Interview with Leonid Ponomarev
Today, our guest is one of the developers of the popular (GTK) podcast aggregator gPodder (we already talked a bit about this program) Leonid “PhoeniX” Ponomarev.
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As I understand it, you consider gPodder the most convenient client :) Why?
When I just started listening to podcasts, I naturally started looking for suitable software. gPodder was most suited to my expectations of how the podcast aggregator should look and behave, and there were no annoying flaws or religious considerations, as in other options. You can’t say more accurately already, so much time has passed.
How popular is your development, if not secret?
To avoid confusion, let's make a reservation right away - gPodder is not my development. The author of the project is Thomas Perl , a student from Vienna. I am only taking part in this project. Interestingly, our universities have an affiliate program, and we met with Thomas thanks to his project. The popularity of such a program is difficult to judge. This is not an office suite and not a desktop environment, to be asked about it in numerous polls of preferences, generally a rather specific program - a podcast aggregator. Many people don’t know what a podcast is, who knows - listens from a web page.
or whatever, that is, in your favorite player (if the latter allows it). However, if we take into account the fact that ordinary people come to the development mailing list and ask questions, offer improvements, write documentation, draw icons and generally begin to help in every way, the project is popular.
What reasons led to join the development of gPodder?
I lacked the support of a Russian. It so happened that I first worked on one of the unsupported scripts, the code was rolled in and later added to the main gPodder code base . Then corrections to support non-unique locales ... So I studied Python more and more deeply learned gPodder from the inside.
What problems arise when developing such a program?
Development language. A joke, in general, but with a fraction of a joke. Although I’m studying it in order to take part in the development of the project, I still don’t like Python as much as five years ago. There are things in it that simply clutch your head, causing problems in short and clear code, forcing them to write unreasonably verbose and ugly code to solve them. Fixing one of these problems in gPodder was one of my next patches. Then the problem manifested itself in another place, I found a source in the python itself and cut the knot like a proud man with a rather dirty but effective hack. But on other machines this problem will occur again. So you have to fence crutches caused by language imperfections.
Have a good presentationTrue, in German, dedicated to gPodder, which Thomas held at the recent Linuxwochen 2008 in Vienna. In it, among other things, Thomas talks about difficulties that arise - incorrect feeds, performance, outdated packages in distributions, iPods and other closed devices, dependencies. I’ll add from myself that often all sorts of “everyday problems” arise - hosting, spamming on wikis and fools, who, without understanding and not really using it, write reviews like this . Sometimes I write about the news or difficulties of a project on my blog .
What development tools do you use? And how is the joint development going?
I always use two development tools - the Vim text editor and the interpreter / compiler of the language used. The rest - according to circumstances, salt and pepper to taste. No charms of all kinds of IDEs will cover one of their main drawbacks - the editor in them is not Vim, which means it will be inconvenient for me.
The joint development is mainly using the mail list and bugtracker. People choose a piece of work that they can do, or realize their idea and send the patch to a sheet. Anyone is testing. Thomas is testing, maybe picks up an interesting idea (as with my last patch, he added a part to support a new chip on the iPod, which I don’t have) and applies it to the current code base.
Once a month a week before the next release - stabilization. Only bug fixes and translation updates. No new functionality and new bugs;)
What parts of the project are you working on now?
Usually I just finish what I miss. Well, for several consecutive releases I’ve supplemented the Russian translation.
What interesting features to expect in new versions? And how long does it take to wait for version 1.0?
Why wait? Download the source (those who are especially suffering, like me, can install from svn) and just two words `make install`. No need to wait for the maintainer of your distribution to post the yesterday's bugs in the form of a package. To my taste, gPodder is developing too fast to be put from
distribution kit. The planned new features are described in the roadmap, which can be found on the
project wiki .
How do you feel about podcasting, do you host your podcast? What are you listening / watching?
I have a purely positive attitude (and not from the word to put). A pretty good way to turn time on the road. I don’t lead my own, enough of the blog , although they have already invited me to others. While I refuse for lack of equipment. So who knows.
I’m listening to the famous Radio T and U , Gray’s podcast " IT Thoughts ", about Linux " L-talks", which I wish you successes in, several thematic Ruby languages. Also in gPodder several videos from various conferences are shipped, so it’s quite convenient to watch it, although this is not a podcast at all. This is done, for example, here . I think to unsubscribe from frames . and a few uninformative and indeed, when the hands reach, lay OPML with their subscriptions to blog - a good way to specify a range of interests.
Original Podkastim.ru
...
As I understand it, you consider gPodder the most convenient client :) Why?
When I just started listening to podcasts, I naturally started looking for suitable software. gPodder was most suited to my expectations of how the podcast aggregator should look and behave, and there were no annoying flaws or religious considerations, as in other options. You can’t say more accurately already, so much time has passed.
How popular is your development, if not secret?
To avoid confusion, let's make a reservation right away - gPodder is not my development. The author of the project is Thomas Perl , a student from Vienna. I am only taking part in this project. Interestingly, our universities have an affiliate program, and we met with Thomas thanks to his project. The popularity of such a program is difficult to judge. This is not an office suite and not a desktop environment, to be asked about it in numerous polls of preferences, generally a rather specific program - a podcast aggregator. Many people don’t know what a podcast is, who knows - listens from a web page.
or whatever, that is, in your favorite player (if the latter allows it). However, if we take into account the fact that ordinary people come to the development mailing list and ask questions, offer improvements, write documentation, draw icons and generally begin to help in every way, the project is popular.
What reasons led to join the development of gPodder?
I lacked the support of a Russian. It so happened that I first worked on one of the unsupported scripts, the code was rolled in and later added to the main gPodder code base . Then corrections to support non-unique locales ... So I studied Python more and more deeply learned gPodder from the inside.
What problems arise when developing such a program?
Development language. A joke, in general, but with a fraction of a joke. Although I’m studying it in order to take part in the development of the project, I still don’t like Python as much as five years ago. There are things in it that simply clutch your head, causing problems in short and clear code, forcing them to write unreasonably verbose and ugly code to solve them. Fixing one of these problems in gPodder was one of my next patches. Then the problem manifested itself in another place, I found a source in the python itself and cut the knot like a proud man with a rather dirty but effective hack. But on other machines this problem will occur again. So you have to fence crutches caused by language imperfections.
Have a good presentationTrue, in German, dedicated to gPodder, which Thomas held at the recent Linuxwochen 2008 in Vienna. In it, among other things, Thomas talks about difficulties that arise - incorrect feeds, performance, outdated packages in distributions, iPods and other closed devices, dependencies. I’ll add from myself that often all sorts of “everyday problems” arise - hosting, spamming on wikis and fools, who, without understanding and not really using it, write reviews like this . Sometimes I write about the news or difficulties of a project on my blog .
What development tools do you use? And how is the joint development going?
I always use two development tools - the Vim text editor and the interpreter / compiler of the language used. The rest - according to circumstances, salt and pepper to taste. No charms of all kinds of IDEs will cover one of their main drawbacks - the editor in them is not Vim, which means it will be inconvenient for me.
The joint development is mainly using the mail list and bugtracker. People choose a piece of work that they can do, or realize their idea and send the patch to a sheet. Anyone is testing. Thomas is testing, maybe picks up an interesting idea (as with my last patch, he added a part to support a new chip on the iPod, which I don’t have) and applies it to the current code base.
Once a month a week before the next release - stabilization. Only bug fixes and translation updates. No new functionality and new bugs;)
What parts of the project are you working on now?
Usually I just finish what I miss. Well, for several consecutive releases I’ve supplemented the Russian translation.
What interesting features to expect in new versions? And how long does it take to wait for version 1.0?
Why wait? Download the source (those who are especially suffering, like me, can install from svn) and just two words `make install`. No need to wait for the maintainer of your distribution to post the yesterday's bugs in the form of a package. To my taste, gPodder is developing too fast to be put from
distribution kit. The planned new features are described in the roadmap, which can be found on the
project wiki .
How do you feel about podcasting, do you host your podcast? What are you listening / watching?
I have a purely positive attitude (and not from the word to put). A pretty good way to turn time on the road. I don’t lead my own, enough of the blog , although they have already invited me to others. While I refuse for lack of equipment. So who knows.
I’m listening to the famous Radio T and U , Gray’s podcast " IT Thoughts ", about Linux " L-talks", which I wish you successes in, several thematic Ruby languages. Also in gPodder several videos from various conferences are shipped, so it’s quite convenient to watch it, although this is not a podcast at all. This is done, for example, here . I think to unsubscribe from frames . and a few uninformative and indeed, when the hands reach, lay OPML with their subscriptions to blog - a good way to specify a range of interests.
Original Podkastim.ru