Vala: the future?

Vala is a new programming language that aims to bring modern programming language features to GNOME developers without imposing any additional runtime requirements and without using a different ABI compared to applications and libraries written in C.

That is the description you will find when searching for Vala. The idea of making Vala started around 2006 and now Vala is getting better and better. The goal of Vala is to bring modern language features to C. The problem Vala solves is that most programmers want to develop in high-level programming languages, but can't use C# or Java due to various reasons. Vala solves this in this way that it actually just produces C code out of the given Vala source.

Pros:
- The generated C code is generly as fast or faster then hand-coded c++
- Using external C libraries aren't difficult
- Making C libraries out of Vala files isn't difficult aswel
- Syntax is almost identical with C#

Cons:
- Vala is relatively young. So still less community support then C++
- Lack of documentation (improving really fast)

If you're interested and want to have a look. This tutorial shows you the basic of the language.

New Firefox Icon, my opinion

The User Experience Designer Alex Faaborg is taking the community on a ride. The Firefox logo is getting a revamp and Alex Faaborg is posting updates almost every 24 hours. He started with a post about logo's and how they mostly evolve with the product brand. In that post he also explains Firefox 3.5 is a significant release that's worth a revised logo.

There are already several iterations for the new Firefox logo and they are looking better with each iteration. Though this post doesn't handle that.

This post is for giving you my vision on the logo,
but first some background about logos...

Some background

The name of a brand is mostly represented by the logo. So people can better link the logo with a name and vice-versa. There are several ways to achieve that. You can either use the name itself, like you can see in many logo designs.

Or another common way is to use the meaning of the brand name. For example, the Firefox logo has a fox with a tail on fire in it.

The third and last way is to link the philosophy of a brand with the logo. That's also the hardest to do. For example, Windows. The name 'Windows' is chosen because the system could do multitasking and use multiple windows, what wasn't common back then. That idea has become their logo.
Back to the Firefox logo

The Firefox logo can be categorized in the second category. It's uses the meaning of it's name (Firefox) and represent it by a fox with a tail on fire in the icon.

It can also be categorized in the third or final category. I see the Firefox logo as follow. The globe on the icon represent the Internet itself. The Internet is something global (that's why the globe), but it's also something anonymous. Anonymous, because the web does not belong to one person or country, but is for everyone (that's why the globe has generic continents).

My vision on the Firefox logo

One of the aspects planned for change, is integrating the globe with the fox. In the current logo, the fox and the globe look like 2 separate layers that are painted above each other. The integrating will be done by making the tail look more 3D and let it wrap around the globe. You can find more planned changes and there reasoning on the blog of Alex Faaborg. I also agree the globe and the fox should be integrated more.

I also think we can put more of Firefox's philosophy in the logo. Mozilla Firefox wants to promote the open web. In the current logo, you can't find any reference to this mission. For example, there is no interaction between the globe (the internet) and the fox (Firefox). I feel there is an opportunity to improve on that area.

My idea:
As you can see on my mockup, the fox is playing with the globe. It has a connection with the globe (the internet). So the Firefox is online on the internet. The fox is also plopping in the water of the globe. Actually Firefox is playing the internet, hoping to improve and promote it.

Things I'm proud off:
- The rimples are subtle and only visible on high-resolution versions
- The globe and the fox are more integrated into eachother

Things that should be improved
- The arm is to small in proportion to the fox
- This design is based on the current logo, not on the concept renderings

Porting Android: small steps at a time...

In my previous post, 'How close?', I did say the android was almost ported. It only missed an onscreen keyboard. Not much later, there were images with a working keyboard. Sean McNeal released them in the normal location.

So the android is fully working?
No, we are past the 'alfa' stage. Everything is supposed to work, because all code has landed. Though it doesn't guaranty everything to work. Sean, Bricode and many more (like the freelancer Panicking) are actively solving the remaining issues. So bear with us, while we are heading for a fully working android on the Neo FreeRunner.

Well how far are we?
Koolu started to release beta's of the Android with a lot of functionality a while ago. They did come mostly with an interval of 2 weeks, but that's not a rule.
- beta 1: 15 January
- beta 2: 20 January
- beta 3: 4 February

Please define 'a lot of functionality' for beta3.

• Messaging: I will have to disappoint you directly by telling you messaging isn't really stable at the moment. Sending messages was a total fail, because each time you enter a new message, the gsm modem will fail. The only remedy to get the gsm modem again to work is removing the message and restart. So sending messages doesn't work. Also receiving messages doesn't work.
• Calling: Calling to the Freerunner works good and receiving a call to the Freerunner is working good (If you know you need the open the onscreen keyboard and push the right button to answer the call). Only one problem, I still have an 'Echo' on both sides of the line.
• Wifi: Wifi is working good for me. I can enable wireless, scan the wireless networks in the area and connect to one (Even if it has WPA2 security). The only downside: my gsm modem doesn't work anymore after connecting to a Wifi network.
• Bluetooth: I can enable bluetooth and making myself visible, but actively pairing 2 devices didn't work for my. I couldn't hit the Ok button after inserting the pass of the other GSM.
• GPS: Working splendid. It starts when necessary. it stops when necessary. And it did get a fix within 3 minutes on my FreeRunner.
  

More advanced functionality overview

So we can call the android beta3 release not yet fully functional ready, but maybe the next release will contain a working messaging system. And from that moment, We could say the Android has the same working features as the other FreeRunner distributions. Huray!

How to get the images?
You can find the images here. A guide for installing the images and making your Freerunner ready for the Android can be found here.

Porting Android, Phase 5: How close?

As Koolu has released their source code today, we are more than close to a fully port. Even more, we are close to fully working android, because Sean McNeil has promised to insert an on-screen keyboard in the next images.

1. Make compatible Linux kernel (done)
   
2. Replace ARMv5 specific code (done)
3. Create images (done)
   
4. Replace hardware specific code (done)
   
5. Adding additional software, like on-screen keyboard

Koolu, what for beast is that?
Koolu is an organization that is actively distributing open source phones. For the moment it sells only the Neo FreeRunner, because it is the only open source phone (That is still sold). Next to that, Koolu port and installs third party software to the Neo FreeRunner.

They also claimed, they wanted to sell Neo FreeRunner with Android before the end of Novembre. The deadline is already past, but they rescheduled to decembre. Looking at the status, it is really realistic to have a working Android system on the Neo FreeRunner before this year's end.

When getting issues become a help?
The Android images were offline for a couple of days. That's because all the images (Om2008.9, FSO, Qtopia, Android) contained a media codecs where neither Openmoko or Google has license for. So they removed all the images containing this media codecs and are regenerating them without the media codecs. While they are looking at solving the licensing problem, they encountered an advantagement.

Because the media codecs isn't included in the source code, Koolu comes in a situation it is easier to release the source code instead of the binary images. So that's what happened and Koolu has released a git containing all the Android sources and the patches Sean McNeil has produced.

How close can you get?
Yestarday, Sean McNeil made a new image for the Neo FreeRunner. This image still hasn't an on-screen keyboard, though there are already several solutions. They only need to be patched into the Android source code. Sean McNeil has promised to include them in the new images, but has forgotten them. So how close can you get...

Firefox 3.1 development state

Proposed beta 2 shedule

Note: This shedule is subject to change. But shows already when to expect the release.

tree closed / frozen	November 4th
en-US builds generated	November 10th
l10n builds generated	November 11th
results QA tests	November 20th
release targeted	November 21th

Testplans state:

Testplan completion %:	86.30% (last week: 86.30%)
Estimated testcases:	748 (last week: 748)
Testcase completion %:	59.05% (last week: 59.05%)

Various bug fixes and recently added features
Bug 463938 - Fix smooth downscaling for images on Linux


Bug 464329 - Land private browsing icons

Bug 463929 - Support 8-bit WAV streams

Last week WAV support was added, like suggested by the HTML 5 spec. Then 8-bit WAV streams weren't supported. This is now fixed and 8-bit WAV streams should now work.

Bug 463692 - Clear the findbar text when leaving the private browsing mode

Back to basics: Update

We are now 4 weeks after Openmoko announced the 'back to basics' plan. After one week they had all of us fooled. Most of us thought Openmoko hadn't done a thing. But a day later they gave us a rather long list of things they had done. After 2 weeks they even got a real name, the 'Optimization' team. In the 3th week some nice optimizations were made. And so we are at the 4th week.

What's on the menu?
Openmoko has planned a release before the end of this month. They want to surprise us with the release of Om2008.11. This release will most likely contain all the work done by the 'Optimization' team so far. You can find the list of bugs that they want to smoothen out here.

For that reason the 'Optimization' team will not begin new and huge tasks but will smoothen all the work already done. And do some minor bugs. So the testing team can begin testing the new release. So it's solid when it is released.

At which bugs will the Optimization team look?

• #69 speed up system initialization: Olv will merge his improvement into testing repo next week.
• #1489 sometimes volume is too low during a call: Tick will implement a volume control in qtopia dialer.
• #2031 scroll list implementation: Tick will improve etk_scroll_list to fit our designer's idea.
• #2113 suspend time come up right after you change the time: Jeremy will look into this.
  

Official status report

Mozilla firefox 3.0.4 is available

The 3.0.4 release is only a security release, so no new features are added. This release is only for fixing security issues and important bugs found after the release of Mozilla Firefox 3.0.

The changelog looks like this:

- Fixed several security issues.
- Fixed several stability issues.
- Official releases for the Icelandic and Thai languages are now available.
- Beta releases for the Bulgarian, Esperanto, Estonian, Latvian, Occitan, and Welsh languages are available for testing.
- Updated the internal Public Suffix list.
- Fixed an issue where the IME input tool used to enter Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Indic characters was covered by the "Add Bookmark" panel. (bug 433340)
- Enabled additional EV root certificates. (bug 451305)
- Fixed an issue where some passwords saved using Firefox 3.0.2 did not work properly. (bug 457358)
- In some cases, Firefox would not properly save proxy settings for protocols other than HTTP. (bug 446536)

download here