Amarok/Community/K3mImpressions
The KDE multimedia meeting was an invaluable asset to the Amarok development team. It provided us with an optimal environment for meeting each other, having fun and developing effective roadmaps and understanding of the directions which we will take in the future.
Allowing the development squad to meet in a central location for a continuous amount of time was excellent. This has without a doubt strengthened our bond as co-developers, and fuelled great enthusiasm and motivation to work on the project.
Some of the technical achievements which occured include:
- Substantial optimisations in the Context, Playlist and Media browsers
- Usage of iNotify technology
- Script manager UI changes
- Beginnings of a port to the new Qt4 api
- Major user interface redesigns
- Brainstorming of future, cutting edge technologies
These achievements would not have been possible in such a short period of time without the ability to discuss changes with those developers sitting beside each other. It was possible to sketch interfaces, create algorithm designs and decide upon appropriate design patterns in group meetings and each developer was able to provide personal opinions and feedback.
One of the highlights of the meeting was a substantial and thorough hour long discussion about the direction which we, as developers, should take. This forum included past experiences, future developments (Amarok 2.0, and general design methodologies), licensing, plugins, bugs, quality management and a host of further topics.
This meeting no doubt exceeded anybody's expectations. Smoothly run, hassle free and productive - surely there could be no better way to create an effective environment for programming!