A Qt frontend to aptitude as a GSoC project?

I’m currently trying to convince (and hopefully succeeding) Daniel Burrows to co-mentor a Qt frontend for aptitude.

But for that a student is needed. http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2010/Aptitude-Qt for first draft of project.

http://wiki.debian.org/gsoc for information about GSoC and debian
and #debian-soc on irc.debian.org if you prefer that communication media.

13 comments on “A Qt frontend to aptitude as a GSoC project?
  1. mat69 says:

    I don’t really think that a new frontend is needed, I mean we have KPackageKit and now also Shaman2. Imo either one of both should be supported further.

  2. Fazer says:

    How about fixing KPackageKit instead?

  3. sune says:

    mat60, fazer: last I looked, packagekit was still beyond repair by design for debian based systems.

  4. Markus says:

    Then repair PackageKit’s apt backend and fix KPackageKit.
    No need to reinvent the wheel over and over again, esp. since that last approach (Adept) died because it had only a single maintainer and he grew tired of it during the beta period of the Qt4 port.

    • sune says:

      Hi Markus
      PackageKit is still broken by design and beyond repair. ‘Tear it down and build it up again’ is the best way forward for that project. It is not a project that I have much interest in, as I don’t believe you can get any further from the ‘basic’ package management tasks with tools that are abstracting the platform away (and hiding the advanced things).

  5. Asweek says:

    Please, better contribute/fix to Shaman or/and KpackageKit.

  6. Lin says:

    Well how about a KDE front end to aptitude. Do a better job and mazke it push that piece of crap KPackageKit. Because KPackageKit is worst than anything I ever seen. KCrashKit should be more like it.

    • sune says:

      Hi Lin

      Wether or not it will be a Qt only project or a KDE project is kind of a implementation detail from my side. A Qt app will use oxygen when run under KDE and as such fully fit in.
      I guess it depends on if the project needs to use kparts or kio.

  7. WhE says:

    Hello all

    From my perspective (as a student) it is a quite interesting project. I have 4 days remaining to an application deadline and I will try to prepare my application form. Is there any place where I could ask for more details about this project? Aptitude-devel mailing list looks nearly dead. Are there any more appropriate places? Any links and advices are much appreciated.

    BTW. Sorry for my English. It’s not my mother tongue ;)

  8. mat69 says:

    @sune so you have said multiple times that PackageKit is broken, but no words on Shaman2. I really think that forces should not be split as imo man-power is our main problem.

  9. Dario says:

    Sune,

    please have a look in playground/sysadmin/shaman. It is almost there, and with a GSoC for finishing it up (with special regards towards apt) it will be a great addition not only to Debian, but to the whole KDE as well. I can also comentor you for this project. Mail me if you want to have more details.

  10. Daniel Burrows says:

    I want to make my position on this clear. If Sune can find a student to work on it and convince enough other developers that it’s worthwhile, then I’m happy to accept patches and give the student and Sune advice about the apt/aptitude side of things (Sune has offered to be the primary point of contact).

    However, I don’t think this project is a particularly good use of resources. aptitude already has one GUI frontend, and I’d much rather spend my time mentoring a student who wants to get that frontend closer to a state where I can happily recommend that people use it.

    I will not support this proposal in the SoC process, but I won’t strongly oppose it either.

  11. cochise says:

    Hi. consider the Shaman 2 project:
    http://drfav.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/introducing-shaman-a-new-universal-package-management-frontend/

    I don’t know if actualy it’s a QT or KDE project, but shaman 1 is only QT

3 Pings/Trackbacks for "A Qt frontend to aptitude as a GSoC project?"
  1. […] Vuorela proponuje stworzenie interfejsu dla aptitude w Qt w ramach Google Summer of […]

  2. […] Vuorela proponuje stworzenie interfejsu dla aptitude w Qt w ramach Google Summer of […]

  3. […] Vuorela proponuje stworzenie interfejsu dla aptitude w Qt w ramach Google Summer of […]