GSoC/2012/Ideas: Difference between revisions
| Line 428: | Line 428: | ||
'''Mentor:''' | '''Mentor:''' | ||
Boudewijn Rempt, usability consultant: Bugsbane. | |||
==== Project: ==== | ==== Project: ==== | ||
Revision as of 08:44, 13 February 2012
See also: GSoc Instructions
Guidelines
Information for Students
These ideas were contributed by our developers and users. They are sometimes vague or incomplete. If you wish to submit a proposal based on these ideas, you may wish to contact the developers and find out more about the particular suggestion you're looking at.
Being accepted as a Google Summer of Code student is quite competitive. Accepted students typically have thoroughly researched the technologies of their proposed project and have been in frequent contact with potential mentors. Simply copying and pasting an idea here will not work. On the other hand, creating a completely new idea without first consulting potential mentors is unlikely to work out.
When writing your proposal or asking for help from the general KDE community don't assume people are familiar with the ideas here. KDE is really big!
If there is no specific contact given you can ask questions on the general KDE development list [email protected]. See the KDE mailing lists page for information on available mailing lists and how to subscribe.
Adding a Proposal
Note
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
When adding an idea to this section, please try to include the following data:
- if the application is not widely known, a description of what it does and where its code lives
- a brief explanation
- the expected results
- pre-requisites for working on your project
- if applicable, links to more information or discussions
- mailing list or IRC channel for your application/library/module
- your name and email address for contact (if you're willing to be a mentor)
If you are not a developer but have a good idea for a proposal, get in contact with relevant developers first.
Ideas
How to find ideas? To see previous Project ideas, see: 2011 ideas. Obvious sources of projects are the bugs database, the forum, and your list and IRC channel ideas.
Amarok
Amarok is a powerful KDE based music player for Linux and Unix, MacOS X and Windows with an intuitive interface. It makes playing the music you love and discovering new music easier than ever before - and it looks good doing it!
Website - Mailing list (for proposal submission) - Google+ page - IRC channel: #amarok on Freenode.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Project: QMLify Amarok's context view
Brief explanation: Amarok's context view has been rewritten using Plasma for the beginning of the 2.x series. While this technical choice presented and still presents many advantages, the implementation has been lacking on some fronts for various reasons also unrelated to Plasma. The goal of this project is to rewrite and otherwise conceptually revamp the context view, basing it on QML. Specifically, we require a redesigned set of models, and a way to distribute 3rd party context view applets. Optionally, if there's time, a bit of interface work on new context view widgets would also be nice.
Some interesting reading:
Expected results: Amarok's context view, rewritten for QML.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++ and Qt, QML and SPARQL knowledge a plus.
Mentor: TBD, certainly an Amarok core team member, contact Teo Mrnjavac or Bart Cerneels for details
Project: Semantic desktop collection in Amarok
Brief explanation: Several years ago a Summer of Code student had developed a Nepomuk collection backend for Amarok. At that time however Nepomuk was a very different beast, and mostly for performance and reliability reasons the work was never used. The goal of this project is to pick either Tracker or Nepomuk (or both!) and develop one or more collection backends for those data stores.
Expected results: At least one fully working collection backend based on Nepomuk or Tracker.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++ knowledge, Qt recommended, Nepomuk/Tracker/SPARQL knowledge a plus
Mentor: Teo Mrnjavac, maybe also someone from Nepomuk?
Project: Tomahawk features in Amarok
Brief explanation: Tomahawk is a cross platform, open source social media player that allows users to share music seamlessly and listen to it anytime, anywhere. The goal of this project is to implement the same features in Amarok and maintain compatibility with Tomahawk
Expected results: Implement a service in Amarok that allows users to share their music files with online friends and allows them to listen to the tracks via stream
Knowledge Prerequisite: Qt/KDE development(includes C++ and git), streaming
Mentor: Bart Cerneels
Project: Amarok unit testing
Brief explanation: Since recently Amarok has a continuous integration system. This is awesome, but we can hardly exploit its advantages without good unit test coverage. Amarok does have some unit tests, but they are few and mostly out of date. The goal of this project is to assess the current unit testing situation and provide lots and lots of high quality unit tests (and related documentation).
Expected results: Write an agreed-upon number of unit tests that cover speficic Amarok functionality. We expect a list of the exact features/classes the student will write tests for detailed in the project proposal. Functionality in src/core and src/core-impl takes precedence.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Qt and unit testing knowledge a plus
Mentor: An Amarok core team member, contact Teo Mrnjavac for details
digiKam
digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application for Linux, Windows, and Mac-OSX.
digiKam project web site - Mailinglist - Google+ page - IRC channel: #digikam on Freenode
Project: Camera User Interface Revamp
Brief explanation: digiKam features a graphical interface to access and download pictures from digital cameras. Code is rather old, using Qt3Support classes for the icon view, the UI code intermangled deeply with backend code, and has not seen very much care and love for some years.
This project would involve taking the old code apart, rewriting a clean code base backend and front-end, but also adding user interface elements to make the most important everyday task as easy as possible.
In more detail: Write a model listing images on a camera (There are two backends, USB mass storage cameras, which are basically files on disk, and GPhoto2 cameras, which require access through a library). Take the existing digikam icon view and delegate classes, which are prepared for code re-use, and put together an icon view for the model. Cleanly separate the code that does the actual work (downloading, converting, renaming) from the UI. Wrap that in the main window.
User Interface design: the current one is powerful, exposing many options. We want to preserve that. But at the same time, there are three very common actions: a) Download all new files to the last used album b) Download all new files to a new album c) Download all new files to an existing album.
It should be possible to carry out task (a) with one click, task (b) and (c) with two or three clicks, without opening a dialog. Friendly to the new user, preserving access to all options for the poweruser.
There also the technical TODO list relevant of this project
Expected results: A camera user interface based on a pure Qt4 model/view and a cleaned code which provides the currently available features, offering a quick path to download new pictures.
Knowledge Prerequisite: Qt, C++. Interest in Qt model/view and User Interface code.
Mentor: Gilles Caulier
Project: Native MacOSX support
Brief explanation:
digiKam needs to be available under MacOSX in native. Currently, - Macports project is the only way to get last digiKam under Apple computers. Macports require to compile all depencies and digiKam as well. It's a long and hazardous solution to see digiKam running under Mac.
Also, current digiKam implementation is not optimized for Mac desktop. A lots of point need to be improved to support better this operating system. Graphical interface need to polished.
See relevant entries in KDE bugzilla about MacOSX support :
Expected results: Provide scripts and configurations to build automatically a DMG archive of digiKam for MacOSX. Improve digiKam GUI everywhere to be more elegant and more optimized for MacOSX.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Qt, MacOSX, scripting, DMG, packaging
Mentor: Gilles Caulier
Project: Video metadata support
Brief explanation:
All recent digital-still camera devices provide video capture. digiKam must be able to manage these files as it do with images. digiKam can already play-back video and register files to the database, but it lack important metadata used to catalog and sort items (as date, camera name, and all record conditions).
To improve video files support, video metadata management done in background need to be improved, to patch Exiv2 shared library, already used by digiKam for photo metadata handling.
See relevant entries in KDE bugzilla about video support :
Expected results: Add video files support to Exiv2. Patch digiKam metadata interface to handle video information.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Qt, video format, metadata
Mentor: Gilles Caulier and Andreas Huggel
Project: Clone Tool for Image Editor
Brief explanation:
In digiKam image editor we need a simple clone tool to be able to remove quickly dusts, spots, and other unwanted artefact from an image.
See relevant entry in KDE bugzilla about it :
Expected results: add a new tool (as new image editor plugin) with the clone feature.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Qt
Mentor: Gilles Caulier or Marcel Wiesweg
Project: Video Slideshow Generator
Brief explanation: In digiKam image editor we need a new tool to export images as video slideshow.
See relevant entry in KDE bugzilla about it :
The tool must be able to export to video files, as MPEG, AVI, DIVX, or to video media, as CD and DVD video.
Expected results: Add a new tool (as new kipi plugin) to export image collections on video. The tool must be able to do authoring with image contents, for example to change order of images, slide time pause, add transition effects, and add main menu for video media. Too, tool must be able to add audio files as a background. The tool must be portable under Linux, MacOSX and Windows.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Qt
Mentor: Gilles Caulier and Angelo Naselli
Project: Face Recognition
Brief explanation: digiKam is already able to detect faces in photos, through libface, OpenCV, and libkface shared libraries, but Face Recognition is not yet properly implemented to identify the person depicted and automatically tag the region on the photo with the person's name.
See relevant entry in KDE bugzilla about it :
Expected results:
- Face Recognition: Improve existing Eigenfaces implementation. Implement Fisherfaces recognition, work with GNU science library to implement the needed QZ algorithm.
- Round up this underlying technology in a libface and libkface library with some test cases.
- optionally, define the format to store tags on regions of images (currently it's only possible to tag an image as a whole) in metadata and database. You will get support here from the digikam core developers.
- Design some user interface solutions for the training tasks involved (telling the classifier what's right and what's wrong)
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++ and Qt. Knowledge of matrices and working with them. Some idea of clustering algorithms and previous OpenCV experience would be useful.
Mentor: Alex Jironkin for face recognition part through libface, Marcel Wiesweg and Gilles Caulier for the digikam integration through libkface interface.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Marble
Marble is a Virtual Globe and World Atlas. It runs on Desktop systems (Linux, Windows, Mac) and mobile devices (Nokia N900, N9).
- Project web site
- [email protected] mailing list
- Google+ page
- IRC channel: #marble on Freenode
Project: OpenStreetMap vector rendering with tiling support (draft)
Brief explanation: Marble supports general vector rendering and basic vector rendering for OpenStreetMap. Currently OSM data must be downloaded and opened manually by the user. During this project a tiling scheme (separation of OSM data into small rectangular regions with different zoom levels) should be developed such that Marble can open and display the right part of the map without any further user interaction (other than panning/zooming).
- Develop a tiling scheme that maps lon/lat/zoom tuples to filenames and vice versa
- Use a tool like osmosis to create tiles for a sample region (say, the city you live in)
- Extend Marble's .dgml format to be able to specify .osm files as input (and your tiling scheme)
- Improve the current vector rendering to handle different zoom levels better
- Add more OSM elements for vector rendering in Marble, improve existing ones (e.g. street names)
- (Optional) Work on a .pbf parser for Marble to read .pbf instead of .osm files (much faster)
- (Optional) Look into a new file format tailored for OSM vector rendering for Marble. Research existing formats like mapsforge
- (Optional) Create a tool that automates the process of creating the tiles needed by Marble
Expected results: A new map theme (.dgml) for Marble that is based on locally stored .osm or .pbf files using a (possibly already existing) tiling scheme. The tiles are loaded from a local directory; tile data for a certain region is enough for a start. When opening the map theme in Marble, the locally stored tiles are loaded automatically as needed and displayed by the existing and extended OSM vector rendering.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Qt
Mentor: Torsten Rahn
KDE Edu
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
KDevelop
KDE-based Integrated Development Environment, specializing in c++ support, but including a powerful generic framework (definition use chain) which makes it possible to relatively easily support multiple different languages.
Website - Mailing list - IRC channel: #kdevelop on Freenode.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
KDE PIM
KDE PIM is the interest group working on applications related to personal information management, e.g. contacts, calendar, mails, etc.
There are interesting projects on all levels of the software stack: libraries, application porting, new applications, access to online resources, etc.
Have a look at last year's ideas as well.
Website - Project Wiki - Mailing list - IRC channel: #kontact and #akonadi on Freenode.
Project: Improve HTML composing
Brief explanation: The HTML support for the composer is currently limited. This should be improved: Replying and forwarding should (optionally) preserve the HTML format. The composer should use WebKit editing so that all HTML is fully supported. This will extend last years project GSoC/2011/Ideas#Project:_Improved_HTML_support_in_KMail with the composer parts.
Expected results:Replying and forwarding HTML mails should be fully supported. The QTextEdit-based widget in the composer should be replaced by a WebKit-based widget, to support all HTML instead of a small subset. Currently support exists only in the libraries and not in the composer.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++, Qt, JavaScript and (X)HTML
Mentor: Torgny Nyblom
Project: Plasma Workspace Integration for Akonadi
Brief explanation: Akonadi is intended to offer PIM services to many applications, i.e. not being just there for KDE PIM apps. While other applications are already using Akonadi for data, currently the KDE PIM applications are the main interface for interfacing with the setup or status of the system.
This idea is about working and completing several smaller items for workspace integration
E.g. ways to see the status and progress information of Akonadi infrastructure, similar how status and progress of KIO infrastructure services is made available.
Additional tasks are displaying or allowing creation of data through workspace facilities, e.g. Plasma applets. E.g. KDE currently has multiple notes plasmoids to store user notes. The best looking plasmoid is currently the one that plasma ships, but it does not use akonadi to store notes. It would be better to have one plasmoid which looks awesome and stores data in Akonadi and retiring other plasmoids.
Expected results: Multiple working Plasma Workspace integration bits and pieces as described above
Knowledge Prerequisite: Qt, JavaScript, C++
Mentor: Kevin Krammer, need also a co-mentor from the Plasma team
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Calligra Karbon
Karbon is a vector drawing application with an user interface that is easy to use, highly customizable and extensible.
Web - Mailinglist - IRC channel: #calligra on Freenode.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Calligra Words
Web - Mailinglist - IRC channel: #calligra on Freenode.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Calligra Krita
Krita is a KDE program for sketching and painting, offering an end–to–end solution for creating digital painting files from scratch by masters.
Mailing-list: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kimageshop/
Project Page: http://www.krita.org/
Irc channel: #krita on irc.freenode.net
Forums: http://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=136.
Wiki: http://community.kde.org/Krita
Perspective Drawing:
Brief explanation:
Krita is a 2D painting tool, but artists often need to give the illusion of depth. Krita has two tools to help the user draw perspective correctly: the perspective grid and the perspective assistant. The latter is more advanced, but needs improvements to become a real star feature. It needs to be expanded by allowing real 3D objects to be important and put into perspective. This means rotation, setting the vanishing point, scaling, and then integration with the paint tools. At the same time, to get into the codebase, the student should implement other missing features in the perspective assistant.
Expected results:
A perspective painting assistant that can use real 3D objects and place them on the canvas, integrate with the perspective system and painting system.
Knowledge Prerequisite:
C++, mathematics, Qt. You need a good level of programming experience to tackle this task.
Mentor:
Boudewijn Rempt
Project: Add an infinite canvas/wraparound mode to Krita
Brief explanation:
Krita is a 2D painting application with a focus on texturing, matte painting and comics drawing. For texturing, we need to expand the Krita image model in two ways: make the canvas infinite, so the user never needs stop painting, and making the canvas wraparound in all directions.
Expected results:
Two new canvas modes, where the canvas is infinite and the image size is dynamically set to the size of the largest layer, and a wraparound mode, where the imagesize is fixed, but the canvas can scroll in all directions infinitely, wrapping around and around.
Knowledge Prerequisite:
C++, Qt. You need a good level of programming experience to tackle this task.
Mentor:
Boudewijn Rempt, usability consultant: Bugsbane.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Calligra Stage
Stage is an easy to use yet still flexible KDE-based presentation application.
Mailing-list: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/calligra-devel
Project Page: http://www.calligra-suite.org/stage/
Irc channel: #calligra on irc.freenode.net
Forums: http://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=203
Wiki: http://community.kde.org/Calligra/Stage
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Calligra Tables
Tables is a fully-featured calculation and spreadsheet tool. Use it to quickly create and calculate various business-related spreadsheets, such as income and expenditure, employee working hours…
Mailing-list: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/calligra-devel
Project Page: http://www.calligra-suite.org/tables/
Irc channel: #calligra on irc.freenode.net
Forums: http://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=203
Wiki: http://community.kde.org/Calligra/Tables
Project: Improve OpenFormula-support
Brief explanation: Calligra Tables supports the OpenFormula-specification to implement formula functions. To fully support all of the defined heighest level 4 we need to add support for following 18 formulas which are missing at the moment in Calligra Tables; averageif, averageifs, b, chisqdist, chisqinv, countifs, critbinom, dde, external, forecast, hyperlink, legacychitest, linest, logest, networkdays, percentrank, prob, sumifs.
Every of those 18 formula should come with unittests to prove that the formula is working as expected. Also every of the formula needs to have documentation so it can be added/edited from within the UI.
Depending on the time we need for that task and if there is time left we would improve the unittest-coverage for all of our formulas.
Sources are at;
- functions the C++ code of the existing set of 564 formula functions supported by Tables currently is within the h+cpp files.
- tests the existing unittests for our functions are within the h+cpp files. Most of the currently supported 564 formula functions comes with unittests.
- docs the documentation for all of our formulas is within the xml files.
Expected results: Full support level 4 of the OpenFormula specification.
Knowledge Prerequisite: Qt/C++
Mentor: Sebastian Sauer <[email protected]>
Calligra Plugins
As Calligra is quite powerful it is easy to add plugins to it that then can be used by all Calligra applications.
Mailing-list: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/calligra-devel
Project Page: http://www.calligra-suite.org
Irc channel: #calligra on irc.freenode.net
Forums: http://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=203
Wiki: http://community.kde.org/Calligra
Project: Improve saving of charts to OpenDocument
Brief explanation: The Calligra charting-plugin makes it possible to load, display, edit and save charts within Calligra. The charting-plugin can be used in all Calligra applications including Words (the word-processor), Tables (the spreadsheet-application) and Stage (the presentation-application).
While loading and displaying Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel 2000/2003/2007/2010 files and ISO OpenDocument ODT, ODS and ODP files works very well we are rather bad at saving them back. Since the charting-plugin does not only allow viewing but editing and saving this is a rather big problem. In lot of cases charts are basically lost after loading+saving a file. The goal of this project is to fix that and improve the current situation.
Since ISO OpenDocument is the native format of Calligra we would concentrate on improving saving charts to OpenDocument files.
Note that this is a *very* important task for us and has high priority.
Expected results: When a loaded document is saved and loaded again charts are not lost. Ideally a roundtrip does not show any difference before vs after.
Knowledge Prerequisite: Qt/C++
Mentor: Sebastian Sauer <[email protected]>
Calligra Active
Calligra Active is a Calligra interface tailored specifically for use with Plasma/Active on tablet devices.
Mailing-list: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/calligra-devel
Irc channel: #calligra on irc.freenode.net
Wiki: http://community.kde.org/Calligra/Active
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
KWin
KDE's window manager
Techbase page - Mailinglist - IRC channel: #kwin on Freenode.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Nepomuk
Website- Documentation/Howtos - Ontologies - Mailing list - IRC channel: #nepomuk-kde on Freenode.
(Also see the Nepomuk techbase page for a long list of Nepomuk-related ToDos and ideas.)
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Plasma
Website - Mailing list - IRC channel: #plasma on Freenode.
Project: Lazy/Asynchronous Plasmoid Inititalization
Brief explanation: Plasmoids are currently initialized in a synchronous fashion, meaning the construction of a plasmoid is blocking plasma shells (such as Plasma Desktop) at large. This leads to longer startup times than necessary. Instead plasmoids should be lazy initialized, meaning that their creation has little to no impact at all on the instanciating function(s).
Expected results: Plasma Widgets should be initialized in an asynchronous fashion to reduce overall Plasma startup time.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++/Qt/KDE development
Mentor: Aaron Seigo / Harald Sitter?
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Phonon
Abstraction library for sound and video support. Used by KDE notifications, Amarok, Dragon Player and Qt Software.
Website - Mailing list - IRC channel: #phonon on Freenode.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Solid
Abstraction library for hardware support. Used pretty much anywhere in KDE where there needs to be hardware interaction.
Website - Mailing list - IRC channel: #solid on Freenode.
Project: Easy partitioning in Solid/Dolphin
Brief explanation: Extend the Solid library to support basic partition management, using udisks as a backend for low-level operations; develop a partition manager that uses this new interface, taking ispiration from the work already done for the Chakra Linux installer Tribe; integrate it in a Dolphin plugin.
Expected results: From a user's point of view, Dolphin will provide a quick and easy-to-use graphical interface for operating on drives. From a developer's point of view, Solid will provide a higher level API that will enable programmers to create new disk managers abstracting from the physical details of the hardware they're going to manipulate.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++/Qt/KDE development, some knowledge about disks and partitions.
Mentor: Dario Freddi <[email protected]>
Kate
Kate is a powerful programmer's editor.
Website - Mailing list - IRC channel: #kate on Freenode.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Rekonq
Rekonq is a web browser for KDE based on WebKit. It first focuses on being a light, fast & clean way to access to net. Its development is doubly based on using the new amazing features offered by the WebKit rendering engine and on the rock solid network KDE technologies.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
ownCloud
An open personal cloud which runs on your personal server. It enables accessing your data from all of your devices. Sharing with other people is also possible. It support automatic backups, versioning and encryption.
Website - Mailing list - IRC channel: #owncloud on Freenode.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
KDE Usability
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
KDE SDK
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Okular
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Gluon
Gluon is a Free and Open Source framework for creating and distributing games - supporting the flow of the idea all the way from the author to the player of the finished game, and back.
Contacting the Gluon team (irc, email etc)
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
Telepathy
Telepathy is a cross-desktop framework for real-time communication and collaboration - think IM, Voice/Video Conferencing and Collaborative document editing/gaming/etc.
More information:
- Telepathy Framework
- KDE Telepathy
- We can be found on IRC in #kde-telepathy
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
simon
simon is an open source speech recognition system using many parts of the KDE infrastructure. You can find out more about us on our homepage, blog or the development site.
There is also a demonstration video on youtube.
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
KDE on Windows
The KDE on Windows subproject makes KDE applications available on Microsoft Windows, both desktop (XP, Vista, 7) and Windows CE
Project:
Brief explanation:
Expected results:
Knowledge Prerequisite:
Mentor:
KDE Accessibility
The KDE Accessibility subproject aims to make KDE applications accessible for all.
See also Getinvolved/accessibility
Project: Focus tracking in KWin and KMagnifier
Brief explanation: Currently the KWin zoom plugin and KMagnifier implement focus tracking using KAccessible. KAccessible uses QAccessible direct to implement focus-tracking. The problem with that is that it only works for Qt/KDE applications. The plan is to change the existing code in the KWin zoom-plugin and KMagnifier to not use KAccessible any longer to fetch the information what application/widget/etc has the focus but to use dbus to connect with AT-SPI2 and fetch all needed informations (means the x/y-coordinates where the focus is atm) from there.
Once done and if we do not lose to much time with unexpected problems there should be enough time left to look at common applications like KWrite, Kate, Konsole, Dolphin, etc. to identify and fix cases where the applications are not sending the proper QAccessible::Focus events so that focus-tracking doesn't work there. See for example the fix I did back then to enable focus-tracking in KWrite/Kate - note that all Qt-widgets and most KDE-widgets are already fine and accessible but that a custom canvas like KWrite/Kate are using them to draw the text are basically not accessible at all what is why the patch introduces new classes to make the canvas accessible including making focus-tracking working.
- http://blogs.kde.org/node/4287 describes our current solution for focus-tracking
- http://community.kde.org/Accessibility/qt-atspi describes how to setup your environment to get ATSPI2 and Qt working together using the Qt-ATSPI bridge.
- See the linked source-code above and grep there for "focusChanged"
Expected results:
- The KWin zoom-plugin and KMagnifier are using ATSPI2 rather then KAccessible to implement focus-tracking.
- Focus-tracking within KDE works for Qt/KDE applications like it does today with KAccessible (or even better :-) ) and applications using other Toolkits (e.g. GEdit, Firefox and LibreOffice.org) will work too.
Knowledge Prerequisite: C++/Qt
Mentor: Sebastian Sauer <[email protected]>
Project: Screen reader friendly KDE applications
Brief explanation: With Qt at-spi we now have a solution to make KDE applications work with the Orca screen reader from Gnome.
This project is about reaching out to screen reader users in order to find out how to make KDE applications work better with the screen reader. Along with the research is always the writing of patches to implement the findings. This requires good communication skills and some C++ knowledge.
See also:
- http://userbase.kde.org/Accessibility
- http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Accessibility/Screen_Reader_Setup
Expected results:
- Improved experience for users that use a screen reader
- Many small patches in order to emit the right signals to the accessibility framework
- Implementation of QAccessibleInterfaces for custom widgets used in KDE
Knowledge Prerequisite:
- C++/Qt
- Python is a bonus as it will make understanding Orca easier
- Reading code - you will look at code from many different applications and try to fix small issues there
- Build applications, kdelibs and Qt
Mentor: Frederik Gladhorn <[email protected]>
Project: Plasma Accessibility
Brief explanation: Making it possible to use Plasma with a screen reader is the goal of this project. You will have to dive into Plasma in both KDE libs and the desktop shell. It will be necessary to make sure keyboard navigation works and feedback from individual parts of the desktop is good so that the screen reader can make sense of it. This might include working on the screen reader to improve the experience.
See also:
- http://userbase.kde.org/Accessibility
- http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Accessibility/Screen_Reader_Setup
Expected results:
- A Plasma desktop that is usable for people that rely on a screen reader
- Implementation of QAccessibleInterface where it makes sense
- Accessible plasma widgets (krunner, application launcher, systray, panel etc)
Knowledge Prerequisite:
- C++/Qt
- Python is a bonus as it will make understanding Orca easier
- Build Plasma and run it with custom built kdelibs and Qt
Mentor: Frederik Gladhorn <[email protected]>
KStars
KStars is a Desktop Planetarium for KDE. It provides an accurate graphical simulation of the night sky, from any location on Earth, at any date and time. The display includes upto 100 million stars, 13,000 deep-sky objects,all 8 planets, the Sun and Moon, and thousands of comets and asteroids.
Project: Autoguiding in KStars
Brief explanation: Guiding is process by which a star field is kept stationairy within the field of view of a telescope when performing long exposure astronomical imaging. The telescope mount must keep tracking the selected celestial object during the imaging process as it transit the sky. Due to imperfections in the mechanics of the mount and periodic errors, the star field may drift with time. If the drift is not corrected, the resulting image may contain star trails among other deformities. The guiding process depends on selecting a reference star in the frame and correcting the telescope motion by detecting drifts in the telescope axes, and issuing correction commands accordingly. KStars supports INDI which can operate and control numerous astronomical devices. The goal of the project is to add autoguiding support to KStars Ekos tool. Ekos is a tool to aid amateur astronomers in astrophotography. It enables focusing, guiding, and capture of astronomical images using INDI. It is prefereable, but not necessary, to have an actual telescope and a CCD camera. Students may use the INDI telescope and CCD simulators to develop and test autoguiding as well.
Expected results: Ability to automatically guide a mount using a CCD and a telescope for long exposures.
Knowledge Prerequisite:
- C++, Qt.
- Basic knowledge in INDI is required.
- Some knowledge in astronomy is preferable.
Mentor: Jasem Mutlaq