There were some tutorials on Haiku coding a while back, which were good, but they’ve stopped. In order to keep things going and get more people involved in development, current developers could post before and after code fix screenshots or text copies, with a little explanation attached to inform how/why things were done. This could be easy to do for those apps that have simple tasks to be performed to update them. It could give people a regular impetus to help with some coding.
There are many people like me who would be interested in contributing to the writing and documentation part of Haiku. I can’t code or program anything, but I can write and explain how to use Haiku. To a certain point, I guess.
There are a lot of really useful non-programming tasks that need to be done right now. For instance we need to test a lot of the old apps and games, log bugs when they are encountered, and write bep recipes so they can be automatically rebuilt, and then packaged with the package manager. Here are some games that need to be tested and packaged:
Bos Wars
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/strategy/bos-wars
Dune II Legacy -
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/strategy/dune-legacy
netPanzer – An Online Multiplayer Tactical Warfare Game
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/strategy/netpanzer
Widelands - real-time strategy game based on The Settlers
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/strategy/widelands
Wesnoth
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/strategy/wesnoth12
Heroes of Wesnoth
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/strategy/heroes-of-wesnoth
Flobopuyo - Clone of the famous PuyoPuy
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/puzzle/flobopuyo
Tower Toppler – A cool jump and run game involving turning towers
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/adventure/tower-toppler
Starfighter – Remake of a classic Amiga game
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/2d/starfighter
Red Alert – The Westwood real time strategy game
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/strategy/free-red-alert
Wormux – inspired by the Worms game
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/2d/wormux-092
Vertigo Flight simulator
http://haikuware.com/directory/view-details/games/3d/vertigo
There are many more but this is a start. Please note that some of these games will only run on Haiku GCC4, not the standard release. You will need to install Haiku GCC4 only to test these. Please report your results back to this thread. Please also report results and bugs on the Haikuware page.
There is also testing and bug logging to be done for Haiku x64.
Many thanks for your assistance!
Testing Qt apps. Here is a list of cool and useful Qt apps ported to Haiku. It would be really useful to test these apps, and to create packages for them so they can be placed in a repository and downloaded through HaikuDepot:
https://sites.google.com/site/bootapps/home/qt-applications
2Pnotes (utility)
Aarni (utility)
Ascii Design (graphics)
ColorCode (game)
Crossword editor (game)
DownloadManager (network)
Easy Paint (graphics)
GjkReminder (utility)
Luminance HDR (graphics)
Paper (viewer)
Peg-e (game)
qBittorrent (network)
QMediaInfo (utility)
qOrganizer (utility)
Quickly Translate (utility)
Qupzilla (browser)
QuiteRSS (network)
QSnapShot (utility)
QTads (utility)
QWatermark (graphics)
Image Resizer (graphics)
Scribus (word processing and publishing)
SMPlayer (mediaplayer)
Synkron (utility)
TEA Text Editor (editor)
Texmaker (LaTeX editor)
Vacuum (IM and Chat)
WordSearchCreator (Game)
Want to create a package for a Haiku app or game so it can be automatically downloaded and installed by HaikuDepot? Here is an introduction to HaikuPorter:
- http://bb.haikuports.org/haikuports/wiki/HaikuPorterForPM
Building Haiku packages is a great use of your time. Once a package is created, its dependencies are managed and every Haiku user can easily download and install it.
Good thing…
Would be great to have a example/tutorial how to do create a package (step by step)…
[quote=brunobastardi]
Would be great to have a example/tutorial how to do create a package (step by step)…[/quote]
https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/daily-tasks/install-applications
It really is not that hard. If you’ve ever created a zip file from the command line, you can make a HPKG.
And once you’re done with that, here are the specs:
https://dev.haiku-os.org/wiki/PackageManagement
Creating a package for HaikuPorts is several levels more complicated. I’m still trying to get into this myself. The fact that all the available instructions deal with porting Unix CLI utilities doesn’t help.But here it is:
https://www.haiku-os.org/articles/gentle_introduction_haikuporter_1
https://www.haiku-os.org/articles/gentle_introduction_haikuporter_2
http://ports.haiku-files.org/wiki/HaikuPorterForPM
The guys are hi-jacking your thread a bit, syd. 
Maybe new threads should be created for the various topics that came up here. Those would then be easier found when put in the right category, not the “Suggestion box”…
WRT to the original topic, I’m afraid the devs won’t occupy their precious time explaining their commits with before/after screenshots etc. This would be a nice opportunity for motivated users/beginning devs. BTW, questions on specifics of commits can always be posed by (subscribing and) replying on the commit mailing list.
Many years back those summarizing posts were attempted by various people, but nobody could keep it up for long…
Regards,
Humdinger
I try to describe the changes I do in my commit messages. I usually won’t go as far as doing screenshots, as it’s easy enough to grab a nightly build and see for yourself.
Do you need help in understanding something in particular? We have several IRC channels and mailing lists where things can be discussed.