directives in the old code and developing the new Umbrello in a different folder in the same project.
• After the midterm evaluation I started to skype with my mentor.

The project for now:

• I did start to merge my code in the trunk in a new branche: http://websvn.kde.org/branches/work/umbrello-qgv-port/
• I have the EntityWidget “working” with some bugs: http://websvn.kde.org/branches/work/soc-umbrello-2011/
• And as I intended to do, I have the old canvas and new canvas working together as you can see in my previous posts about the project.
• I planned to use Squish (Squish Community Edition – froglogic Squish), an software for automated GUI tests. I had some problems with this, because I was creating long tests, so the tool couldn’t find all the objects from the script in the object library, but at the Desktop Summit I talked to and asked for help from blauzahl (thanks!) and she gave some tips, like to create short and complexy tests and this useful link: http://kb.froglogic.com/display/KB/Squish+Knowledge+Base. So now I know how to properly create tests and I can keep and execute my plan.

The future:

• These months in the GSoC gave me a good knowledge base to keep working in the Umbrello Port as my conclusion work for college.
• We had a suggestion  how to change the documentation support works in Umbrello: http://people.canonical.com/~jriddell/tmp/umbrelloDoc.pdf
• And soonish we will have the Qt 5, so we will have another port project for Umbrello (but as I was adviced, I should keep with the work to port for QT 4 because the differences to Qt 5 won’t be so big)
• And there is others suggestions about how to make the Umbrello interface better and with more usability.
  (you can follow it in the uml devel mail list)
• Migrate Umbrello to git.
• Write tests using QtestLib.

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After my last talk with my mentor, we decided that would be better to merge what I’ve doing until now in the trunk instead of to wait until the end of the project – that would be so much more work (even now, have been hard to get the new merged branch compiling and working). So for this, I made a branch from the trunk wich I am merging with the soc-umbrello-2011 branch.

The merge result (untill now) you can check here: http://websvn.kde.org/branches/work/umbrello-qgv-port/.

The idea is: if any change will be  done in the trunk, need to be done in the new branch as well.

Bye. Cya at Desktop Summit =)

Here I am, after a while discovering that to work from home is not to everyone, that below your pillow you can find a engagement ring ( = and wondering why QMenu::popup needs receives like parameter type a QPoint instead of QPointF (Is it only in my silly mind that QPointF would make more sense? Am I forgetting something about Qt? Considering that QGraphicsView works with real coordinates).

I am working now in the widgets, so for now, you can see the BoxWidget and the ListPopUpMenu in the “new canvas”, bellow to the “old canvas”.

The video is not so good…so please, check out the repository: http://websvn.kde.org/branches/work/soc-umbrello-2011/

After the evaluation time, my mentor, Jonathan Riddell, and I decided to use skype to improve our interaction :-) and my work.

And with this, my list-to-do just increases:

- make popup menu work
- implement drawing other types of widgets on class diagrams: boxwidget, class, interface..
- mouse press event
- drag and drop events

cya …