It's not condescending browbeating at all. I'm just really disappointed that so many people jumped up and said "this is absolutely essential to me" but aren't interested enough to try to organize themselves to make it happen. Even with help. Or even to start planning to get it going. No one. Not a single person.*

And yes, me trying to start community movement towards getting them to scratch their itches and trying to help them get it off the ground is EXACTLY what you can expect from me in council.

Instead of trying to help and trying to be a part of the solution, you're just trying to take potshots at me. Wonderful. Thanks for being constructive.

* Thanks anyways, Korbe.

No. The correct solution is to DO something about it, if the N900 does not meet your expectations,.

That coming from you is great.

I have yet to hear you ask "What can I DO to get ASR in Maemo? Constant bickering isn't going to do it.

Zerojay has put down some of the things which can be done.

This is open source software. It is about doing something if you have an itch.


Then please do behave as if Maemo is yours, too. And do, do, do. And stop bickering. Because it gets at least on my nerves.

I think this entire thread clearly illuminates a major problem with Maemo development that has been rather stealthy: the cost of contribution is far to high for most. As a result, users resort to using their voices in the form of frustrated and often exaggerated posts to influence those that can make changes.

As a developer, I advocate for and empathize with those users. I think that we, developers, often take our skills and understanding of software engineering for granted.

I think in general maemo could be improved with a lower entry cost for development and experimentation, and clearer channels for contribution. This could mean: more code examples, clearer documentation, simplified development environments, simplified and restricted APIs, more tutorials, better development communication, better code forking system, etc. I predict that as the cost is lowered, the amount of contribution will rise exponentially.

Otherwise, we will continue to rant in forums, frustrated that things are not being done. I've learned that asking people to act differently rarely changes behaviour. One must change the system itself to alter the outcome.

I'm Capt'n Corrupt, and I'm running for council (jokes -- seriously if I were running, Nokia would be declaring bankruptcy weeks afterwards )...

}:^)~

I think that makes sense. I don't even know who is or isn't a developer in this forum, which needs to be addressed soon, or things will get confusing. I'm new here, but most of the guys here aren't. I've voiced my wish to have the entire UI support ASR, but after 39 pages of posts, most of the people who claim to have developer skills seemed uninterested, and felt the request was marginal and not needed or meant for this device. (Is this the iPhone portal or something? LOL)

I didn't know the proper channel for submitting OS ideas, and not being a developer, I'd probably be a fish out of water. I expected to gain support for my idea from a developer or two who could influence others to get the idea rolling.

Zerojay, I'm glad you finally gave some idea of how to get something done, but without guys like you to give direction, it is a self serve situation here. "NOT very user friendly, very DEVELOPER friendly" is the accurate moniker for this site as of today. We need to improve the idea submission process, and I think a developer should be the one to submit ideas to the developers working on the OS in order to best speak the proper language they'll understand, and to discuss what a user can expect in terms of realistic expectations. There should be a feasibility panel for stuff like that to figure out which features are worth doing first or at all, and how big a demand for such features exists.

Can someone post a thread and make it a sticky for how to submit new OS features (not app) ideas to guide a new user on how things work around here? I could repost it on my Maemo site when it launches in a few days.

a good idea would be to give the devs a developer title in the place where it says moderator for mods, atleast then people would know who they talking to get a general idea of what kind of perspective they coming from in threads like this.
At the minute people are like why should i believe that your just a normal end user like me who's speculating on how hard or easy it maybe.I've noticed in other forums when its visible who developers are normal users look up to them and give them more respect too.
It would be good if developers run polls or threads about ideas on new features for existing software or just a brainstorm they got about a new app to get ideas and feedback from normal users to try to add and enhance it.
both end users and developers can learn a lot from each other anything what makes communication between the two i'm all for as current situation feels like a us V's them situation. not quite sure who the us and them is though lol

I think you'd need more differentiation than that, for it to be meaningful.

I mean, is it a Nokia Corporate Developer? a Maemo.org community Developer? Some random linux hacking Developer?

Each of those have their own varying degrees and areas of credibility...

I'm talking about maemo.org community developers if other kinds wanted to be added not including nokia devs then they can apply some how.

its been rolling round my head for a while.
I just don't know yet how to make it happen.

I have a serious interest in developing apps for the n900. But have little experience. I have edited and compiled a few simple programs in C++ and Java, and have some knowledge of Linux. I have an n810 and love the idea of having an open source device/phone. I would be willing to work on a portrait mode application and I have some good ideas.
First- has anyone thought of simply creating a UI with icons or widgets that are rotated 90degrees rather than trying to rotate/re-arrange the whole desktop? I think this would solve some problems... like the n810s auto rotate changing the desktop background and widget position
Second- Can a theme for canola be created where the icons and selection boxes/text are rotated so it can be in portrait mode?
Third- I think the customizable desktop idea could be abandoned for portrait mode and just go for a simple easy to navigate UI that interfaces with the N900 built in UI but activates when rotated. Who needs to move widgets around in portrait mode really? I almost think the drag and drop widgets create more problems than benefits for the end user, we're talking moving something 2 inches to the other side? Seems trivial.
Fourth - there is nothing wrong with scrolling desktops up and down when in portrait mode.
Basically what Im saying is if widgets and boxes could be rotated and text resized rather than rotating and reshaping and re arranging the whole display it might be easier to develop an app that does portrait mode.
I have Backtrack 4 RC (KDE Deb) Linux and I have downloaded the SDK and found some good example code for Fremantle. I would appreciate some direction for getting started in developing. I have yet to install the SDK (haven't figured out how yet)

Let me know what you think. Thanks...

KDE 4.2 plasma seems to support rotating applets on the desktop