Handbrake OSD project
Handbrake recap:
HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. Essentially HandBrake is a video encoder that takes your movies and transfers them to a format that’s useful on your computers, media centers, and portable electronic devices.
Handbrake developers are a little bit funny. The mail list is completely ignored (it is advised that new developers actually don’t even sign up for it) and most of the dev discussions take place on IRC or via a discussion forum on the handbrake website, on which my account is still pending approval. Most of the developers involved are focusing on the backend/coding of converting software. Interface design is virtually ignored, which could explain a few things. Something of interest: because HandBrake is a multi platform app, its visual appearance/interface is different from platform to platform. This seems to have something to do with the way the GUI works between os x/linux platforms and windows platforms. Might be an idea to unifty the appearance across platforms.
The main figures/developers on the discussion forum regarding design are Titer (who was the main developer and is referred to as ‘the godfather‘…riggggghhht), Ritsuka, benlake and dynaflash who all seem to have other development rolls as well. In terms of introducing myself to the mix, once I get approval I will participate in the discussion forum and attempt to hop in on some IRC dev chats or use that as a way to garner more info about how to go about contributing to the interface side of HandBrake, which seems like it has potential. Maybe I should have picked a cooler username!
Discussion forum is here.
Brief: Reports from you OSD project + Mainpages
I want to start switching gears towards the final assignment. So each one of you should post about your progress with your OS project of choice:
- Sign up to the development mailinglist of the project
- Tell us who are the leading figures
- What are the leading issues
- Try to search for ‘design’ and ‘interface’ as a keyword in the discussion. What were the discussions around it, where did they lead? Are there already interface designers involved? How do proposals appear on the list? Is there a discussion? Do people meet in person?
- Is there a development blog? A forum? Where is the development taking place
- When you get to the step of introducing yourself / offering help, what do you think will be the best way to do that?
- Based on what you’ve learned so far and the feedback you got in class, what do you think can be your contribution to the project?
- Write all of these assessments in a post by Thursday, April 10th, 8pm.
I think we made some progress in the workshop yesterday and I want to be done with the main page by next week, so we need to still keep up the pace. Let’s break it down again:
By Tomorrow, April 5th, noon:
- Post a comment to your posts summing the feedback you got in class.
- Post at least three more comments to two of your fellow students.
By Tuesday, April 8th, noon:
- Submit a link to your blog with the header.php and footer.php index.php & sidebar.php implemented according to your design (in other words - the main page - ready) Like last week, with this link post a screenshot of the page too (it will be important for the documentation of your process)
By Wednesday, April 9th, noon:
- Post at least 4 comments to your fellow students on what they posted.
By Thursday, April 10th, 8pm:
- Post the link + screenshot of your main page, done. (by Friday next week your main page should be ready for critique as a WP theme).
And again, if you’re stuck, use the mailing list. If you learned a cool trick and want to share, use the mailing list. If somebody got stuck and you think you might be able to help, use the mailing list.
Enjoy.
