Marcos Chavarría Teijeiro, autor en Matesetal

GNOMECAT. Let’s Strike again!

As you can see in my GNOMECAT commits I have been a couple or more months really inactive [emoji confused face] .

I have been too busy with my university exams and projects. I have become the secretary of GPUL (2012 GUADEC organizers), which is awesome but it takes an amazing amount of time. And, in addition, I have got employed by R (a galician ISP), which is also great but it takes another important amount of time too.

So that’s why I have not worked in GNOMECAT application during that time and I’m afraid that the situation isn’t gonna change in the next few months.

On the other hand, I have acquire a compromise with GNOME community when I started my GSoC internship. I should create an application to help GNOME translators and the application isn’t done. So I really want to finish GNOMECAT and I think that this summer would be a good time to do it. Providing that I find a mentor, I’m going to apply again for a Google Summer of Code.

The purpose of this GSoC is, obviously, finish the application. So in this post I’m going to sum up what’s is done and what I’m going to do this summer.

Continúe lendo GNOMECAT. Let’s Strike again!

Para quen?

Para quen? Sempre me pareceu que cando se fala das bondades dun sistema económico, dunha lei aplicada por un goberno ou calquera decisión se debe ter en conta esta marabillosa pregunta.

Por exemplo, estas últimas semanas ouvimos ó noso fachendoso presidente do goberno sacar peito dicindo que España esta saíndo da crise, que a situación vai mellorar no próximo ano. Pero a pregunta que me fago eu é para quen vai mellorar a situación?

Os ricos, os grandes empresarios deste país non so non perderon diñeiro e poder adquisitivo nesta crise senón que aumentaron as súas fortunas. Tampouco supuxo unha gran crise para os corruptos do estado, fai uns días asistíamos atónitos a noticia de que Jaume Matas non iría á cadea mentras o goberno non tramitase o seu indulto.

Por outra banda vai mellorar algo para a case cuarta parte da poboación que está no paro? Vai mellorar a situación para os xoves que por mor das “politicas de axuste” do goberno perden as súas bolsas e se ven obrigados a deixar os seus estudos? Vai mellorar a situación para aqueles xoves que se ven obrigados a exiliarse (ou emigrar como prefirades) para poder ter un futuro? Vai mellorar, para os que perderon as súas casas debido a teren contratado en hipotecas impagables froito moitas veces da crenza de que as vacas fracas nunca chegarían mais tamén, duns prezos prezos desorbitados que un dereito constitucional como é a vivenda adquiriu coa brutal especulación da que o goberno, se supón, debería protexer? Vai mellorar a situación para aqueles afortunados que aínda tendo traballo este é realmente precario?

Continúe lendo Para quen?

FOSDEM 2014!

Este último fin de semana estiven tiven a oportunidade de asistir a FOSDEM. A “Free ans Open Source Software Developers European Meeting” ou, para os non que non entenden o idioma de Shakespeare, Encontro Europeo de Desarrolladores de Softare Libre e de Codigo Aberto. Antes de nada unha dicir que foi unha grandísisma experiencia, unhas charlas incribles a oportunidade de reunirse e falar con xente que xa coñecera noutros eventos como a GUADEC ou a GUADEC-es de Madrid.

Continúe lendo FOSDEM 2014!

Welcome GnomeCAT

It has been a while since the last post I wrote about my work writing a new CAT tool. It’s true that I have remain about a month working on other things (related to my university classes) but some important things have happened since then.

Firstly two of the most important items of the new tool which are hints and checkers has been implemented. These two aspects have been implemented as interfaces that should been implemented as plugins. However, I have write DemoHintProvider and DemoChecker to show how these items are going to work.

I have also refactored the code related to select items and the code related to navigate through the document and searching strings. Now the Navigator class is the common parent of the class that allows to navigate through the document and the search classes. In addition now these two classes use a new API to select items in the program. This API is provided by the Application class and allow to select a file, a message and a string inside a message.

Then, I have change the name of the application to GnomeCAT as part of the request of the Gnome foundation that the application name should be “Gnome branded”.

Charla GUADEC-es — Photo by Valentín Barros

To end, last 12th of October, I have attend to the X GUADEC-es and there apart from meeting some old and new friends I have give a talk with Daniel Mustiles about the application. The previous photo is from that moment. You can find the slides I’ve use here (they are in Spanish :S) and the video that I’ve use to show the tool here.

Changing the tool UI

As I said in the last post I’m going to continuing working on the tool providing I have free time. This last weeks I have being working on some changes of the tool user interface.

On the one hand I have remove the GDL library support. I have some talks through IRC with Ignacio Casal (former GTranslator maintainer) and we both agree that with a good UI design the use of dockable elements is unneeded and it requires to have dependencies with a quite buggy library.

On the other hand I have mixed the list of message with the message editor itself. You can watch how it looks in the following video. It still needs some adjustments but I think that the idea is clear.

Do you like the result?

PS: I’m going to attend next GUADEC-es in Madrid! If you have some ideas or opinions about the application just send an email and we can drink some beers (or your favorite beverage) while we discuss about the tool.

GSoC Final Report

Before I start I would like to thank Gnome for this incredible experience, spending the entire summer working on FLOSS has being awesome :D. I would like to thank Gnome for sponsoring my travel to GUADEC and giving me the opportunity of meeting so nice people. Last but not least, I’d like to thank Google for creating this great program.

I have spend this summer writing a new translation tool that should substitute GTranslator. When I started to develop the idea one of the things that people said was that I would not be able to finish the application when the summer ends. To be honest now I have to say that they were right. I had to face some totally new technologies that were not or really bad documented in most cases. So I have to say that the application is not finished and it’s not ready to use. I will continue working on it the followings months because I consider it as a personal project I want to see finished.

On the last report I tell you that I was going to be working on preferences panel, I have create a preferences dialog with two tabs and I have implement profiles. In a near future this dialog is going to have a couple of more tabs, one for extensions and another for general application preferences.

In this video I show you the current aspect of the application and how some features that I have implemented are working.

Po files, projects, navigation and other stuff I have been doing

Last weeks I have being trying push up my project in order to make it useful. It means to accept real files and not ad-hoc DemoFiles. I have being trying to implemented bindings for the gettext-po library and I get something that works but that eats memory as a hungry monster :-(. I have being trying to figure out what was wrong but I have fail so I decided to continue with other features.

During this time I have implement drag and drop tabs and I have implemented navigators that allow the user move around the translated/untranslated/fuzzy messages. In addition I have created implemented dialogs for opening files and projects (directories) and I have modify the implementation of the advanced search dialog to use response codes.

Other thing I have being trying to do is to maintain the same coding style for every file. I have try to leave a blank space between function names and function parameter list, a white space after each comma among other things.

I’m trying to complete every detail before starting to implement plugin engine so I’m working hard implementing the remaining details. My plannings for next weeks are implementing preferences window with gsettings and view menu. I probably will rewrite some part of the search and navigation mechanism to make it simpler.

PS: I have been helping Sindhu to write some sections of a really nice guide for beginners. Check it out!

GSoC application status report

This last weeks I have been polishing some details of the application but I have not added any major feature.

I attend a really nice talk about building Gtk applications during GUADEC and I have been including some aspects that I learn there. I have create a class application and I have substitute Window by ApplicationWindow. In addition I didn’t know the SearchBar widget so I replace my ad-hoc widget by the “standard” one.

I have a really nice talk with Ignacio Casal (thank you man!) through IRC and he gives me really nice advises that I have been implementing. I have added autotools support to the project, I have implemented the HeaderBar and Notebook inside the window template and not as part of different templates and I have remove some comments that I wrote when I started the project and that make the code dirtier.

In addition I have removed the StatusBar and I have included a progressbar on the HeaderBar title that shows the name and status of the current file. That last idea comes from a conversation with yoseforb through IRC (Great idea!).

The next video show the current aspect of the the tool. Due to some unknown reason the button icons aren’t being shown since the last JHBuild update I have made :(.

You can follow the project status and you can try (and even review) the code using the GitHub repository.

Moreover I’m still waiting for your opinion about the program name. The only person that has give his opinion was Daniel so “GNOME Translation Tool” is winning at the moment.

GUADEC 2013

I have just arrive Santiago de Compostela airport and I think that this marks the end of my second GUADEC.

However, this GUADEC was totally different that the first one. Last year in Coruña I was surrounded by people that I already met and I didn’t make any effort to meet new people. Although I don’t met new people, “that’s where I got infected”. I realize that I want to work in a FLOSS company and that I want to belong to this awesome community.

Gnome Hispano dinner at GUADEC — Photo taken by Ana Rey (@anaRB)

One year later I’m working on a GSoC project and I have faced GUADEC in a totally different way. I didn’t meet anybody who was going to attend the event. In addition last year GUADEC talk were a little boring for me so I decide to volunteer in order to meet new people and practice my speaking English. I met a lot of great people and I have a really great time. In fact I’m thinking about attending GUADEC-ES that is going to take place next October in Madrid.

This year talks were awesome. I really enjoy Emily talk about FLOSS and Education, the talk by Juan Pablo Ugarte about Glade and CSS and Fabiana Simões (who I’ve got the pleasure to met) talk about How to not report UX bugs among others. I also have the opportunity to give a lighting talk (thank you Ana for this and evert photo you have taken during the event) of about 3 minutes about my work in GSoC.

I want to thank Gnome Foundation to give me the opportunity of meeting such a great people and having a really great time with them.

PS: The photo was taken the last day during a dinner with people from Gnome-Hispano. Thank you guys for the such a good time we’ve spend together 😉

Searching…

This last week I have been working on implementing search module on the new program. To do this I create iterators for messages inside files and for message marks inside messages. A message mark contains a reference to a substring on a message and it stores the information that it’s needed for highlight certain part of the message.

I have modify my code deleting my string filters that added Pango Markup and I change that for TextMarks that works ~~better~~ with a GtkTextView.

In the next video you can watch how a simple search looks in the new application.

If you have any suggestion about the video or the project in general please leave a comment, write me and email or contact me during GUADEC.

On the other hand this days I will be on GUADEC!! I’m really grateful to Gnome Foundation that sponsor my travel and accommodation for this really interesting conference and allows me to be here. If you want to see me and talk to me about this project or you want to see what I have make working you can find me on some of the talks where I’m volunteering as session chair.

PS: People from Gnome has asked me to change the name of the application because it should be Gnome branded. I need your opinion, what name do you like more, Gnome Translator or Gnome CAT?