Over the last year, supporting OSX 10.4 has been a pain in the ass for a bunch of reasons and is costing us a lot of development and testing time. Adding new features to Miro is cumbersome since we have to work around OSX 10.4's constraints and implement and test everything on three different versions of OSX.

For Miro 3.1, we're working on switching Miro from using a home-grown httpclient to using libcurl (bug 13010). We're also adding support for converting media files from one format to another (bug 13252). Both of these changes add external components that needs that needs binary kit support for OSX. After some discussion, we've decided to draw the line here.

Miro 3.1 and future versions will no longer be supported on OSX 10.4.

It's hard to tell exactly how many users are still using 10.4 since we don't sell Miro and we use OSUOSL for distributing binaries. We can get some probably-in-the-same-ballpark numbers from analytics on Miro Guide. I wrote some numbers in the minutes for the 04/07/2010 devcall. These numbers suggest that of the 470,000 users who looked at the Miro Guide, 12% of them are using OSX 10.4. Note that this is not 12% of all Miro users--just 12% of Miro users on OSX.

That's a large number of users and we're cognizant that dropping support for OSX 10.4 orphans these users. However, Miro 3.0 is a solid release, so it's not the case that we're orphaning them on a bad release.

It'd be great if someone who has OSX 10.4.11 installed wanted to take up the torch and continue support for Miro on that system. If you're interested, let me know and I'll hook you up with our OSX dev.

Comments, feedback, offers to help support OSX 10.4 going forward, offers to donate, ... leave them in the comments section.

I spent a few hours with the Python Miro Community site today re-applying the template changes I made to the theme to the new version of the theme. Miro Community has released two versions since I tweaked the theme, so I was playing catch-up. I'm putting my edits into version control this time around so I don't lose them again (silly silly silly).

One of the things I want to do with Python Miro Community is to build playlists of videos covering a specific theme for helping people come up to speed with those areas: testing in Python, basic Python programming, advanced Python programming, ... I've been faking this using tags, but it's pretty suboptimal because I can't control the order the videos get listed in on the tag listing page. Dean created bug 12627 for implemnting playlists/series. This would also fix the problem I have where YouTube duration maximums force a single "video" to span several YouTube urls and thus be several separated videos. Anyhow, looks like that isn't going to get implemented for Miro Community 1.0.

I started slogging through the queue. We've got 80 videos or so in the approve/reject queue right now. A bunch of them are PyCon 2010 related. A bunch are from Carl's blip.tv feed and are from ChiPy and other things. 50 or so are from a Plone feed that Nate Aune sent me. I'm going to make a concerted effort to get through the queue over the next couple of weeks.

Even though I'm behind in the queue, I encourage people to submit new videos. Some of the best material comes from Python user groups--I'd really like to see more groups videoing their sessions, posting them online, and submitting them to PMC. Don't let ChiPy and PyAtl outshine everyone else!

You can find Python Miro Community at http://python.mirocommunity.org/.

Quickly is an application that makes it easier to start new software development projects by filling in a lot of the skeletal structure from a set of templates. I've read about it a bunch on Jono's blog in the context of his push for "opportunistic developers".

Chris Webber and I have been throwing together web applications most of which have the same basic structure: WebOb, Jinja2, simplejson, and routes with some glue and stuff in between.

I spent some time building a Quickly template for this structure. The results of this are quickly-webber-app.

It was hard. There's no docmentation that I could find on creating templates for Quickly, so I had to look through the ubuntu-project template and read through the Quickly code. Even then, I bumped into a few gotchas.

• the command scripts are run as scripts and not imported as Python modules

• command scripts must be executable, otherwise Quickly silently skips them when building its commands list

• probably better to develop the template in your ~/quickly-templates/ directory rather than as a project and schlepping things in and out like I did

I was using the Quickly that comes with Ubuntu Karmic which is 0.2.6. Ubuntu Lucid has a newer version, but I didn't want to fiddle with trying to get it to install on Karmic given that it's got dependencies that aren't readily available in Karmic.

After talking with Chris, he suggested I redo it with Paste templates. There's a good explanation at http://pylonshq.com/docs/en/0.9.7/advanced_pylons/creating_paste_templates/. It'd be interesting to see if I could build a set of templates that works with both Quickly and Paste.

Anyhow, the project is there if it's interesting to anyone. Email me or comment below if you have questions, comments, concerns, whatever.

Updates:

5/2/2010 - Didier (Quickly dev) says there is documentation for creating templates at http://www.didrocks.fr/index.php/post/Build-your-application-quickly-with-Quickly%3A-Inside-Quickly-part-6.

minutes

Miro 3.1 status (roadmap)

• considering dropping support for OSX 10.4

Miro Community 1.0 status (roadmap)

• coming along nicely

Luc:

• lots of work done on the new conversions functionality

• spent some time investigating Nick's shutdown problems; probably caused by libtorrent

Paul:

• pushed out 0.9.6 release of Miro Community and it seems to be a solid release with a few new features

• working on Miro Community 1.0

Ben:

• continued working on libcurl work

• having trouble getting libcurl working on OSX

Will:

• helped with the bugzilla 3.6

• built packages for Lucid of Miro 3.0.1

• worked on 3.1 bugs that I had started a few weeks ago but was sitting on.

bugzilla

• 30 bugs/feature-requests created

• 1 bugs marked WONTFIX

• 19 bugs marked FIXED

One of the things I've been working on over the last couple of weeks was a new desk and deskspace for my PCF branch office where I work. It's been hard because I have a bunch of equipment that I need access to, as well as a bunch of paperwork and other things. Also, I felt my desk was too short for my height--I was always feeling scrunched up. Also also, my desk had a privacy guard and I have a bruise on the front of each shin from whacking the damned privacy guard all the time. I really really needed a different desk.

One night, I drew up plans. Two weekends ago, I visited my dad and we took his Suburban to Home Depot, picked up some material, brought it back to his place where he has more space, and made the cuts. Then we brought it back to my place where I spent the last couple of weeks sanding it, staining it and poly-urethaning it.

Today I finished it up, assembled it, moved everything around, and put it in place.

I put the PCF build boxes under the desk where I can kick them when I'm annoyed. :)

Many thanks to my dad for all his help and my brother-in-law for his thoughts. I'm really psyched to have a better desk. It'll clear up a lot of problems I was having.

We upgraded bugzilla from 3.0 to 3.6 today. The new bugzilla is at the same place as the old bugzilla.

If you notice any problems, comment here or send me an email.

minutes

Miro 3.1 status (roadmap)

• we're going to extend the development cycle to May 10th

• considering dropping support for OSX 10.4

Miro Community 1.0 status (roadmap)

• coming along nicely

Janet:

• updated the appcast for Miro 3.0.1

• worked on cobranded players

• coordinated testing

Ben:

• worked on bug 13169: trying to get miro working with xulrunner 1.9.2

• looking at ditching gtkmozembed

Paul:

• working on a new point release for Miro Community to get a bunch of bug fixes out to live sites

• continuing to make good progress on Miro Community 1.0

Luc:

• landed conversion code in master

• continued working on ui updates, adding menus, ... filling out the functionality

• working on code to display conversion status

Will:

• helped with getting 13169 worked out

• helped with Bugzilla 3.6 setup

• worked on copyright/license issues with Miro Video Converter

• updated Miro User Manual

bugzilla

• 12 bugs/feature-requests created

• 2 bugs marked WONTFIX

• 7 bugs marked FIXED

We pushed out Miro 3.0.1 a couple of days ago to address a few problems that we discovered with 3.0. If you haven't upgraded to 3.0.1 yet, it's definitely worth doing.

Release notes for Miro 3.0.1 are here.

The other big change with this release is that I've moved our Ubuntu packages from repositories on OSUOSL to our miro-releases Launchpad PPA.

As of 3.0.1, we're no longer pushing packages to our repositories on OSUOSL.

Details on the miro-releases PPA are at here.

I do plan on doing packages for Lucid, but there's a problem with Miro's embedded XULRunner browser on Lucid. It's captured in bug 13169. Ben and I are working on it, but if you've got experience with XULRunner, GTK, and/or gtkmozembed, we could use some help. Details and status of the problem are in the bug. This bug is definitely blocking packages for Lucid. If you can help, ping us on #miro-hackers on freenode.net.

Update 4/22/2010: Lucid packages are in the PPA, too.

minutes

Miro 3.0.1 status (roadmap)

• released! yay!

Miro 3.1 status (roadmap)

• coming along nicely

Miro Community 1.0 status (roadmap)

• coming along nicely

Janet:

• looking forward to updating everyone to 3.0.1.

• working on testing of cobranded players.

Will:

• finished up work to switch us over to use Launchpad PPA for releases.

• pushed out 3.0.1.

• fixed some 3.0.1 and 3.1 bugs.

Ben:

• fixated on reworking httpclient using libcurl. is almost done the work required.

Luc:

• happy to get positive feedback on bug #13120--that issue sucked.

• worked on video conversion stuff.

• planning to push a bunch of stuff into master tomorrow.

Paul:

• Miro Community development continues.

• hoping to do a point release in the next couple of weeks to fix problems with Internet Explorer and the admin pages.

• working on the submit a video pages.

bugzilla

(Not sure how I missed this section last week...)

• 13 bugs/feature-requests created

• 1 bugs marked DUPLICATE

• 8 bugs marked FIXED

• 1 bugs marked WONTFIX

minutes

Miro 3.0.1 status (roadmap)

• need confirmations on 13120 fix: Luc and Will will follow up on this

• need a better ui for when the zugo installer fails to download the miro installer; bug 13121; Janet's following up on this

• need to update translations; Will will do this

Miro 3.1 status (roadmap)

• coming along nicely

• seriously considering dropping support for OSX 10.4

Miro Community 1.0 status (roadmap)

• coming along nicely

Luc:

• Bug 13120 - Worked with Anne to find the possible cause of the problem, but it's still completely mysterious. Implemented a workaround that works on Anne's machine, but waiting for additional confirmation for other machines (David and additional GS person). Seems like the workaround should fix it for everyone, but it'd be good to have additional confirmation.

• Worked on some other less important things.

Janet:

• It was a forgettable week.

• Did some testing on the search bug, Miro Video Converter, continued refining regression tests and made some new ones.

• Will follow up with Zugo and Nick about bug 13121 and required interface changes.

Ben:

• Worked on bugs from 3.0.

• Working on replacing httpclient with libcurl (_so_ much better so far).

Paul:

• Pushed out Miro Community v0.9.5 with a bunch of fixes.

• Working design-side of new features for 1.0.

• In good shape for Miro 1.0--probably 6 weeks of work.

Will:

• Did some follow-up work on some bugs, but mostly spent the week playing catch-up with real life stuff.

OSX information

There were around 470,000 visitors to the Miro Guide site who were using OSX. Breakdown:

OSX 10.6 - 50%
OSX 10.5 - 35%
OSX 10.4 - 12%