Category: GNOME

I have the honour to present you Atomato, a scripting and automation tool for GNOME. The idea behind it is to allow non programmers to build their own scripts for automating tasks without having to write a single line of code, much like Apple’s Automator.

There is very little code yet, but thanks to the hacking session on Wednesday at Vilanova Park, it is starting to take shape. The idea is, first, to write a library that loads all actions (currently the actions are DBUS methods, but the idea is to have more action providers, like simple commands or small scripts) and is able to make calls to those actions. Once this library is done, we’ll have to write a GUI to allow users to concatenate calls to actions in a script (workflow in Apple’s terminology). For that, we need to look at S-Flux, a tool developed by Christian after my call for UNIX Power for Desktop. The S-Flux GUI is a bit ugly, since Christian just did it as a proof of concept, but the basis are there, so I think we can reuse some of his code.

After that, we really need applications to provide services, so once we have all the basis going, we’ll start trying to convince people to provide services from their applications via DBUS (or whatever is better), so that we can, once for all, really provide what other desktops (Apple and AppleScript, KDE and DCOP) have been providing for a long time. We failed with CORBA/Bonobo because people disliked CORBA, so let’s hope that now that most people are ok with DBUS, and given that KDE is switching to DBUS, we won’t have any real problem about it.

Of course, there are still some details to be taken care of, like getting the list of all (active and inactive) DBUS methods, which right now is not possible without activating them all. Or how to discard some of the DBUS methods that have no purpose in a user-oriented scripting applications (things like GetConnectionUnixUser method on the DBUS interface, for instance). We have been talking about using a separate way for getting the list of methods, having apps create a XML file or whatever with the list of methods they want to provide to Atomato, instead of just having Atomato use DBUS to get all of that app’s methods. That would solve lots of problems, since Atomato would just need to read those XML files on startup and then activate services as they are really needed.

Also, about having apps provide DBUS methods, there is a little problem, which is that apps need to take care of just activating the DBUS interface when called from a 3rd party app, and not open the application window if not needed. Not a big problem I guess, but something to take care of. For some simple services, we are planning to write our own DBUS services (see the services/imaging service in Atomato source tree), which should provide most of the basic actions (copy/move files, image management, etc).

So, enjoy it, and if you have any good ideas, please let me know.

It seems we all agree that libgnome/ui in their current form should be removed ASAP. But it seems people forget that we’ll still need a place for putting desktop policy APIs, and that makes libgnome/ui useful again. That is, instead of having lots of small libraries (gnome-menus, gnome-desktop, libpanel-applet, etc), it would make sense to me to have all those, desktop-related things, in one library that people use when they want their applications integrated into the GNOME desktop. Call it libgnome/ui or whatever, but you get the idea.

To start with, I’d mix gnome-menus and gnome-desktop, and then, if people agree, continue putting more stuff in those libraries. If done well, and only the right things are added, I think it would make sense a lot to have this GNOME Desktop integration library.

Before I forget them, here’s a list of things that could be improved in GUADEC (not specific to Vilanova, it applies to all):

• People from Latin American countries (and I guess Asia and Africa) find Europe quite expensive, so for them going out for lunch/dinner with US, Australia and Europe people is unaffordable, which makes them having to go on their own to look for cheaper places. So, I think it would be a great idea if we had, like in Copenhagen, free lunch for everyone at the venue. Thus, everyone, regardless of the country they are from, would have lunch together, making it easier for everyone to meet and talk.
• I like a lot how the Boston summit was organized, with lots of informal BOFs going over all the time. I think we should have a room devoted, all the days of the conference, to have a continous BOF about all the aspects of the GNOME project. I think that is much more useful for people involved in the project than going to presentations that, if you follow regularly the mailing lists, don’t contain anything really new. Of course, having talks is still needed, but it would be nice if there was some more emphasis on having BOFs. That is, it would mean making official and public all the conversations that take place in the corridors.
• The GUADEC-ES talks this year, oriented to beginners, have proven to be really useful, at least for a few people that, as I said in my previous post, were after that perfectly integrated in the GUADEC core, knowing now their way through the project. It would be nice to do this every year, in the local languages if possible.

Back from Vilanova i la Geltrú, where, once again, I’ve enjoyed myself a lot. Here’s a short summary about the social events. For technical details (gnome-control-center, gnome-session and atomato related), I’ll post individual posts in the following days, when I’m recovered from the terrible heat and lack of sleep hours. Fortunately, here the temperature is much better, just 16ºC right now, so I’ll sleep tonight like a baby.

During the warm-up weekend, I devoted all my time to the GUADEC-ES talks, and more specifically to the tutorials we (Germán, Claudio, José and I) had prepared. The audience was low, but of high quality, having get the attention of a few probably new developers, which were hanging around in the “big” GUADEC the following days.

On Sunday, there was the big event, the GNU FreeFA Cup, which, as expected by all the sports analysts, was won by the official GUADEC football team. Lots of emotions, with even a semifinal being decided in the penalties. The tandem Dave Neary/Alvaro del Castillo in our defensive line proved to be unbeatable in the final.

The Fluendo party on Monday night was great, what a great place they choose for the party, a beach for us alone. And, as you all already know, lots of free alcohol. So, some people seemed to think that
we were supposed to drink it all and not leave a single drop, and that resulted in some people being very drunk, and most being tipsy. Everything was being perfect, good place, good people, happiness, people getting naked to have a bath on the sea. Everything was being perfect, it looked like we were in Paradise, until someone passed his drinking limit and thought it would be funny to insult the waitresses (which, BTW, were very very nice to all of us). The owner of the bar came to us to protest about it, so we had to apologize to him and all the waitresses. I think we cleaned our image, but still, something to think about for those people that don’t know how to drink. We all know that having some drinks with fellow hackers is one of the best things of GUADEC, but there is no need to drink through these limits.

The other party, the Nokia party on Tuesday, was also great, with a new thing to GUADEC that we should keep from now on, the GUADEC band concert. It sounded great, more given that they had just practised for 3 hours. At the same time, lots of people, France and Spain supporters, followed the World Cup game on a big screen specially set up for the occasion. It was bad to see Spain lose, but well, since we had already won the really important competition (GNU FreeFA Cup),
losing in this 2nd class competition wasn’t that hard to assume.

But well, as always, GUADEC (and GNOME)
is about people, and being with these people for a few days, is one of the best experiences I’ve got from being involved in GNOME.

And yeah, more news on atomato soon.

Moltes gràcies Vilanova

Heading tomorrow to Vilanova for GUADEC, arriving early evening to Barcelona Sants train station. Very excited to go this year, since I missed last year’s, and missing GUADEC, even if only one, is very hard when you know what it is about. You usual GUADECers know what I talk about 🙂 Also very excited about the GNOME Village, it’s gonna be very cool to stay out at nights, hacking, talking and drinking some beer with fellow hackers, and listening to the music from the GUADEC band. And the FreeFA football tournament is going to be quite funny, I guess, and probably shadow that competition in Germany that people are watching all day.

About the content, I think lots of new ideas will come out from this GUADEC (like in all previous ones, really), and I hope to have some time to work a bit more on a couple of real things (rather than just ideas) I wanted to “present” in my talk (don’t miss it, Unix Power for Desktop, Wednesday 10 AM), to have them work well enough to show attendants what I am trying to accomplish with this.

So, yeah,
see you….
in Vilanova i la Geltrú!

The GNOME Foundation is running the Women’s Summer Outreach Program.