[haiku-development] Wish List/GSoC Ideas
- From: Sean Healy <jalopeura@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:53:14 +0000
I have been using Haiku as my primary OS for a few weeks now, and I
have found a few things that I really miss. I think some of them would
make good GSoC projects.
I'd be interested in feedback from the developers, particularly on the
first four - how difficult they would be, how long they would take,
whether others think they would make good GSoC projects, etc.
Numbers 5, 6, and 7 are things I think would be too low-level for my
own skills, but would be nice to have (number 1 is already pushing the
limits of my skills).
Number 8 is way off in dream-land, I know, but it's on the list of
things I'd really like to have someday.
I know a number of these things have already been discussed in relation
to the R1 blockers poll, but if these things (or parts of these things)
are suitable GSoC projects, that could get a number of blockers out of
the way.
1) Windows/SMB Shares
I know this one has been attempted before. I have looked into some of
the other file systems (in the kernel add-ons), and it seems as though
Haiku's design makes it pretty easy to interface with the OS.
If I were to do this project, I'd concentrate on making a read-only
file system and a mount tool first, then add write capability. If there
were still time, I would make Tracker aware of available shares on the
network, so users wouldn't have to mount from the command line. If
there were still time after that, I'd look into adding support for
hosting shares from Haiku.
2) Planner/Organizer
I downloaded Sunbird, but I'm not really satisfied with it. I tried
BeOrganized, and I like how it follows the same principles as Mail and
People (data stored as files with attributes), but it only supports a
few attributes, and there's no calendar view.
If I were to do this project, I'd probably start by creating a calendar
view that could read BeOrganized's Appointments and Tasks, then create
a viewer/editor that supports more attributes for each of those file
types. I'd probably also need to do a community poll to see what
attributes are desired.
Then I'd create an alarm server, which would monitor for upcoming
alarms. (This server would be available for other programs to use as
well). In the beginning, I would probably only support one kind of
alarm, a notification (which would be handled by passing it off to the
notification server), but it could be extended later to support playing
media files, launching programs, etc.
It would also be nice to be able to accept and extend meeting requests
the way Outlook does, but interoperability with Outlook users would be
main target of this kind of support, and I don't know if Microsoft has
released that specification.
3) Session/Tab functionality for WebPositive
I'd love to be able to save and load sessions, to reorder tabs, to
bookmark sessions, to have a home session instead of a home page, etc.
4) Word Processor
I know that there's an agreement of some kind with Gobe/Blue Lotus, but
that's in the future. None of the word processors I've found available
for download will actually run on Haiku. (With the Gobe Productive 2.0
trial, I can at least read .doc files on Haiku.)
It would be nice if we could get a word processor working on Haiku,
perhaps an update of the old AbiWord port.
5) Wireless
I know this one is already working to a large extent, but my cable
modem came factory preset to use WPA encryption, so wireless is on the
list of things I miss.
6) Battery/Power Options
My battery drains a lot faster on Haiku. WinXP has various settings for
power usage. While I could write a preflet, I don't know how to
implement the power-saving features, and I suspect many of them would
require a driver for each battery type (although there is some
standardization in battery features).
7) Hibernate/Standby Options
It would be nice to be able to leave what I'm working on open instead
of completely shutting down Haiku every time I have to close the lod on
my laptop.
8) Windows Emulation
Considering that even Linux, with its much larger community, doesn't
have WINE running perfectly yet, this is a long way off. But it's
something that would make the switch to Haiku easier. I know attempts
were made in the past with BeWINE and Win4Be.
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