Wiki Wishlist: a mess

[Supergeek]

I think that Maemo/770 development needs something better than the current wiki for tracking works in progress, or applications that would be enormously useful on the 770.

For example, many people want;

- a slimmer word processing app than AbiWord, but more reliable than Notes
- GPS navigation
- more games that work with the stylus, full screen
- stable and useful PIM apps

Unfortunately, the WIP/wishlist parts are getting cluttered with a lot of outdated or unnecessary comments (like requests for FBreader to support new features -- taking it directly to the developer would be a lot more productive, since I don't think FBreader is open source).

I think many people, including myself, would support "bounties" to help developers out and decide which apps should be a priority. Is there some kind of open source framework / development groupware already in existence? Something where people can sign up as developers, register to work on different projects, etc, but with a centralized app list that can show app progress? Sort of like Sourceforge, I guess...

[Jerome]

Well... It IS a wiki, so it is open to the readers to clean it up. Do I understand that you volunteer?

[msaunby]

Just because developers choose to dress like they're poor doesn't mean we are - please put your money back in your pocket. Anyway, what do you imagine it might buy? At something close to $100 per hour you'll need a heck of a lot of cash to buy much useful code.

Right now I expect most 770 developers are short of three things -

time - because most will have full time jobs, or at least be very busy with other things (if they are not how good do you imagine they are?)

sharp tools - scratchbox is good, and gnu has given open source developers some very fine tools, but new devices always need some special tools of their own. e.g. a graphical GUI builder for maemo would be nice.

great documentation - sure the wiki wishlist is a mess but it's the least of my concerns, I've got plenty of wishes and ideas of my own. More important is the need for detailed information on the device itself, the way the OS is configured, examples of how to do stuff with it.

The suggestion that Supergeek (well anyone) might tidy up the wishlist is a good one, and if others can find time to help gather more, and better documentation for developers then it will likely save thousands of developer-hours of searching and cursing and mean that new exciting software gets released sooner.

[Hedgecore]

There should also be a differentiation between a 'wish list' and a 'miracle list'. A wish is having solitaire ported. A miracle is having open office ported. ;)