While we're supplying N9 users with fresh releases of gPodder 3 regularly (the latest version, 3.6.1, has been released last week, and the update is available on gpodder.org/downloads), of course we've also been busy working on a newer, Qt 5 and PyOtherSide-based version of gPodder. After weeks of testing, I think it's good enough for a first release now, so let's warmly welcome gPodder 4.0.0 to the world of Sailfish apps. You can download it and its dependencies from the gPodder downloads page.

If you haven't read last year's article about Python and Qt 5, now might be a good time to do so. PyOtherSide is a much more minimalistic approach to Python bindings, and - in my obviously biased opinion - works better for gluing together a QML UI with a Python backend. In fact, it lends itself to clearly splitting the frontend from the backend, and with the "asynchronous by default" design, you have to work really hard to block your UI thread with long-running Python code (or multithreaded Python code that's waiting for the GIL to be released). PyOtherSide these days is also well-documented, and some early annoyances and bugs have been fixed with recent releases in February. In combination with Qt 5 and Python 3, it works well on OS X, Blackberry 10, Linux, Sailfish OS and Windows. With Qt 5.2 having official support for Android, and a Python 3 port being available, it's only a matter of time before PyOtherSide lands on Android.

For all Sailfish OS users out there: Until the next Sailfish OS update, you might have to install some dependencies before gPodder will correctly start up, these are:

1. libpython3 (the Python 3 interpreter)
2. python3-base (the Python 3 standard library)
3. pyotherside (the Qt 5-Python3 bindings)

As these links point to the current version in OBS, they will break once one of these packages is updated. In this case, just look into the home:thp:gpodder armv7hl repository for the latest versions of these packages. With the next Sailfish OS update, recent-enough packages of PyOtherSide should be in the repositories, so you don't need to install the dependencies manually.

Probably everyone has encountered a package in Ubuntu which was not the newest released version while one for some reason needed the newest one. The first step is to search for a PPA with the desired version. But what if there is no such PPA or you want to build the version yourself? This is where this guide comes in. Note however that this is not aimed at ordinary users – you need some experience with programming/ compiling to successfully build a package.

Before you start

Before you start make sure that you have source packages enabled in your software sources.
Next you obviously need the upstream source tar-ball of the new program which should look something like <packagename>–<version>.tar.gz.
Download this tar-ball to a new directory <somedir> and extract it there.

Updating Package info

For the following commands I assume you are in the previously created directory <somedir>.

First we need to get the old version of the source package

apt-get source <packagename>

This will download and extract the old source package into <packagename>–<oldversion>.

Now we need some helper scripts to perform the upgrading as well as the build-time dependencies of the package

sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev devscripts fakeroot
sudo apt-get build-dep <packagename>

Next change into the extracted sources of the old package and update the packaging

cd <packagename>-<oldversion>
uupdate -v <newversion> ../<packagename>-<newversion>.tar.gz

# change into the extracted new package
cd ../<packagename>-<newversion>

# update version info
dch -l ~ppa -D $(lsb_release -sc)

For more information see the Debian New Maintainers Guide.

Building the program

To trigger a rebuild of the program simply execute

dpkg-buildpackage

Uploading your version to a PPA

To upload a package to a PPA you first need to sign it to prove that you are the author. To do this you have to execute the following in the <packagename>–<newversion> directory

debuild -S

Furthermore you need the upload tool dput to actually perform the uploading

sudo apt-get install dput

Now change to <somedir> and execute

dput ppa:<your_username>/<repository> <source.changes>

You can find more information at Launchpad.

Meeting held on FreeNode, channel #maemo-meeting (logs)

Attending: Joerg Reisenweber (DocScrutinizer51), Ruediger Schiller (chem|st), Gido Griese (Win7Mac), Paul Healy (sixwheeledbeast), Jussi Ohenoja (juiceme).

Absent:

Summary of topics (ordered by discussion):
- Discussion on moving Hildon Foundation to a german e.V.

Topic (Discussion on moving Hildon Foundation to a german e.V.):

• DocScrutinizer announced that it is no longer possible to donate to Maemo through his PayPal account, so there needs to be found another way for people to support running the Memo infra.
• juiceme was under the mistaken impression that this MC meeting would also serve as Maemo E.v. founding/kickoff meeting. However as there are not yet enough founders the kickoff meeting needs to be postponed.
• There was a lot of general discussion on the form of the E.v., as it was questioned that the suggestion for the new council would be 5 people, and current Maemo Council stands a 3 people. It was noted that actually the numver 5 is not a strict requirement, and the E.v. rules could be modified so thet number of council would be 3 and the current council could become the new Maemo E.v. council, provided that current Maemo Council rules are exactly same as in the new council.

Action Items:

• N/A

We have been working close to 2 years on this so it is only natural to be happy. Tasneem - from my lab has been chairing the working group on webCL - I want to say that she did a wonderful job and it was great to work with Khronos Group.You can find the specification here  https://www.khronos.org/webcl/And here is the official press release from Khronos: https://www.khronos.org/news/press/khronos-releases-webcl-1.0-specification.webCL can help any developer harness the underlying power of GPU's and multi core device directly from the browser. It will allow parallel processing directly the browser and can enable a completely new category of web apps such as the one based on physics engine, video editing, image and photo processing and manipulation, etc...I also want to remind everybody that we have an implementation of this - go and check it out: https://github.com/SRA-SiliconValley/webkit-webcl.There will also be  a WebCL DevU session at the GDC tomorrow on  March 20 at 3:00 pm, in the Moscone Center, in San Francisco. http://www.khronos.org/news/events/khronos-devu-sessions-gdc-2014

Meeting held on FreeNode, channel #maemo-meeting (logs)

Attending: Joerg Reisenweber (DocScrutinizer05), Ruediger Schiller (chem|st), Gido Griese (Win7Mac), Niel Nielsen (nieldk), Robert Schiller (lowkyalyr), kerio, Titilambert, Paul Healy (sixwheeledbeast), Martin Kolman (M4rtinK), Falk Stern (warfare), Aaron McEwan (chainsawbike), Jussi Ohenoja (juiceme).

Absent:

Summary of topics (ordered by discussion):
- Kickoff meeting for Meamo Community e.V.

Topic (Kickoff meeting for Meamo Community e.V.):

• There was discussion about the voting engine used to prepare/handle/tally the votes in Maemo community matters. As it happens woody is the only one who knows how the system operates, so in the future woody needs to either continue to maintain it or pass the knowledge of it to other people capable of using it.
• This time the Maemo Council meeting was held with a differnt topic as usual, so the rest ot the meeting was conducted as formal Kickoff/Inaugural meeting of the new Maemo Community e.V.
• Win7Mac had prepared the following meeting agenda, which was presented to the attendeeds:
  • 1.)Commentary and vote on the Statutes and General rules
  • 2.) Election of the board of directors and acceptance of the internal board regulations
  • 3.)Election of the council
  • 4.)Agreement about member-fees
  • 5.)Organizational enactments
  • 6.)Miscellaneous
• chem|st opened the meeting on March 18 2014 20:32 UTC and welcomed the participants.
• Meeting attendees introduced themselves by stating their real names for record.
• chem|st was appointed the Chair of the meeting, and juiceme was appointed the Secretaty.
• The assembly accepted articles of incorporation and the association rules unanimously. Thus Maemo Community Association is founded by the present company, and all present are named active members of the community.
• juiceme, nieldk and chem|st were nominated for directors of the association. All accepted the nomaination and were voted unanimously for the position.
• The directors accepted Board's Internal Regulations unanimously
• chem|st was nominated as board's Chairman, juiceme was nominated for Secretary and nieldk was nominated for for Treasurer. All accepted the position and were voted for unanimously.
• The current Maemo Council, consisting of DocScrutinizer05, chem|st and juiceme was nominated for the Council of Maemo Community Association. The vote for council was unanimous.
• juiceme was nominated as Chairman of the Council. He was voted for it unanimously and accepted the nomination.
• It was decreed that with reference to the Statutes and Association Rules passive membership generally is free of any charges. Any payment of fees for active or honoured members is suspended for the time being.
• The board of directors was assigned to do all nescessary steps to register the association at the district court.
• The chairman thanked all assembled and closed the meeting at 21:27 UTC

Action Items:

• N/A