[ubuntu-studio-devel] Feature Spec Discussion: Workflow Categorization

[Ross Gammon]

Okay - no takers so far. So here goes for an attempt at defining
categories for Sound/Audio applications (the easiest one to start on):

Debtags
	
	Freedesktop
	
	Description
	Notes
Facet
	Tag
	Main Category
	Additional Category
	
	
sound
	recorder
	Audio
	Recorder
	Application to record audio (single or multi-track).
	Do we need to differentiate between single & multi-track?
sound 	mixer
	Audio 	Mixer
	Setting levels and using signal processing on individual tracks.
	Should we have a separate tag for signal processing?
sound 	midi
	Audio 	Midi
	This is a big category that includes anything that has midi
functionality (or an app relating to midi).
	
sound 	instrument
	Audio 	Instrument
	A virtual or software instrument (synthesiser).
An application or plugin that outputs audio when receiving data control
messages (midi).
	Neither Debtags nor Freedesktop have this category.
Should we have a separate tag for plugins?
sound 	compression
	Utility?; Archiving?
	Compression
	
	This debtag is not explained. I suppose it could be intended for file
compression (e.g. wav > mp3). The Freedesktop category is for
compressing data (but not normally in the Audio category). Do we need
this category?
sound 	player
	Audio 	Player
	Application to play audio files.
	
sound 	sequencer
	Audio 	Sequencer
	Application that can record, edit, or play back audio using note and
performance information (typically midi but also audio in the case of a
DAW).
	Do we need to differentiate between DAWs & midi sequencers?
sound 	speech
	
	
	Speech Synthesis
	Freedesktop do not have this category. Do we need it?

	
	Audio 	AudioVideoEditing
	Application to edit audio/video files.
	No debtag exists for this. Does "sequencer" cover it?
hardware
	storage:cd-writer
	AudioVideo 	DiscBurning
	Application to burn a disc.
	Debtag not in "sound" facet (video also?). Request a new facet, or use
the "hardware" one?

	
	
	
	
	Other missing categories?:
- effects/signal processing
- mastering?
- plugins
- plugin hosts?
- radio (e.g. recording/streaming podcasts, running radio station)
- notation/scores (in publishing category?)
- Coding/Programming (e.g. Pure Data/Supercollider/CSound)
- Looping (is this under sequencing?)
- Sampling (under recording?)
- DJ
- Soundfont (or is this under instrument?)
- Patching (or is this too specific)



Which of the "other missing categories" are important? Anything else
missing? Suggestions on terminology? Please note that Debtags are to
help search for packages that match a search-term and therefore the more
descriptive tags we have the better. On the other hand, the freedesktop
categories define where the application appears in the menu. Therefore
the categories are restricted/reserved (although we can add new ones
prefixed with an "X-" indicating an extension).

I know it is hard to comment on a table, so I will start by expanding
the following page on the wiki (to also include debtags) and plonking
the table there. This should allow easier contributions.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/FreedesktopCategories

But any comments before I do that will be gratefully received.

Regards,

Ross

On 05/18/2014 12:19 PM, Kaj Ailomaa wrote:
> # Workflow Categorization for
> ubuntustudio-{audio|graphics|video|publishing|photography}
>
> Before we do any technical implementation of workflow categorization, we
> need to define a set of workflows that we want to support. Some work on
> that has been started here
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/WorkflowCategories. 
>
> The defined workflows would serve as basis for our package selection
> process. But, could also be of great help in other areas, such as when
> searching for applications in an installer (if the packages are tagged
> with these workflows, and they tags are searchable). 
> Also, the submenus in our menu could be populated directly from such
> categories.
>
> The exact names aren't as importad in the first phase of defining the
> workflows. Once the workflows are defined, I suggest we start using
> debtags and freedesktop categories to name the workflows, and create new
> debtags and freedesktop categories for missing ones.
>
> debtags - https://wiki.debian.org/Debtags
> freedekstop categories -
> http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html
>
> In order to do that, we will need to work with upstream. The benefit in
> doing so is that the work we do becomes available on all Debian based
> distros, and in the case with freedesktop categories - also in the whole
> of Linux audio world.
>
> # freedesktoop categories explained
>
> Freedesktop categories are used in .desktop files found in
> /usr/share/applications/, and are used for creating a menu structure in
> DEs that still use menus, such as KDE, LXDE and Xubuntu.
>
> The menus aren't strictly created using freedesktop categories, and in
> our case with ubuntustudio-menu, the structure is very much customized.
> By using freedesktop categories we could instead automate the build of
> the menu, and not place applications in correct categories one by one.
>
> Here's a list of all standard categories
> http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html
>
> # debtags explained
>
> debtags are potentially useful when searching or browsing for packages.
> Each package can have multiple tags. Read more about debtags here
> https://wiki.debian.org/Debtags.
>
> Debian packages use debtags to fine tune categorization. But, not all
> packages are currently using a rich set of correct debtags.
>
> Debtags for the Debian Multimedia Blend packages can be edited here
> (select a task, and for the package, select “edit debtags”)
> http://blends.debian.org/multimedia/tasks/index.
>
> To see debtags locally, install the package debtags and use this command
> (replace <package> with something that you have installed):
>
>     debtags show <package>
>
> WORKITEMS for workflow categorization:
>
> So, I propose we:
>  * Define a set of workflow categories we want to support in our package
>  selection process
>  * Assemble all debtags and freedesktop categories that relate to our
>  workflows into a list.
>  * Define new ones, if needed, and implement them upstrean.
>
> Here's a list of sections for Ubuntu trusty packages
> http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/
>
> This is a fair bit of work, but will make further work a lot easier.
> Tags could be used in package installers (such as
> ubuntustudio-installer), while freedesktop categories make it easier to
> structure menus or search for applications in non-menu based gui shells,
> such as unity or gnome. 
>
> Any takers?
>

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