International Open Source Team: Interview with Vlad Vasiliev (Other Maemo Weather)
First of all, having risen in the morning, yawning and removing my beloved device from charging, many, like me, will find out “what is the weather today?”. But in our age of high technology it is not necessary to go to the window and look at the thermometer, you just need to put the applet on the desktop of your tablet and you are always up-to-date with data on precipitation, wind and temperature a few days in advance! The program Other Maemo Weather is one of the most popular applications developed for the Maemo platform by the development team led by Vladislav Vasiliev. Vladislav gladly told us about the new version of the applet, shared the story of its creation and told about his team.
ShutteR: Dear Vladislav, you are one of the very developers
famous program for internet tablets Nokia, tell us how
the idea of creating this utility was born?
Vlad: I started developing this applet when the platform (Maemo) was
less than a year. Then there were very few programs for her and for me personally
there was not enough program that would conveniently show the forecast
weather Actually, I don’t have my Internet tablet yet.
It was. I gave my one good friend to use. AND
the platform that stood on it struck me with its openness and
opportunity to experiment.
')
ShutteR: When did this software first appear?
Vlad: The first version (0.1) was released on September 26, 2006. I did not do it
announcements, but thanks to a developed system for projects garage.maemo.org,
the program was noticed and I received some approving reviews
and feature requests. At first, I really
friends Zhenya Kalyuta and Maxim Kalinkevich helped. In general, the main
the ideologue who shaped that look and principles
Modern Omweather is a fairly Famous Person - Ed
Bartosh.
ShutteR: Why Other Maemo Weather? Have there been other suggestions
how to call a program?
Vlad: No, there were no offers. I was originally going to call
Maemo Weather. But, while two months understood how to write
programs for this platform (set up the SDK, studied GTK + and the method
builds of deb-packages) on garage have already registered a project with such
name (https://garage.maemo.org/projects/mweather/) and not for long
thinking not to redo the name in different parts of the project,
just replaced the phrase "Maemo Weather" with "Other Maemo
Weather. " Moreover, the abbreviated name is omweather on the Internet
practically did not occur and means in the future, I hope, no
I will have no problems with trademarks.
ShutteR: Now I would like to ask you some questions about your
team. What kind of people are its members? What countries? In which language
You communicate with each other, and how this communication happens: locally or
virtually?
Vlad: There are a lot of people in the team at the moment. Everyone is busy
a certain occupation. My most important partner and associate
is Pavel Fialko. He is also from Belarus. Two thirds of this
his credit is a very good programmer. We studied together in
Institute and at one time worked at the same enterprise. When I
invited him to connect to the project, then he immediately responded and, so
as I have known him for a long time, I feel very comfortable working with him. Then to
Finn joined the project - Marko Vertainen (he lives in a small
city in central Finland). Marko is developing files
assistance to the program, as well as interface translation in Finnish.
Also in the project involved translators from Italy - Alessandro
Pasotti, Salvatore Fiorenzo, France - Nicolas Granziano, Germany - Claudius Henrichs and Spain - Alejandro Lopez. All these people themselves
offered help and we gladly accept it.
In 2008, Andrei Zhilin painted a new set of icons for omwether
Countur. So I met him. Andrew is a great designer, and
This is a very popular specialty in the world of OpenSource.
In the new version (0.21), all that is connected with the design is his merit. Have
Andrey still has a lot of ideas, so the program will be all the time
to improve both in the field of graphics and in the area of its convenience
use by users.
Then Andrew brought the Canadian team Andrew Olmsted - this fellow
a real GTK hacker, now he is making small patches for the project.
Such, for example, as transparency in the applet, acceleration of gtk
widgets.
Another member of our team is Olga Sidorova from Minsk. She is
developed the site, and now writes the code for hourly forecasts.
I would like to note that a very important point is the presence in
project testers. There are many of them, but there are three people whom I constantly
I send new "builds" to check. This is Arkady Glazov from Peter,
Alexander Savchenko from Belarus, and Andrew (Tabbster) from the USA.
As you can see, our team members live in many parts of the world.
The main language of communication is, of course, English, but those who know
Russian, communicate with each other in Russian, it is more convenient.
I know the half of the team personally. Recently traveled to Finland, where
met live with Marko, and communicate with the rest virtually.
ShutteR: And the development and improvement of omweather for you and your team
Is this work or is it still a hobby?
Vlad: Hobby. In fact, the team is very busy people and
everyone is giving this project a small part of their free
of time.
ShutteR: Does the project need new faces? And if so, whom would you like
see in your team?
Vlad: Yes. There are not enough programmers! We have a lot of ideas and no one
bring them to life. We need translators for the languages that are in
official maemo. Need a web designer for the site.
ShutteR: Vladislav, what is your attitude to the project Maemo? With which
problems you encountered while developing your program?
Vlad: Maemo project is progressively developing. Around him formed
good community. Although, of course, more openness did not stop
would. Nokia, in my opinion, does not fully understand the essence of the Free movement.
Software. One of the main problems is a fairly high level
entries for programmers in this project. Good knowledge is required.
in Linux, package building skills and programming like languages
high level and scripting languages. Big for me
the problem was that Omweather is a desktop applet. System itself
applets in Maemo, it seems to me, was initially poorly thought out. Applet
is not a standalone program, but a library operating in
shared address space with hildon-desktop. Because of this arise
difficulty updating applet. It is necessary to completely overload
device in order to launch a new version. Error (for example,
segmantation fault) in an applet causes the entire desktop to drop.
Nokia has been constantly changing the API for applets for two years.
table and we had to expend efforts to adapt to each new
version of maemo. The only exception is the transition from chinook to
diablo, it went more or less smoothly.
ShutteR: It is now rumored that Nokia may switch to qt, will you
rewrite your plugin?
Vlad: If the basis of the new desktop will be qt, and there still
applets will remain, then most likely yes.
ShutteR: What is your opinion, is it better to switch to qt or leave everything as is?
Vlad: It's easier to leave it at that. Gtk is not so bad, but I'm afraid that
business laws are such that Nokia will not develop two similar
platforms.
ShutteR: Now, could you tell us about the new version of omweather (0.21).
What is new? What amenities and extras
have added?
Vlad: This version came out quite recently (August 15), we were working on
its creation is almost six months. This is not a stable version and it
designed for advanced user testing. Main
Changes affected the appearance and usability of omwetaher
"Fingers" (finger friendly). All design changes are due to our
Chief Designer Andrei Zilin, who did a lot of work on
processing the appearance of the program. Andrew Olmsted redid the code
responsible for transparency. This allowed us to choose the level
background transparency for the applet. Also, thanks to the criticism, we decided
reduce the size of the package by breaking it into two. Now this is omwetaher himself and
package with a database of cities and countries with codes to get forecasts
weather Most likely in the next versions we will continue this work and
separate the icons from the main package. In the new version appeared
the ability to add on the main form the wind speed for each
of the day And one of the major innovations is a welcome improvement.
change the size and type of font on the appearance of the plugin. Now we
We are starting work on connecting new sources of weather forecasts,
such as wwwa.accuweather.com, r5.ru, www.yr.no and
weatherunderground.com
ShutteR: What additions and improvements are expected in new versions of omweather?
Vlad: Continue to work on improvements in design and management
an applet. As I said, the most important task for us now is
Add new sources of weather forecasts. May be added
new display options. Shooting modes will also be taken.
from space with the boundaries of the fronts. In the near future more
Detailed weather for the next day, painted by the hour. Will be
new icon sets have been added, and we can also make an option when
Our application can work not only as a desktop plug-in, but also as
separate program.
ShutteR : Vladislav, how do you use your program? In which mode
display and what type of icons do you prefer?
Vlad: I almost always have a pill with me, so omweather
I use constantly. To a greater extent, I control the appearance of any
or bugs. Since the development process is ongoing, you need all the time
something to test. I usually use combination mode.
I prefer the grzankas icon set.
Here is an interesting and lively interview. Heartily
I wish the project omweather further prosperity and I would like everything
ideas that the guys thought up were realized! Thanks Vlad!
Author Yuri Shiryaev aka ShutteR
ShutteR: Dear Vladislav, you are one of the very developers
famous program for internet tablets Nokia, tell us how
the idea of creating this utility was born?
Vlad: I started developing this applet when the platform (Maemo) was
less than a year. Then there were very few programs for her and for me personally
there was not enough program that would conveniently show the forecast
weather Actually, I don’t have my Internet tablet yet.
It was. I gave my one good friend to use. AND
the platform that stood on it struck me with its openness and
opportunity to experiment.
')
ShutteR: When did this software first appear?
Vlad: The first version (0.1) was released on September 26, 2006. I did not do it
announcements, but thanks to a developed system for projects garage.maemo.org,
the program was noticed and I received some approving reviews
and feature requests. At first, I really
friends Zhenya Kalyuta and Maxim Kalinkevich helped. In general, the main
the ideologue who shaped that look and principles
Modern Omweather is a fairly Famous Person - Ed
Bartosh.
ShutteR: Why Other Maemo Weather? Have there been other suggestions
how to call a program?
Vlad: No, there were no offers. I was originally going to call
Maemo Weather. But, while two months understood how to write
programs for this platform (set up the SDK, studied GTK + and the method
builds of deb-packages) on garage have already registered a project with such
name (https://garage.maemo.org/projects/mweather/) and not for long
thinking not to redo the name in different parts of the project,
just replaced the phrase "Maemo Weather" with "Other Maemo
Weather. " Moreover, the abbreviated name is omweather on the Internet
practically did not occur and means in the future, I hope, no
I will have no problems with trademarks.
ShutteR: Now I would like to ask you some questions about your
team. What kind of people are its members? What countries? In which language
You communicate with each other, and how this communication happens: locally or
virtually?
Vlad: There are a lot of people in the team at the moment. Everyone is busy
a certain occupation. My most important partner and associate
is Pavel Fialko. He is also from Belarus. Two thirds of this
his credit is a very good programmer. We studied together in
Institute and at one time worked at the same enterprise. When I
invited him to connect to the project, then he immediately responded and, so
as I have known him for a long time, I feel very comfortable working with him. Then to
Finn joined the project - Marko Vertainen (he lives in a small
city in central Finland). Marko is developing files
assistance to the program, as well as interface translation in Finnish.
Also in the project involved translators from Italy - Alessandro
Pasotti, Salvatore Fiorenzo, France - Nicolas Granziano, Germany - Claudius Henrichs and Spain - Alejandro Lopez. All these people themselves
offered help and we gladly accept it.
In 2008, Andrei Zhilin painted a new set of icons for omwether
Countur. So I met him. Andrew is a great designer, and
This is a very popular specialty in the world of OpenSource.
In the new version (0.21), all that is connected with the design is his merit. Have
Andrey still has a lot of ideas, so the program will be all the time
to improve both in the field of graphics and in the area of its convenience
use by users.
Then Andrew brought the Canadian team Andrew Olmsted - this fellow
a real GTK hacker, now he is making small patches for the project.
Such, for example, as transparency in the applet, acceleration of gtk
widgets.
Another member of our team is Olga Sidorova from Minsk. She is
developed the site, and now writes the code for hourly forecasts.
I would like to note that a very important point is the presence in
project testers. There are many of them, but there are three people whom I constantly
I send new "builds" to check. This is Arkady Glazov from Peter,
Alexander Savchenko from Belarus, and Andrew (Tabbster) from the USA.
As you can see, our team members live in many parts of the world.
The main language of communication is, of course, English, but those who know
Russian, communicate with each other in Russian, it is more convenient.
I know the half of the team personally. Recently traveled to Finland, where
met live with Marko, and communicate with the rest virtually.
ShutteR: And the development and improvement of omweather for you and your team
Is this work or is it still a hobby?
Vlad: Hobby. In fact, the team is very busy people and
everyone is giving this project a small part of their free
of time.
ShutteR: Does the project need new faces? And if so, whom would you like
see in your team?
Vlad: Yes. There are not enough programmers! We have a lot of ideas and no one
bring them to life. We need translators for the languages that are in
official maemo. Need a web designer for the site.
ShutteR: Vladislav, what is your attitude to the project Maemo? With which
problems you encountered while developing your program?
Vlad: Maemo project is progressively developing. Around him formed
good community. Although, of course, more openness did not stop
would. Nokia, in my opinion, does not fully understand the essence of the Free movement.
Software. One of the main problems is a fairly high level
entries for programmers in this project. Good knowledge is required.
in Linux, package building skills and programming like languages
high level and scripting languages. Big for me
the problem was that Omweather is a desktop applet. System itself
applets in Maemo, it seems to me, was initially poorly thought out. Applet
is not a standalone program, but a library operating in
shared address space with hildon-desktop. Because of this arise
difficulty updating applet. It is necessary to completely overload
device in order to launch a new version. Error (for example,
segmantation fault) in an applet causes the entire desktop to drop.
Nokia has been constantly changing the API for applets for two years.
table and we had to expend efforts to adapt to each new
version of maemo. The only exception is the transition from chinook to
diablo, it went more or less smoothly.
ShutteR: It is now rumored that Nokia may switch to qt, will you
rewrite your plugin?
Vlad: If the basis of the new desktop will be qt, and there still
applets will remain, then most likely yes.
ShutteR: What is your opinion, is it better to switch to qt or leave everything as is?
Vlad: It's easier to leave it at that. Gtk is not so bad, but I'm afraid that
business laws are such that Nokia will not develop two similar
platforms.
ShutteR: Now, could you tell us about the new version of omweather (0.21).
What is new? What amenities and extras
have added?
Vlad: This version came out quite recently (August 15), we were working on
its creation is almost six months. This is not a stable version and it
designed for advanced user testing. Main
Changes affected the appearance and usability of omwetaher
"Fingers" (finger friendly). All design changes are due to our
Chief Designer Andrei Zilin, who did a lot of work on
processing the appearance of the program. Andrew Olmsted redid the code
responsible for transparency. This allowed us to choose the level
background transparency for the applet. Also, thanks to the criticism, we decided
reduce the size of the package by breaking it into two. Now this is omwetaher himself and
package with a database of cities and countries with codes to get forecasts
weather Most likely in the next versions we will continue this work and
separate the icons from the main package. In the new version appeared
the ability to add on the main form the wind speed for each
of the day And one of the major innovations is a welcome improvement.
change the size and type of font on the appearance of the plugin. Now we
We are starting work on connecting new sources of weather forecasts,
such as wwwa.accuweather.com, r5.ru, www.yr.no and
weatherunderground.com
ShutteR: What additions and improvements are expected in new versions of omweather?
Vlad: Continue to work on improvements in design and management
an applet. As I said, the most important task for us now is
Add new sources of weather forecasts. May be added
new display options. Shooting modes will also be taken.
from space with the boundaries of the fronts. In the near future more
Detailed weather for the next day, painted by the hour. Will be
new icon sets have been added, and we can also make an option when
Our application can work not only as a desktop plug-in, but also as
separate program.
ShutteR : Vladislav, how do you use your program? In which mode
display and what type of icons do you prefer?
Vlad: I almost always have a pill with me, so omweather
I use constantly. To a greater extent, I control the appearance of any
or bugs. Since the development process is ongoing, you need all the time
something to test. I usually use combination mode.
I prefer the grzankas icon set.
Here is an interesting and lively interview. Heartily
I wish the project omweather further prosperity and I would like everything
ideas that the guys thought up were realized! Thanks Vlad!
Author Yuri Shiryaev aka ShutteR
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/37612/
All Articles