[Savannah-cvs] [147] SavannahHackingIdeas - new page

[Assaf Gordon]

Revision: 147
          
http://svn.sv.gnu.org/viewvc/?view=rev&root=administration&revision=147
Author:   agn
Date:     2015-03-12 05:50:08 +0000 (Thu, 12 Mar 2015)
Log Message:
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SavannahHackingIdeas - new page

Added Paths:
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    trunk/sviki/SavannahHackingIdeas.mdwn

Added: trunk/sviki/SavannahHackingIdeas.mdwn
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+Developing new features
+-----------------------
+
+(the following section lists my opinions
+([assaf's](https://savannah.gnu.org/u/agn)), based on personal experience,
+and is not official savannah views, wish-lists or future plans. There is no
+guarentee any of the listed ideas will ever be accepted or implemented,
+or even considered worth-while.)
+
+New features are welcomed! Do send ideas and patches.
+
+See also [[HowToBecomeASavannahHacker]].
+
+Savannah is unique among code-hosting services in that it dates back to
+September 2000, and hosts code that dates back to
+[1986](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/mit-scheme.git/commit/?id=672cc042191770b427e4b0dd3e745fe7bfe10538).
+It supports cvs,svn,bzr,hg,git repositories, rsync access, mailing lists
+with 15 years of archives, and more. It is also a primary hosting service
+for official GNU packages, and is used by veteran, experienced (and very
+opinionated) people.
+
+Savannah values [Software Freedom](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/) above
+all else, which has some implications regarding features which are availble
+on other websites (e.g. heavy use of
+[Javascript](http://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/), or enabling
+[SaaSS](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html)).
+
+As a result, savannah as a whole tends to be conservative regarding changes.
+Please keep that in mind when suggesting new features.
+
+a list of ideas which I think are interesting, in no particular order:
+
+1. Automating project evalution: a program/website which takes an
+    archive of source-code files, analyzes them and produces a report.
+    A working beta is available here: <http://gnueval.housegordon.org>.
+    Source code is here: <http://git.housegordon.org/cgit/gsv-eval.git/>.
+    The code could use a lot of clean up, testing, and improvements.
+2. Developing a light-weight web interface to post bug reports to the GNU
+    bug tracker <http://debbugs.gnu.org>. Note that the Debian DebBugs team
+    strictly opposes to such web-based interface, insisting only on email.
+    But with Savannah, we have an advantage: users are logged-in,
+    and savannah knows their email address. It also knows the list of valid
+    projects - thus, a webinterface could simply be a wrapper around sending
+    an email from the savannah user.
+3. Running savannah services locally. Not only the web-frontend (See
+    'Working on Savannah website' section above), but all the different
+    savannah hosts. Documentating how to configure then locally, and/or set
+    them up from scratch will help future administrators and contributors.
+    Especially: setting up a 'sandbox' environment for DebBugs.
+4. Migrating the web-pages of hosted projects from CVS to Git. See more
+    details initial discussion here:
+    
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-hackers-public/2014-11/msg00001.html>,
+5. Improving the list of requirements for hosting projects, to complement
+    [[HowToGetYourProjectApprovedQuickly]]. see
+    
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-hackers-public/2014-08/msg00045.html>
+    and
+    
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-hackers-public/2014-08/msg00025.html>
+    and
+    
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-hackers-public/2014-08/msg00040.html>
+6. Rewriting the PHP code using modern frameworks. WARNING: this has been
+    suggested/discussed/attempted many times in the past. Tread lightly.
+7. Phase-out the PHP-based trackers (the bugs/support/tasks interface) -
+    either in favor of the current bug-tracker (DebBugs), or evaluate other
+    possible solutions (BugZilla/Mantis/RequestTracker/Fossil/Others).
+    This must include a way to perseve access to existing items (with the
+    exact current URL). See
+    
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-hackers-public/2011-09/msg00000.html>
+8. Redesign/improve the web interface, make it prettier and more accessible,
+    while keeping it in line current priorities and values (no JS, no tricky
+    CSS, viewable on non-graphic browsers, etc.).
+9. Develping 'sandbox' environments for web-pages updates, and for DebBug
+    learning.
+10. Complement [GNU Hydra](https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/hydra-recipes/),
+    with continious-integration/testing on multiple POSIX platforms.
+    perhaps using [pretest](http://pretest.gnu.org) (disclaimer: that's
+    a project I develop). Integrate with Savannah or GNU projects.
+11. Per-project Wiki, perhaps using 'Jekyll' (need to verify savannah-policy
+    related issues with this).
+12. Provide a Free-as-in-freedom build environment (or instructions to
+    create such build environment) for Windows and Mac OS X platforms.
+    See <http://lilypond.org/gub/>.
+13. Pruning the wiki pages, removing some cruft, merging similar pages
+    and splitting too-long pages. See [[HowToAdminThisWiki]].
+14. Explore allowing non-fast-forward commits on non-master branches,
+    both from technical POV and from Savannah-policy POV.
+    See: 
<http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/savannah-hackers-public/2015-01/msg00011.html>