Weekly Status Report, W47/2010

Here's a summary of SeaMonkey/Mozilla-related work I've done in week 47/2010 (November 22 - 28, 2010):

• Releases:
  I helped Callek to run the 2.0.11 build process this week, unfortunately he almost learned more about how to deal with problems than how to smoothly do a release run in an automated way. Still, we have builds on on FTP and should get them on the beta channel today.
• Build Infrastructure:
  I filed a bug on the machine name tweak I needed to keep things going when I turned off optimized builds for 32bit Mac, but it looks like this will not be needed once we switch to buildbot 0.8 (hopefully soon).
  The fix for the updates problem we've seen in the 2.0.11 release run was accepted though and has landed. In addition, I filed a bug on our side to set a default hg user to match what the Firefox folks have done.
  I also filed the bug for the Windows bustage we have been seeing on trunk, the work got done by others though (I don't really have the knowledge to fix something like that).
  In addition, I landed a change for 64bit Mac IPC prefs to fix the Snow Leopard experience (automated tests caught that!) - though Mark suggested exact this change, so it's attributed to him.
• (Tahoe) Data Manager:
  Once again I did put a whole lot of work into this module, a 1.3 version of the Tahoe Data Manager add-on is up for review on AMO with all that work included.
  The major things I added are a possibility to add permissions and switching all data viewer hooks in SeaMonkey to open Data Manager, during that work I found I needed to slightly tweak the syntax of the open specific views calls and that needed an update of the data type listing patch as well. I also made DEL key on permissions and ESC key on forget work, added an icon to the Data Manager tab, and finally made IDN be displayed correctly.
  Now I think only the domain icons and the website storage panel are unpatched items on the open bug list for Data Manager.
• Jökulsárlón Download Manager:
  The Jökulsárlón Download Manager add-on has been reviewed on AMO this week, so people should be able to find it publicly (even though AMO search could be improved).
  I also got a few bug reports already and promptly worked on them - the tab icon and DEL key handling have been fixed in the repo, I'm just waiting for some more work before I upload a new version with those.
• SeaMonkey L10n:
  With the spinning of 2.0.11 builds, we could add Finnish as the newest locale in release builds, thanks to the localizers for providing this work!
• Various Discussions:
  SeaMonkey user questions, website updates, 1.9.1 branch breakage, group/list spam, mobile woes and possibilities, etc.

It was exciting for me this time to see a SeaMonkey release being generated without myself actually doing much except for some "hand-holding" over IRC, thanks to Callek for this work - and yes, I hope things will run smoother in the future, we don't always run into multiple errors from the automation harness.

While I'm using my N810 a lot these days to ssh into my desktop and reboot it when the graphics driver acts up, garbles the screen and makes the computer not react to any keyboard or mouse action any more, it looks like the screen's flex connector of the device has been slightly damaged (nothing is visible) and it badly reacts to any touch event any more. I read about people who had that problem while there was still some guarantee on the device and they got the display assembly changed - but after 2.5 years, I guess the life time of this device as a take-with-me-everywhere things is coming to and end. Unfortunately, the MeeGo phone I had hoped to be available at this time isn't here, and neither is a really decent MeeGo tablet (and I only want a device with a really open system, even Android is too closed for me - and I'd hope it can run Fennec 4, of course). I guess I'll have to live with substandard trickery to get anything out of the N810 for some time - or I get a really cheap N900 from somewhere. Of course, Nokia could just send me a prototype MeeGo phone for beta testing (I know they have such a device - a not too large tablet would do it as well), but where do I apply for that (I love testing unfinished software, reporting bugs and maybe looking into some thing myself, you know)?

All in all, I know things could be much better in many things I'm involved with, and I know the future will bring substantial improvements, I just can't await the next steps that show that - and I really want to be a part of it and help to make it true!