About my app "gtumbler" and the Ubuntu App Showdown

Sat Jul 14 16:55:07 UTC 2012

Dear Members of the Board

I'd like to draw to your attention the case concerning the exclusion of my
application "gtumbler" from the Ubuntu App Showdown. Of course you can find
my
app on Launchpad:

* The Project Page := https://launchpad.net/gtumbler
* The PPA := https://launchpad.net/~phoenix1987/+archive/ppa
* My Personal Page := https://launchpad.net/~phoenix1987

Part of the most recent history of the submissions can be found in the
"Feedback"
tab of the MyApps portal [1] . There is also an entry in the dedicated
reddit
directory [2]. I also had a few conversations with mhall [3]. When asking
for the
reason of the exclusion of my app from the contest I've been answered with:

R1. the app didn't show up in Judges' Dash (reply from mhall [3]);
R2. the application crashed and would not start, so it couldn't be tested
and
thus did not qualify. (quote from [2])

Here is recollection of the more recent events regarding the releases of my
application:

1. The "Precise" release exists since July 2nd (see revision 7 [4]);
2. when the deadline was reached, latest release was 12.07.1 (revision 22),
   submitted with quickly 11.10; at this stage the app was working fine. I
had
   tested it on both Oneiric and a *fresh* install of Precise on a virtual
   machine. Successfully installed the app through The PPA, and I could
find and
   launch it perfectly from the Dash. This, I believe, invalidates R2. If
you
   want to verify this on your own, just run a
       quickly package --extras
   on the contents of the 12.07.1 tarball and try to install the deb
package.
   You'll see that the app shows in the Dash and that it runs with no
crashes.
3. on 2012-07-12 08:43 (GMT) I received a feedback from dholbach in [1]. He
asked
   me to merge a few changes he had proposed. I found out that whenever I
used
   quickly, files such as "debian/copyright", "debian/control", ... were
   automatically acted upon and my changes were ineffective. I then decided
to
   manually perform the submission process.
4. Releases 12.07.2 and 12.07.3 are the attempts to apply the proposed
   changes discussed at the previous point. Since I came to understand that
   quickly runs some additional scripts other than just issuing the
commands
   debuild and dput, those two releases are missing a few crucial files.
For
   instance, 12.07.2 is missing the lines that lead to the creation of the
prerm
   and postinst in the final deb package. This means that, once installed in
   /opt, the application is not able to locate the python modules that has
been
   installed (if I got it right, quickly 11.10 is relying on python-support
   rather than dh_python2). Another thing 12.07.2 is missing is the line in
   the installation scripts for the .desktop file. The 12.07.2 will not be
   present in the Dash.
5. Release 12.07.3 comes with prerm and postinst manually included in the
debian
   folder. This has solved the modules issue, and the application runs
perfectly
   when invoked with
       /opt/extras.ubuntu.com/gtumbler/bin/gtumbler.
   However the .desktop issue still remains unsolved.
6. On 2012-07-13 I came in contact with mterry (cf. [1] and [3]) who
informed me
   about an alleged bug in quickly 11.10 relatively to my .desktop file
issue.
   Following his suggestion in [1], I used quickly 12.04 on my guest
machine to
   have quickly produce a possibly bug-free "debian/rules" file. I copied
this
   file over the one created by quickly 11.10 and manually packaged my app.
The
   result of this process is release 12.07.5. Installing this app will
produce an
   entry (extras-gtumbler.desktop) in the Dash, but the installation
process
   would give an error, although the application seems to be installed on
the
   system and starts correctly.
7. I thought that the installation error was caused by the fact that I've
left
   the "debian/prerm" and "debian/postinst" that I have inserted manually
into
   the debian/ folder. With the new bug-free version of "debian/rules" they
are
   no longer needed. I removed them and released gtumbler 12.07.6. The
   installation of this release from The PPA goes fine, the application
shows up
   in the Dash and it starts without errors.

Based on the facts that I have recollected and documented above, I believe
that
R2 is completely invalidated and therefore it does not hold. The only
explanation
for R1 is that the Judges must have grabbed my application from The PPA at
some
point in time between 4. and 5., i.e. exactly when I was trying to merge
the
edits that has been proposed to me by dholback in [1]. Point 2. should then
prove
that my application had complied with the contests rules when the deadline
was
reached and therefore I believe that there are no cogent reasons that might
lead to an a priori exclusion of my application from the Ubuntu App
Showdown.

Therefore I'd like to kindly ask to the Members of the Board to re-evaluate
their
decision of excluding my application from the contests. Needless to say
that I
remain available for further details and explanations that might be
necessary to
shed even more light on this case. I am also confident that the Members of
the
Board are well aware about all the efforts each contestant has put into the
development of his/her application during the last three weeks, and that
it'd
surely be a great disappointment to find out that it has been for no good
just
because of external factors, e.g. a bug in quickly 11.10.

With many best regards,

Gabriele N. Tornetta

References
=====================

[1] https://myapps.developer.ubuntu.com/dev/apps/1274/feedback/
[2]
http://www.reddit.com/r/ubuntuappshowdown/comments/wibh0/ubuntu_app_showdown_let_the_voting_begin/
[3] probably scattered between #ubuntu-app-devel and #ubuntu-arb
[4] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~phoenix1987/gtumbler/trunk/revision/7

-- 
*"Egli è scritto in lingua matematica, e i caratteri son triangoli, cerchi,
ed altre figure
geometriche, senza i quali mezzi è impossibile a intenderne umanamente
parola;
senza questi è un aggirarsi vanamente per un oscuro laberinto."*

**
*-- *G. Galilei*, Il saggiatore.*
**
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