About my app "gtumbler" and the Ubuntu App Showdown

Mon Jul 16 08:59:41 UTC 2012

Al 14/07/12 18:55, En/na Gabriele ha escrit:
> 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
> <http://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./
> //
> 
> 
> 
> This body part will be downloaded on demand.
> 

Thanks Gabriele for the detailed information.

We will discuss the approval of Gtumbler for the App Showdown this
afternoon, and will let you know as soon as we've got an outcome.

Regards,
David.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 554 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/app-review-board/attachments/20120716/bee7d04d/attachment.pgp>