GSOC project updates

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 06:03:22PM +0200, Anton Lundin wrote:
> The scope of this GSOC project is to produce a usable downloader app
> for android and one pre-req for that is a usable touch friendly ui. 
> 
> The current Android port of subsurface is unusable as a ui, but it
> works as a technical product. It needs a better ui for touch.
> 
> We could do that with QT/Qml, and that was one option.

My feeling when playing with Subsurface on Android was that one would get
to a somewhat useable UI by simply scaling things better (i.e.,
oversampling the UI). But I haven't played with this.

That said, as I pointed out in my earlier post on this subject, I
absolutely respect Anton's and Venkatesh's decision in the context of the
GSOC project - that was primarily about the download side of things; the
UI parts are just required to actually make use of what is being created.

One thing that I was surprised about was when Venkatesh said that the
download is on the back burner while he focuses on the UI - that's
unexpected as the download should be the main focus. That's what needs to
be rock solid for the project to be successful in my eyes.

The UI is really just to demonstrate that this is possible.

> The other option was to re-use the "backend" parts of subsurface and
> build a Android-native ui _just_ for the download parts.
> 
> We could also mix and match the two, with some parts in Qt, and some in
> Java.
> 
> I and Venkatesh discussed this over IRC and as Venkatesh felt more
> conftable with doing a touch ui for Android in "native" Java we decided
> to go that path.

And that's perfectly fine. Which ever is less work. I would have assumed
that scaling the existing UI would be far easier, but I haven't spent
enough time looking at it.

> This is nothing that can't be changed in the future, but for now,
> Venkatesh felt most comfortable with the subsurface "backend" approach
> and a Java ui calling into that code.

I am leaning VERY STRONGLY towards being a posterchild Qt app on Android
and IOS and use our connections into the Qt team to make sure this results
in functional and attractive applications.

If this turns out to be impossible, even with the help from the Qt
people... well, I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

But again - this has NOTHING to do with the GSOC project. It's all about
what we do afterwards.

For example - once this year's GSOC is over I will work with Andrey to
evaluate bringing more of Subsurface to IOS.

/D