[iRail] Community updates 11/2010

Wed Nov 24 10:03:57 UTC 2010

Done, the result is to be found at
http://project.irail.be/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi/wiki/WrapperCode
Please update the page if you work on a wrapper yourself.

Tim

2010/11/24 mathias baert <mathiasbaert at gmail.com>:
> @pieter good writeup indeed
> @tim excellent idea; you would be adding that here I assume?:
> http://project.irail.be/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi/wiki/WrapperCode
>
> On 24 November 2010 10:28, Tim Besard <tim.besard at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> In response to my own message: a sample feature matrix.
>>
>> Tim
>>
>>
>> 2010/11/24 Tim Besard <tim.besard at gmail.com>:
>> > Not many beer lovers, it seems ;) Good write-up though!
>> >
>> > Concerning the wrappers (and clients which ship an API library, like
>> > libirail in Qt): it might be interesting to create a feature matrix,
>> > so it's easy for devs and users to spot what is missing and how usable
>> > the wrapper/library already is.
>> >
>> > Tim
>> >
>> >
>> > 2010/11/24 Pieter Colpaert <pieter.colpaert at gmail.com>:
>> >> Hi iRail-people!
>> >>
>> >> It's time for some community updates. Sit back and take a few minutes
>> >> to
>> >> read this. Community updates are only needed when a big team of people
>> >> is working together on something huge. Yes... That's what we have
>> >> become. But, I don't want to bore you with numbers, here come updates:
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >> INDEX:
>> >>
>> >> A | FOR HUMANS
>> >>
>> >> 1. NPO (vzw/asbl)
>> >> 2. Schedule
>> >> 3. NMBS won't bother us anymore
>> >> 4. Help testing our applications
>> >>
>> >> B | FOR DEVELOPERS
>> >>
>> >> 00. iRail API
>> >> 01. Github
>> >> 10. BeTrains
>> >> 11. Wrappers
>> >>
>> >> (If you'd rather read the Community updates online:
>> >> http://project.irail.be/cgi-bin/trac.fcgi/wiki/CU1110 )
>> >>
>> >> -------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> A | FOR HUMANS
>> >>
>> >> 1. NPO (vzw/asbl)
>> >>
>> >> We are still starting a non-profit organization. Before we can start we
>> >> need a to decide a lot of things. Here is what we have come up with, in
>> >> a little interview
>> >>
>> >> ° What is the NPO for?
>> >>
>> >> The goal of the NPO is to support iRail so it can provide open
>> >> transport
>> >> data free from money or copyright issues. People who write clients upon
>> >> the iRail API will be able to join the NPO for free. By doing that they
>> >> become iRail themselves and thus have not to worry about any conflict
>> >> with other corporations.
>> >>
>> >> ° Who will be leading the NPO?
>> >>
>> >> Yeri T, Christophe V and Pieter C
>> >>
>> >> ° The name?
>> >>
>> >> iRail.
>> >>
>> >> ° Is there any task still open?
>> >>
>> >> YES! Glad you ask! We need someone to take care of the finances. Any
>> >> volunteer who'd like to do that?
>> >>
>> >> ° Will members have to pay?
>> >>
>> >> We will have 2 kind of members: Members who want to support or cause
>> >> and
>> >> pay a yearly fee (we agreed on 10€/month → 120€/year) and Members who
>> >> contribute code. The latter don't pay a fee at all.
>> >>
>> >> ° Money honey?
>> >>
>> >> Spending: Not at this moment. We are a NPO and we do not intend to make
>> >> money with the iRail API. Our goal is solely to make people use the
>> >> data
>> >> without anything standing in the way. We create a «free market» around
>> >> this data. If you want to make a business around the iRail API, be our
>> >> guest!
>> >>
>> >> Receiving: We do at this moment. We are a NPO and we intend to receive
>> >> from people who care that this project stays alive and kicking. For
>> >> instance, it's very important if your business runs on our API that our
>> >> API stays alive. So keep us well fed with a voluntary percentage of
>> >> your
>> >> gain. We use the money to organize developer meetings, to fund
>> >> ourselves
>> >> (yes, this is becoming an expensive hobby...), to buy servers, to buy
>> >> github services and last but not least, promotion!
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 2. Schedule
>> >>
>> >> I would like to share our schedule before we go into a small
>> >> winter-sleep. (50% of our team are students and students got
>> >> examinations)
>> >>
>> >> (note: this is a draft. It probably won't happen as drafted)
>> >>
>> >> Week of 22/11:
>> >>
>> >> * We're rewriting the mobile webclient (iRail.be). It will be using
>> >> jsonp and will be detached from the API's code. It will be housed in a
>> >> different git repository as well. Mathias Baert is doing an excellent
>> >> job on the javascript right now. Mathias Beynens is going to do the
>> >> html
>> >> + css afterwards. (I have high expectations)
>> >>
>> >> * We will be pushing APIv1.0 (now on dev.api) to the api.iRail.be
>> >> server.
>> >>
>> >> Week of 29/11:
>> >>
>> >> * Setting op blog.iRail.be and getting the word out - our community
>> >> updates and recent news will appear in one central place.
>> >>
>> >> * As last week we got ourselves a great JSONP-wrapper, we will now
>> >> focus
>> >> on an application suggested by Christophe Petit-Jean. We will make a
>> >> widget which will be shown on a TV screen to be put in offices. If
>> >> afterwards we help Christophe setting this up he might do a generous
>> >> donation to the NPO.
>> >>
>> >> * iGoogle widget release
>> >>
>> >> First half of December:
>> >>
>> >> * Testing phase of BeTrains for maemo, BeTrains alpha for bada and
>> >> BeTrains for WP7.
>> >>
>> >> Second half of December
>> >>
>> >> * Release of BeTrains for WP7
>> >> * Release of BeTrains for maemo
>> >> * Release of BeTrains for bada
>> >>
>> >> * Meeting: what will we do in February?
>> >> probably:
>> >>  - FOSDEM!
>> >>  - support for buses! (depends on Van Quickenborne)
>> >>  - iPhone app
>> >>  - Qr-code campaign (more later)
>> >>  - Social features on webclient: Share this app
>> >>  - Take a share in iRail: the more people you refer to BeTrains/iRail
>> >> the more % share you get in the iRail buzz-iness.
>> >>  - Delay-tracker: track delays and make a guess for the future.
>> >>  - Train-load warning: It's not pleasant to take the train to Ghent on
>> >> a
>> >> Sunday evening. Nor when people return from Werchter.
>> >>  - And much more!
>> >>
>> >> 3. NMBS won't bother us anymore
>> >>
>> >> but... They won't help us either. Peter Dedecker (www.peterdedecker.eu)
>> >> asked a question about iRail in the parliament to Inge Vervotte. It was
>> >> slightly positive: they won't use lawyers to bother us anymore. Our
>> >> comments about this are expressed over here:
>> >>
>> >> http://bonsansnom.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/vervotte-beantwoordt-irail/
>> >> (Dutch)
>> >>
>> >> The most important comment: Vervotte mentions that we should agree on
>> >> some points with the NMBS before using the data. Our point is (still)
>> >> that the NMBS does not own the data so they can't force us to accept
>> >> certain conditions. We are however eager to talk to them about
>> >> conditions at least if we knew what they were. We have never heard
>> >> about
>> >> one condition.
>> >>
>> >> 4. Help testing our applications!
>> >>
>> >> Do you have a smartphone? I bet we have a native client! For android
>> >> and
>> >> maemo you can get testing executables.
>> >>
>> >> Maemo: https://github.com/iRail/BeTrains.Qt/downloads
>> >> Android: http://code.google.com/p/betrains/
>> >>
>> >> for other platforms you can compile from source and test it if you feel
>> >> adventurous:
>> >>
>> >> iphone: http://code.google.com/p/betrainsiphone/
>> >> Symbian: https://github.com/iRail/BeTrains.Qt/
>> >> Windows phone 7:
>> >> https://github.com/dieterdp/BeTrains-for-Windows-Phone-7
>> >> bada: https://github.com/iRail/BeTrains.Bada
>> >> iGoogle-widget: https://github.com/iRail/iRailForGoogle
>> >> General widget: https://github.com/iRail/Web
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> B | FOR DEVELOPERS
>> >>
>> >> 00. The iRail API
>> >>
>> >> For those who haven't noticed, the dev API has gained some functions:
>> >>  * liveboards - These are the schedules that you can see when you enter
>> >> a station. Now you can also use them in json/xml/jsonp!
>> >>  * vehicle - With this function you can get information about 1
>> >> specific
>> >> vehicle: where is it going, when will it arrive in which station, ...
>> >>
>> >> Changes/Additions in syntax:
>> >>
>> >>  * Now you can use id=BE.NMBS.123 for a station, instead of
>> >> from/to/station=AALST
>> >>  * Time is now fully iso 8601 compliant as seconds are added
>> >>  * location="X Y" has changed into locationX="X" locationY="Y"
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ! These additions are currently only available in the dev.api.irail.be
>> >> -
>> >> They're almost ready for release. Take into account that you cannot use
>> >> dev.api.irail.be for a stable release of your application since it
>> >> might
>> >> break often. For your stable release use the api.irail.be which will be
>> >> updated soon.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> 01. The Github association
>> >>
>> >> We have a github association page from now on. Access it through
>> >> http://github.com/iRail (doesn't that look nice?)
>> >>
>> >> This allows us to list all members working on a github repository. We
>> >> can manage each user's right to commit on a certain branch. If you need
>> >> more rights, just ping Yeri or Pieter.
>> >>
>> >> 10. BeTrains for X
>> >>
>> >> * We need help on BeTrains for iPhone. At this moment we cannot
>> >> outbetter the iphone app bought by the NMBS. We have to be more stable,
>> >> faster, user-friendlier, ... Do you know someone who can code objective
>> >> C? Refer him to us!
>> >>
>> >> * Same for blackberry, except that we don't have any code yet. Do you
>> >> want to code for blackberry? Do you know someone? Get in touch!
>> >>
>> >> 11. Wrappers
>> >>
>> >> Don't rewrite code that we have written already. We have quite some
>> >> wrappers listed on the github project page.
>> >>
>> >> http://github.com/iRail/
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Thanks for reading this entirely. It takes a lot of courage to read
>> >> such
>> >> a great email. Therefor, the first one to mail me (personally) with "I
>> >> need a beer" will get free beer on the next meet-up.
>> >>
>> >> Yours sincerely,
>> >>
>> >> Pieter
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> iRail mailing list
>> >> iRail at list.irail.be
>> >> http://lists.rootspirit.com/mailman/listinfo/irail
>> >>
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> iRail mailing list
>> iRail at list.irail.be
>> http://lists.rootspirit.com/mailman/listinfo/irail
>>
>
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