FLOSS Project Planets
PyCoder’s Weekly: Issue #653 (Oct. 29, 2024)
#653 – OCTOBER 29, 2024
View in Browser »
Simon writes about a Soduku solver written by Konstin that uses the Python packaging mechanisms to do Soduku puzzles. The results are output using a requirements.txt file, where soduku-0-3==5 represents the (0,3) cell’s answer of 5.
SIMON WILLISON
In this tutorial, you’ll learn about the issues that can occur when your code is run in a multithreaded environment. Then you’ll explore the various synchronization primitives available in Python’s threading module, such as locks, which help you make your code safe.
REAL PYTHON
Open-source OpenAPI generators are great for experimentation and hobby projects but lack the reliability, performance, and intuitive developer experience required for critical applications. Speakeasy creates idiomatic SDKs that meet the bar for enterprise use. Check out this comparison guide →
SPEAKEASY sponsor
PEP 761 proposes removing PGP signatures from CPython artifacts and solely relying on Sigstore. But just what is Sigstore? This post explains how CPython gets signed and why Sigstore is a good choice.
SETH LARSON
Currently, if you want to play around with Wagtail, most people try the Bakery Demo test site, but it is not meant to be a starter site. They’ve created a new starter template that provides you with a high-performance, production-grade Wagtail site. This introduces you to it.
JAKE HOWARD • Shared by Meagen Voss
Python’s Global Interpreter Lock or GIL, in simple words, is a mutex (or a lock) that allows only one thread to hold the control of the Python interpreter at any one time. In this video course you’ll learn how the GIL affects the performance of your Python programs.
REAL PYTHON course
“With Temporal, we…regularly reduced lines of code from 300 to 30.” -DigitalOcean. Ever wish you could eliminate recovery logic, callbacks, and timers? Temporal’s open source programming model allows you to stop plumbing and start focusing on what matters: building awesome features. Check it out now →
TEMPORAL TECHNOLOGIES sponsor
At work, Adriaan deals with code that interfaces with Unix SysV’s shared memory components. For convenience he wanted to get at this from Python, and “because work”, from Python 3.7. This post talks about how he solved the problem.
ADRIAAN DE GROOT
Bite Code summarizes some of the lesser covered changes to Python in the 3.13 release, including how some of the REPL improvements made it into pdb, improvements to shutil, and small additions to the asyncio library.
BITE CODE!
This tutorial explores how the htmx library can bring dynamic functionality, like lazy loading, search-as-you-type, and infinite scroll to your Django project with almost no JavaScript necessary.
PYCHARM CHANNEL video
This post shows the results of a performance comparison between Python 3.12 and 3.13 on two different processors. TL;DR: Python 3.13 is faster, but there are a couple of hairy edge cases.
WŁODZIMIERZ LEWONIEWSKI
This post examines the devaluation of software engineer titles and its impact on the integrity of the tech industry.
TREVOR LASN
This is a listing of the recorded talks from PyData Amsterdam.
YOUTUBE video
GITHUB.COM/NIKDEDOV • Shared by Nikolai
Scrapling: Lightning-Fast, Adaptive Web Scraping for PythonGITHUB.COM/D4VINCI • Shared by Karim Shoair
otterwiki: A Minimalistic Wiki Powered by Python msgspec: Fast Serialization and Validation Library beartype: Bare Metal Type Checker Events Weekly Real Python Office Hours Q&A (Virtual) October 30, 2024
REALPYTHON.COM
October 31 to November 3, 2024
PYCON.FR
October 31 to November 3, 2024
PYCON.ORG
October 31, 2024
MEETUP.COM
November 2, 2024
MEETUP.COM
November 4, 2024
J.MP
Happy Pythoning!
This was PyCoder’s Weekly Issue #653.
View in Browser »
[ Subscribe to 🐍 PyCoder’s Weekly 💌 – Get the best Python news, articles, and tutorials delivered to your inbox once a week >> Click here to learn more ]
PyCharm: Data Exploration With pandas
Maybe you’ve heard complicated-sounding phrases such as ‘“Students t-test”, “regression models”, “support vector machines”, and so on. You might think there’s so much you need to learn before you can explore and understand your data, but I am going to show you two tools to help you go faster. These are summary statistics and graphs.
Summary statistics and graphs/plots are used by new and experienced data scientists alike, making them the perfect building blocks for exploring data.
We will be working with this dataset available from Kaggle if you’d like to follow along. I chose this dataset because it has several interesting properties, such as multiple continuous and categorical variables, missing data, and a variety of distributions and skews. I’ll explain each variable I work with and why I chose each one to show you the tools you can apply to your chosen data set.
In our previous blog posts, we looked at where to get data from and bring that data into PyCharm. You can look at steps 1 and 2 from our blog post entitled 7 ways to use Jupyter notebooks in PyCharm to create a new Jupyter notebook and import your data as a CSV file if you need a reminder. You can use the dataset I linked above or pick your own for this walkthrough.
We’re going to be using the pandas library in this blog post, so to ensure we’re all on the same page, your code should look something like the following block in a Jupyter notebook – you’ll need to change the spreadsheet name and location to yours, though. Make sure you’ve imported matplotlib, too, as we will be using that library to explore our data.
import pandas as pd import matplotlib as plt df = pd.read_csv('../data/AmesHousing.csv') dfWhen you run that cell, PyCharm will show you your DataFrame, and we can get started.
Try PyCharm Professional for free
Summary statisticsWhen we looked at where to get data from, we discussed continuous and categorical variables. We can use Jupyter notebooks inside PyCharm to generate different summary statistics for these, and, as you might have already guessed, the summary statistics differ depending on whether the variables are continuous or categorical.
Continuous variables summary statisticsFirst, let’s see how we can view our summary statistics. Click on the small bar graph icon on the right-hand side of your DataFrame and select Compact:
Let me give you a little tip here if you’re unsure which variables are continuous and which are categorical, PyCharm shows different summary statistics for each one. The ones with the mini graphs (blue in this screenshot) are continuous, and those without are categorical.
This data set has several continuous variables, such as Order, PID, MS SubClass, and more, but we will focus on Lot Frontage first. That is the amount of space at the front of the property.
The summary statistics already give us some clues:
There’s a lot of data here, so let’s break it down and explore it to understand it better. Immediately, we can see that we have missing data for this variable; that’s something we want to note, as it might mean we have some issues with the dataset, although we won’t go into that in this blog post!
First, you can see the little histogram in blue in my screenshot, which tells us that we have a positive skew in our data because the data tails off to the right. We can further confirm this with the data because the mean is slightly larger than the median. That’s not entirely surprising, given we’d expect the majority of lot frontages to be of a similar size, but perhaps there are a small number of luxury properties with much bigger lot frontages that are skewing our data. Given this skew, we would be well advised not to use the standard deviation as a measure of dispersion because that is calculated by using all data points, so it’s affected by outliers, which we know we have on one side of our distribution.
Next, we can calculate our interquartile range as the difference between our 25th percentile of 58.0 and our 75th percentile of 80.0, giving us an interquartile range of 22.0. Alongside the interquartile range, it’s helpful to consider the median, the middle value in our data, and unlike the mean, it is not based on every data point. The median is more appropriate for Lot Frontage than the mean because it’s not affected by the outliers we know we have.
Since we’re talking about the median and interquartile range, it is worth saying that box plots are a great way to represent these values visually. We can ask JetBrains AI Assistant to create one for us with a prompt such as this:
Create code using matplotlib for a box plot for ‘Lot Frontage’. Assume we have all necessary imports and the data exists.
Here’s the code that was generated:
plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6)) plt.boxplot(df['Lot Frontage'].dropna(), vert=False) plt.title('Box Plot of Lot Frontage') plt.xlabel('Lot Frontage') plt.show()When I click Accept and run, we get our box plot:
The median is the line inside the box, which, as you can see, is slightly to the left, confirming the presence of the positive or right-hand skew. The box plot also makes it very easy to see a noticeable number of outliers to the right of the box, known as “the tail”. That’s the small number of likely luxury properties that we suspect we have.
It’s important to note that coupling the mean and standard deviation or the median and IQR gives you two pieces of information for that data: a central tendency and the variance. For determining the central tendency, the mean is more prone to being affected by outliers, so it is best when there is no skew in your data, whereas the median is more robust in that regard. Likewise, for the variation, the standard deviation can be affected by outliers in your data. In contrast, the interquartile range will always tell you the distribution of the middle 50% of your data. Your goals determine which measurements you want to use.
Categorical variables summary statisticsWhen it comes to categorical variables in your data, you can use the summary statistics in PyCharm to find patterns. At this point, we need to be clear that we’re talking about descriptive rather than inferential statistics. That means we can see patterns, but we don’t know if they are significant.
Some examples of categorical data in this data set include MS Zoning, Lot Shape, and House Style. You can gain lots of insights just by looking through your data set. For example, looking at the categorical variable Neighborhood, the majority are stated as Other in the summary statistics with 75.8%. This tells you that there might well be a lot of categories in Neighborhood, which is something to bear in mind when we move on to graphs.
As another example, the categorical variable House Style states that about 50% of the houses are one-story, while 30% are two-story, leaving 20% that fall into some other category that you might want to explore in more detail. You can ask JetBrains AI for help here with a prompt like:
Write pandas code that tells me all the categories for ‘House Style’ in my DataFrame ‘df’, which already exists. Assume we have all the necessary imports and that the data exists.
Here’s the resulting code:
unique_house_styles = df['House Style'].unique() print("Unique categories for 'House Style':") print(unique_house_styles)When we run that we can see that the remaining 20% is split between various codes that we might want to research more to understand what they mean:
Unique categories for ‘House Style’:
['1Story' '2Story' '1.5Fin' 'SFoyer' 'SLvl' '2.5Unf' '1.5Unf' '2.5Fin']
Have a look through the data set at your categorical variables and see what insights you can gain!
Before we move on to graphs, I want to touch on one more piece of functionality inside PyCharm that you can use to access your summary statistics called Explain DataFrame. You can access it by clicking on the purple AI icon on the top-right of the DataFrame and then choosing AI Actions | Explain DataFrame.
JetBrains AI lists out your summary statistics but may also add some code snippets that are helpful for you to get your data journey started, such as how to drop missing values, filter rows based on a condition, select specific columns, as well as group and aggregate data.
GraphsGraphs or plots are a way of quickly getting patterns to pop out at you that might not be obvious when you’re looking at the numbers in the summary statistics. We’re going to look at some of the plots you can get PyCharm to generate to help you explore your data.
First, let’s revisit our continuous variable, Lot Frontage. We already learned that we have a positive or right-hand skew from the mini histogram in the summary statistics, but we want to know more!
In your DataFrame in PyCharm, click the Chart View icon on the left-hand side:
Now click the cog on the right-hand side of the chart that says Show series settings and select the Histogram plot icon on the far right-hand side. Click x to clear the values in the X axis and Y axis and then select Lot Frontage with group and sort for the X axis and Lot Frontage with count for the Y axis:
PyCharm generates the same histogram as you see in the summary settings, but we didn’t have to write a single line of code. We can also explore the histogram and mouse over data points to learn more.
Let’s take it to the next level while we’re here. Perhaps we want to see if the condition of the property, as captured by the Overall Cond variable, predicts the sale price.
Change your X axis SalePrice group and sort and your Y axis to SalePrice count and then add the group Overall Cond:
Looking at this chart, we can hypothesize that the overall condition of the property is indeed a predictor of the sale price, as the distribution and skew are remarkably similar. One small note is that grouping histograms like this works best when you have a smaller number of categories. If you change Groups to Neighborhood, which we know has many more categories, it becomes much harder to view!
Moving on, let’s stick with PyCharm’s plotting capabilities and explore bar graphs. These are a companion to frequency charts such as histograms, but can also be used for categorical data. Perhaps you are interested in Neighbourhood (a categorical variable) in relation to SalesPrice.
Click the Bar [chart] icon on the left-hand side of your series setting, then select Neighbourhood as Categories and SalesPrice with the median as the Values:
This helps us understand the neighborhoods with the most expensive and cheapest housing. I chose the median for the SalesPrice as it’s less susceptible to outliers in the data. For example, I can see that housing in Mitchel is likely to be substantially cheaper than in NoRidge.
Line plots are another useful plot for your toolkit. You can use these to demonstrate trends between continuous variables over a period of time. For example, select the Line [graph] icon and then choose Year Built as the X axis and SalePrice with the mean as the Y axis:
This suggests a small positive correlation between the year the house was built and the price of the house, especially after 1950. If you’re feeling adventurous, remove the mean from SalePrice and see how your graph changes when it has to plot every single price!
The last plot I’d like to draw your attention to is scatter plots. These are a great way to see a relationship between two continuous variables and any correlation between them. A correlation shows the strength of a relationship between two variables. To dig deeper, check out this beginner-friendly overview from Real Python.
For example, if we set our X axis to SalePrice and our Y axis to Gr LivArea, we can see that there is a positive correlation between the two variables, and we can also easily spot some outliers in our data, including a couple of houses with a lower sale price but a huge living area!
SummaryHere’s a reminder of what we’ve covered today. You can access your summary statistics in PyCharm either through Explain DataFrame with JetBrains AI or by clicking on the small graph icon on the right-hand side of a DataFrame called Column statistics and then selecting Compact. You can also use Detailed to get even more information than we’ve covered in this blog post.
You can get PyCharm to create graphs to explore your data and create hypotheses for further investigation. Some more commonly used ones are histograms, bar charts, line graphs, and scatter plots.
Finally, you can use JetBrains AI Assistant to generate code with natural language prompts in the AI tool window. This is a quick way to learn more about your data and start thinking about the insights on offer.
Download PyCharm Professional to try it out for yourself! Get an extended trial today and experience the difference PyCharm Professional can make in your data science endeavors. Use the promotion code “PyCharmNotebooks” at checkout to activate your free 60-day subscription to PyCharm Professional. The free subscription is available for individual users only.
Try PyCharm Professional for free
Using both summary statistics and graphs in PyCharm, we can learn a lot about our data, giving us a solid foundation for our next step – cleaning our data, which we will talk about in the next blog post in this series.
Real Python: Python's Magic Methods in Classes
As a Python developer who wants to harness the power of object-oriented programming, you’ll love to learn how to customize your classes using special methods, also known as magic methods or dunder methods. A special method is a method whose name starts and ends with a double underscore. These methods have special meanings in Python.
Python automatically calls magic methods as a response to certain operations, such as instantiation, sequence indexing, attribute managing, and much more. Magic methods support core object-oriented features in Python, so learning about them is fundamental for you as a Python programmer.
In this video course, you’ll:
- Learn what Python’s special or magic methods are
- Understand the magic behind magic methods in Python
- Customize different behaviors of your custom classes with special methods
[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]
Real Python: Quiz: Using .__repr__() vs .__str__() in Python
In this quiz, you’ll test your understanding of Python’s .__repr__() and .__str__() special methods. These methods allow you to control how a program displays an object, making your classes more readable and easier to debug and maintain.
[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]
I’ve had my Creality CR-6 SE for quite some while now and it’s worked very well. I’ve even moved with it a couple of times. However, it seems that now was the time for it to give up the ghost, as the extruder casing developed a crack. Apparently...
I’ve had my Creality CR-6 SE for quite some while now and it’s worked very well. I’ve even moved with it a couple of times. However, it seems that now was the time for it to give up the ghost, as the extruder casing developed a crack. Apparently something not completely uncommon.
The extruder casing removed. The spring is quite powerful. The crack.So I searched the internet for spare parts before I realized that this is a common failure mode and that there are all-metal replacements. A few clicks later, I had one ordered from Amazon. I took a chance and ordered one for CR-10, as it looked like it would fit from the photos, and it did (phew). Here is a link to the one I got: link.
The replacement extruder installed.The installation went smooth. The only tricky part was getting the threads of the screw being pushed by the spring right. The spring is quite strong, so it is really a three hand operation in the area where my fingers have a hard time fitting. Having done that, it seems like it just work straight out of the box.
First print.The print has been going on for a couple of hours now, and there has been no hickups. Big shout-out to OctoPrint while I’m at it. Being able to keep an eye on things without having to sit next to the printer is just great (and not having to fiddle around with SD-cards is also really nice).
1xINTERNET blog: DrupalCamp Scotland, a small event with huge appeal. Full report on what you missed!
After a break of 5 years DrupalCamp Scotland is back! A small event with huge appeal. By all measures there’s no doubt the community welcomed its return and are already asking about next year. So what did you miss?
Julien Tayon: Is chatgpt good at generating code for tuning a guitar ?
Science he was a patented CS engineer he wanted to prove me that my new guitar tuner was useless since AI could come with a better less convoluted exact example in less lines of code than mine (mine is adapted from a blog on audio processing and fast fourier transform because it was commented and was refreshing me the basics of signal processing).
And I asked him, have you ever heard of the Nyquist frequency ? or the tradeoff an oscilloscope have to do between time locality and accuracy ?
Of course he didn't. And was proud that a wannabee coder would be proven useless thanks to the dumbest AI.
So I actually made this guitar tuner because this time I wanted to have an exact figure around the Hertz.
The problem stated by FFT/Nyquist formula is that if I want an exact number around 1Hz (1 period per second) I should sample at least half a period (hence .5 second), and should not expect a good resolution.
The quoted chatgpt code takes 1024 samples out of 44100/sec, giving it a nice reactivity of 1/44th of a second with an accuracy of 44100/1024/2 => 21Hz.
I know chatgpt does not tune a guitar, but shouldn't the chatgpt user bragging about the superiority of pro as him remember that when we tune we may tune not only at A = 440Hz but maybe A = 432Hz or other ?
A note is defined as a racine 12th of 2 compared to an arbitrary reference (remember an octave is doubling => 12 half tones = 2) ; what makes a temperate scale is not the reference but the relationship between notes and this enable bands of instrument to tune themselves according to the most unreliable but also nice instrument which is the human voice.
Giving the user 3 decimal after the comma is called being precise : it makes you look like a genius in the eye of the crowd. Giving the user 0 decimal but accurate frequency is what makes you look dumb in the eyes of the computer science engineer, but it way more useful in real life.
Here I took the liberty with pysine to generate A on 6 octaves (ref A=440) and use the recommanded chatgpt buffer size acknowledged by a pro CS engineer for tuning your guitar and my default choices. for i in 55.0 110.0 220.0 440.0 880.0 1760.0 ; do python -m pysine $i 3; done Here is the result with a chunk size of 1024 : And here is the result with a chunk size corresponding to half a second of sampling :
I may not be a computer engineer, I am dumb, but checking with easy to use tools that your final result is in sync with your goal is for me more important than diplomas and professional formations.
The code is yet another basic animation in matplotlib with a nice arrow pointing the frequency best fitting item. It is not the best algorithm, but it does the job.
Showing the harmonics as well as the tonal has another benefit it answers the questions : why would I tune my string on the note of the upper string ?
Like tuning E on A ?
Well because -at least for my half broken guitar- it ensures to me that I will tune on the tonal note.
Here is a sample of tuning E on the empty string : And this is how tuning the E string on the A note looks like : And don't pay attention to the 56Hz residual noise triggered by my fans/appliance turning and making a constant noise :D Here is the code import pyaudio import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import matplotlib.animation as animation import numpy as np import time from sys import argv A = 440.0 try: A=float(argv[1]) except IndexError: pass form_1 = pyaudio.paInt16 # 16-bit resolution chans = 1 # 1 channel samp_rate = 44100 # 44.1kHz sampling rate chunk = 44100//2# .5 seconds of sampling for 1Hz accuracy audio = pyaudio.PyAudio() # create pyaudio instantiation # create pyaudio stream stream = audio.open( format = form_1,rate = samp_rate,channels = chans, input = True , frames_per_buffer=chunk ) fig = plt.figure(figsize=(13,8)) ax = fig.add_subplot(111) plt.grid(True) def compute_freq(ref, half_tones): return [ 1.0*ref*(2**((half_tones+12*i )/12)) for i in range(-4,4) ] print(compute_freq(A,0)) note_2_freq = dict( E = compute_freq(A,-5), A = compute_freq(A, 0), D = compute_freq(A, 5), G = compute_freq(A,-2), B = compute_freq(A, 2), ) resolution = samp_rate/(2*chunk) def closest_to(freq): res = dict() for note, freqs in note_2_freq.items(): res[note]=max(freqs) for f in freqs: res[note]= min(res[note], abs(freq -f)) note,diff_freq = sorted(res.items(), key = lambda item : item[1])[0] for f in note_2_freq[note]: if abs(freq-f) == diff_freq: return "%s %s %2.1f %d" % ( note, abs(freq - f ) < resolution and "=" or ( freq > f and "+" or "-"), abs(freq-f), freq ) def init_func(): plt.rcParams['font.size']=18 plt.xlabel('Frequency [Hz]') plt.ylabel('Amplitude [Arbitry Unit]') plt.grid(True) ax.set_xscale('log') ax.set_yscale('log') ax.set_xticks( note_2_freq["E"] + note_2_freq["A"]+ note_2_freq["D"]+ note_2_freq["G"]+ note_2_freq["B"] , labels = ( [ "E" ] * len(note_2_freq["E"]) + [ "A" ] * len(note_2_freq["A"]) + [ "D" ] * len(note_2_freq["D"]) + [ "G" ] * len(note_2_freq["G"]) + [ "B" ] * len(note_2_freq["B"]) ) ) ax.set_xlim(40, 4000) return ax def data_gen(): stream.start_stream() data = np.frombuffer(stream.read(chunk),dtype=np.int16) stream.stop_stream() yield data i=0 def animate(data): global i i+=1 ax.cla() init_func() # compute FFT parameters f_vec = samp_rate*np.arange(chunk/2)/chunk # frequency vector based on window # size and sample rate mic_low_freq = 50 # low frequency response of the mic low_freq_loc = np.argmin(np.abs(f_vec-mic_low_freq)) fft_data = (np.abs(np.fft.fft(data))[0:int(np.floor(chunk/2))])/chunk fft_data[1:] = 2*fft_data[1:] plt.plot(f_vec,fft_data) max_loc = np.argmax(fft_data[low_freq_loc:])+low_freq_loc # max frequency resolution plt.annotate(r'$\Delta f_{max}$: %2.1f Hz, A = %2.1f Hz' % ( resolution, A), xy=(0.7,0.92), xycoords='figure fraction' ) ax.set_ylim([0,2*np.max(fft_data)]) # annotate peak frequency annot = ax.annotate( 'Freq: %s'%(closest_to(f_vec[max_loc])), xy=(f_vec[max_loc], fft_data[max_loc]),\ xycoords='data', xytext=(0,30), textcoords='offset points', arrowprops=dict(arrowstyle="->"), ha='center',va='bottom') #fig.savefig('full_figure-%04d.png' % i) return ax, ani = animation.FuncAnimation( fig, animate, data_gen, init_func, interval=.15, cache_frame_data=False, repeat=True, blit=False ) plt.show()
Specbee: Getting started with Mintlify: The smart Documentation tool your team needs
Talk Python to Me: #483: Reflex Framework: Frontend, Backend, Pure Python
Django Weblog: 2025 DSF Board Candidates
Thank you to the 21 individuals who have chosen to stand for election. This page contains their candidate statements submitted as part of the 2025 DSF Board Nominations.
Our deepest gratitude goes to our departing board members, Çağıl Uluşahin Sonmez, Chaim Kirby, Katie McLaughlin; for your contributions and commitment to the Django community ❤️
Those eligible to vote in this election will receive information on how to vote shortly. Please check for an email with the subject line “2025 DSF Board Voting”. Voting will be open until 23:59 on November 15, 2024 Anywhere on Earth.
Any questions? Reach out via email to foundation@djangoproject.com.
All candidate statements ¶To make it simpler to review all statements, here they are as a list of links. Voters: please take a moment to read all statements before voting! It will take some effort to rank all candidates on the ballot. We believe in you.
- Abigail Gbadago — Accra, Ghana
- Alex Gómez — Barcelona, Spain
- Amir Tarighat — New York
- Ariane Djeupang Jocelyne — Yaounde, Cameroon
- Bhuvnesh Sharma — India
- Chris Achinga — Mombasa, kenya
- Cory Zue — Cape Town, South Africa
- David Vaz — Porto, Portugal
- Gabriel Arias Romero — Mexico
- Jeff Triplett — Lawrence, KS USA
- Julius Nana Acheampong Boakye — Accra Ghana
- Keanya Phelps — Chicago IL US
- Kevin Renskers — The Netherlands
- Kátia Yoshime Nakamura — Berlin, Germany
- Lilian — United States
- Marcelo Elizeche Landó — Paraguay
- Paolo Melchiorre — Italy
- Patryk Bratkowski — Patryk Bratkowski
- Priya Pahwa — India, Asia
- Tom Carrick — Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Vitaly Semotiuck — Rzeszow, Poland
Hi,
I am Abigail(Afi), a DSF member who has contributed to the Django Ecosystem for about four years. I have held the following positions in the community:
- Leadership council member for Black Python Devs (current)
- Open Source Program Manager for Black Python Devs - I am managing 39 of our community members make their first steps in open source (current)
- Programs Team member for DjangoCon US 2024
- Contributed in organizing Django Girls Zanzibar (2023) ahead of the first DjangoCon Africa, co-organiser of Django Girls in Kwahu-Ghana (2019), and coach at Django Girls Ho-Ghana; 2018, 2024 and Zanzibar (2023)
- DjangoCon US Speaker 2023, you can watch my talk here: Strategies for Handling Conflicts and Rollbacks with Django
I have extensive experiences with the community, which have contributed to my growth, and I believe serving on the board is a good way to give back. As such, I am positive that I would bring a refreshing perspective to the board and be a good match for community integration with Django.
As a board member, I plan to increase interactions between the DSF and its user base by providing an official mailing list highlighting non-technical and technical updates that will keep Django users up-to-date with current developments and build a relationship with our user base. Through this, I aim to gather djangonauts from everywhere to support creating the next leaders of the Django community.
In addition, I would like to use my experience in fostering Strategic Partnerships and Fundraising in the nonprofit space to help the DSF Fundraising WG find more sponsors for the DSF. While working with a community, I fostered vital partnerships with about 10 organisations, which contributed to reaching our Fundraising and Partnerships goal despite most organisations slashing nonprofit donations.
As such, I believe those skills, coupled with my community experience, will contribute to the growth of the Django Community, especially when we attract sponsors and increase their efforts and visibility on our social media.
Alex Gómez Barcelona, Spain ¶View personal statementI began developing with Django at version 1.11 and have been an avid user since. I am a member of Djangonaut Space and was previously a Djangonaut in the program. I’m also an active member of Python Spain and Python Barcelona and have coached at multiple DjangoGirls workshops.
I believe the next few years will be crucial for Django's future. It’s important for us to remain relevant and ensure that Django continues to be a choice for new projects, not just for maintaining existing ones.
The DSF needs an executive director, we’ve reached the limit of what a volunteer board can do or be asked to do. This is my first and main priority for 2025 and I believe without such a change we will struggle to meaningfully advance.
An obstacle to enacting an executive director is the need to expand the foundation's funding and pool of sponsors, and I propose that one of our most effective ways to achieve this is by expanding our communications. Too little of the Django user base is reached by the DSF and other non-official Django communications, leaving a wide userbase who may be very willing to support the project but do not know they can.
In support of these goals, I will also make the website a priority. We’re years into attempting to revamp it, the last successful attempt being a decade ago. The website working group is not yet finalized, an executive director will help us push this forward.
The DSF needs fresh perspectives, and with your support I believe I will bring positive changes to the Django community.
Amir Tarighat New York ¶View personal statementHi DSF board members! My name is Amir Tarighat and I’m a software engineer and long time user of Django. I think since version ~1.8. I live in NYC.
I’m 3x VC backed founder and an active investor, currently I am the CEO of Agency which is a Y Combinator backed company.
I’m an expert in cybersecurity and compliance, and have served on several boards including one non-profit and an elected neighborhood council position.
I would love to serve the Django community and help grow its use by helping with fundraising, community events and sponsorships, and with anything security or compliance related. I’d also love to help with anything startup related.
Ariane Djeupang Jocelyne Yaounde, Cameroon ¶View personal statementI am Ariane Djeupang, a junior project manager, Community builder and freelance Machine Learning Engineer from Cameroon.
As a young Black African woman in STEM from the francophone region of Africa and an active DSF member, I’ve dedicated my career to fostering inclusivity and representation in the tech community and I am confident that I bring a unique perspective to the table. My extensive experience organizing major events like:
- DjangoCon US 2024,
- DjangoCon Africa 2023, and
- PyCon Africa 2020 (as a volunteer) | 2024 (as an IOC member ) has equipped me with the skills and insights needed to drive inclusivity and community engagement.
My journey has been fueled by a passion for diversity and representation. I have seen firsthand the incredible impact that inclusive environments can have on underrepresented communities, especially in Africa, and I am dedicated to amplifying these voices within the Django ecosystem. As a mentor in the both the Python and the Django Community, as well as a mentor and community manager at BEL'S AI Initiative in Cameroon, I have empowered many young technologists, fostering a supportive and inclusive community.
I aim to bridge the gap between the DSF Board and our vibrant African community, ensuring that our unique perspectives and needs are heard and addressed. I am committed to being the voice of Africa within the board and representing the board within my community. By voting for me, you are supporting a vision of inclusivity, innovation, and growth for the Django community.
To achieve this, I plan to:
- Launch official DSF multilingual mentoring programs, targeted at underrepresented groups from Africa, with plans to expand globally.
- Introduce the Django Diversity Incubator, offering resources, workshops, scholarships, and global hackathons to underrepresented groups around the world.
- Create a Django Open Source Fellows interns role, to welcome new people into code and non-code contributions.
Thank you for your consideration.
Bhuvnesh Sharma India ¶View personal statementHi everyone! I'm excited to throw my hat in the ring for the DSF Board of Directors.
To me, there appears to be a critical component that could benefit from increased attention: social media and marketing. And I believe It's time we start giving Django the social media attention it deserves.
Let's be real: If we master this social media game, Django's reach will explode, and the entire ecosystem will thrive.
The more we boost Django’s presence online, the more up-and-coming developers will flock to it. And with that surge in usage comes the rise of Django-focused communities—stronger, more engaged, and constantly growing.
Now, here’s where it gets exciting: more visibility leads to a snowball effect.
- Visibility drives growth: More eyes on Django → more users → more contributors
- Quality fuels adoption: More contributors → better Django → increased commercial usage
- Success attracts support: Increased usage → more sponsors → resources for further expansion
Then guess what? We loop back to the start: Django gets bigger, stronger, and better.
Here are few-of-many pointers that I am aiming to start with during my tenure as a board member:
- Boost Django's presence in Asia through targeted outreach and events.
- Launch Django Ambassadors program to recognize influential community members.
- Facilitate non-coding contributions to Django (design, content, event organizing).
- Create a volunteer layer between the DSF and interested individuals who are eager to contribute to specific working groups (WGs).
- Produce engaging social media content similar to Feature Fridays.
I am highly motivated to lead Django’s social media and marketing as a Board member. I have more high-level plans and ideas in mind, and I’m focused on finding the right time and people for their execution. Additionally, I would represent the Asia region and bring valuable diversity in the DSF board. You can read more about my plans in the blog here: Making Django Unstoppable: My Plan to Boost Visibility and Drive Growth
Now talking about myself, I am a django core contributor and have been involved with DSF for around past 1.5 years as a DSF member. I also did Google Summer of Code with Django in 2023 and mentored in Google Summer of Code 2024 with Django. Apart from code contributions I have contributed to Django in various others ways:
- I am Co-Chair at the social media WG at DSF. (all the Feature Fridays posts are created by me :) )
- I was a navigator at Djangonaut Space’s first session.
- I recently started a community called Django India with an aim to popularize Django in India.
Excited for what lies ahead!
Chris Achinga Mombasa, kenya ¶View personal statementMy journey as a software developer has been profoundly shaped by the power of community. From the outset, participating in developer meetups and events, particularly DjangoCon Africa, has not only strengthened my technical skills but also reshaped my understanding of growth—both personal and professional.
Driven by a desire to make a meaningful difference, I am pursuing a position on the Django Software Foundation Board. I bring a commitment to promoting diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility within the Django ecosystem. As a vocal advocate for African and minority communities, I believe my presence on the Board would add a valuable perspective to the DSF’s mission, ensuring that emerging developers from underrepresented backgrounds find opportunities, resources, and community support in Django.
My experience with the Swahilipot Hub Foundation, a Kenyan NGO supporting youth along the coast, has equipped me with essential skills in community engagement and in applying technology for social good. Through this role, I have developed Django-based solutions that empower community self-management—an experience that has reinforced my belief in Django’s potential to uplift communities around the globe. On the DSF Board, I aim to serve not only as a representative for these communities but also as a mentor and technical guide.
Cory Zue Cape Town, South Africa ¶View personal statementI’m running for the board because I love Django, I’ve built my career on it, I want to see it succeed for another 20 years, and I think I can help.
My background is as a Django user and educator. I’ve built several successful products on Django, spoken at multiple DjangoCons and PyCons and have published many popular articles and videos about using Django. I currently run a Django boilerplate product that helps people build apps and start businesses on top of Django. I’m also a member of the DSF and the social media working group.
My platform is relatively simple. I don’t want Django to get left behind. I’ve seen old frameworks like Rails and Laravel continually reinvent themselves, bringing new cohorts of web developers into the fold, while Django has largely stayed the same.
Part of the issue is Django’s reluctance to adopt modern technologies— with better front end being at the top of my list. But I don’t have unrealistic aspirations of adding HTMX, Tailwind, or React to Django, so much as starting the conversation about how the Django ecosystem can have a better story for people who want to use those things.
The other part—and the part I hope to help with more—is cultural. Specifically, getting Django to do a better job at selling itself. This means working harder to pitch and position Django as a great, modern framework for building apps. As well as creating more opportunities and incentives for funding Django.
If elected, I’ll try to be a voice on the board that pushes Django forwards, while understanding that I will often get pushed back. Let’s keep Django great for another 20 years!
David Vaz Porto, Portugal ¶View personal statementI am a software developer with over 20 years of experience and have been passionate about Django since 2007, starting with version 0.96. Over the years, I have not only built my career around Django and Python, but I have also actively contributed to expanding the Django community. My journey has led me to found a consultancy firm focused on these technologies, and I’ve dedicated my efforts to bringing new developers into the community and fostering its growth.
In 2019, during DjangoCon Europe in Copenhagen, I strongly desired to take my community involvement to the next level. I proposed to organize DjangoCon Europe 2020 in Portugal. Though the pandemic reshaped those plans, I co-organized the first virtual-only DjangoCon Europe in 2020, another virtual edition in 2021, and the first hybrid event in 2022. Our 2022 edition set a new record, with over 500 in-person attendees and 200+ online participants. The experience has been gratifying, and I continue to be actively involved in the community by co-organizing DjangoCon Europe 2024 in Vigo, Spain, and preparing for DjangoCon Europe 2025 in Dublin, Ireland.
In addition to my work with Django, I am deeply committed to the growth of the Python community in Portugal. In 2022, I co-founded PyCon Portugal, intending to host the conference in a different city each year to maximize its reach and impact. The first edition in Porto succeeded, followed by Coimbra in 2023, which attracted participants from over 25 countries. By the time of this election, PyCon Portugal 2024 in Braga will have concluded, furthering our goal of uniting and strengthening the Portuguese Python community.
I am enthusiastic, committed, and pragmatic. In every initiative I’ve taken, I strive to make a positive and meaningful impact, influencing and empowering those around me. My experience organizing large-scale events, building communities, and fostering collaboration can be valuable to the Django Software Foundation.
I look forward to contributing my skills and dedication to help guide the DSF’s efforts in the years ahead.
Gabriel Arias Romero Mexico ¶View personal statementsolo soy un fan y me encanta el framework
Jeff Triplett Lawrence, KS USA ¶View personal statementI'm running for the Django Software Foundation board of directors to help serve the community and reshape the board and foundation.
The key to making the DSF more sustainable is the stability that hiring an Executive Director brings. From day-to-day communications to supporting the Django Fellows to improving our ability to fundraise, everything revolves around having someone whose job is to run and support the foundation. I believe an ED will help Django get a seat to more conversations involving open source and web standards that we get passed over today.
I bring over two decades of non-profit experience, including co-founding DEFNA (the other Django non-profit) and serving on the Python Software Foundation, including leadership roles (Treasurer and Vice Chair). I have also helped organize DjangoCon US for over a decade, and we have seen many community members and leaders grow through that community-building experience. I'm an advisor for Black Python Devs and have been a mentor through the Djangonaut Space project.
I want to revise and revisit our sponsorship plans and fundraising goals. They have not changed much over the years despite companies' needs changing significantly. We did this with the PSF, and it increased the number of developers in resident roles (the PSF's version of Fellows) we could fund. It's time for the DSF to revise our plans.
I want to revise our approach to DjangoCons and other "why aren't they called DjangoCon" community events. Why aren't more of these promoted or listed through the Django website?
I firmly believe in the Campsite Rule: "Always leave the campground cleaner than you found it." I feel good about the mark I have left on the Django and Python communities over this past decade, and I am happy to serve the Django community in a more significant role if given the opportunity.
Julius Nana Acheampong Boakye Accra Ghana ¶View personal statementI'm excited to nominate myself for the Django Software Foundation's Board of Directors. With 4 years of experience in the tech industry, I've seen the impact Django can have on a project's success. I've contributed to the community through speaking at conferences, organizers global DjangoCon conference , teaching Django on campuses and am committed to using my skills to help the board make informed decisions.
My goals are to increase diversity and inclusion within the community and improve the overall health and stability of the Django project. If elected, I promise to be an active and engaged member, always putting the needs of the community first.
Thank you for considering my nomination. I'm excited to serve the Django community and contribute to its continued success.
Keanya Phelps Chicago IL US ¶View personal statementI am excited to submit my candidacy for the Django Software Foundation (DSF) board. Having transitioned into software development after a career change, I feel like I bring a unique perspective to the challenges and opportunities within the Django ecosystem. I am deeply passionate about diversity, inclusion, and mentorship,
My journey into tech by way of Django, has been shaped by collaboration, continuous learning, and the support of mentors, which is why I am eager to give back to the Django community. I am particularly enthusiastic about contributing to initiatives that promote diverse voices and create inclusive environments where everyone feels empowered too contribute and to leave things better than how they found them.
In addition to my commitment to diversity, I am driven by a love of running projects, research, and collaboration.
As a member of the DSF board, I would bring fresh ideas, a collaborative spirit, and a dedication to making Django an even more inclusive, forward-thinking community.
Kevin Renskers The Netherlands ¶View personal statementI’ve been using Django since 2009, and apart from blogging about Django for 15 years, I’ve always been mostly on the sidelines. It’s about time to get more involved with the community, share my experience and expertise, offer my time. I’m mainly interested in the enforcement of the Django trademark and code of conduct, ensuring a healthy community.
Kátia Yoshime Nakamura Berlin, Germany ¶View personal statementI am a Software Engineer with over 10 years of experience, working with Django both personally and professionally since 2015. My journey with Django started in 2015 when I attended my first Django Girls event in Brazil. Since then, I’ve built my career around Django, contributing to the community while actively attending, participating in and helping organize Python and Django conferences/events.
In 2018 and 2019, I helped organize PyCon Balkan in Belgrade (Serbia). Since 2016, I've coached and organized Django Girls workshops around the world, including in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Budapest (Hungary), Brno (Czechia), Belgrade (Serbia), Porto (Portugal), and Vigo (Spain).
Over the past few years, I've been deeply involved in DjangoCon events, particularly in Europe, where I’ve volunteered and organized Django Girls workshops.
Since 2020, I’ve had the privilege of serving as a board member of the Django Software Foundation (DSF). The pandemic brought us significant challenges, but we've built a resilient team, eager to push Django forward with fresh perspectives and new solutions. I’ve also been involved in the early efforts to shape a long-term plan for future conferences across Europe, focusing on engaging more organizers and selecting host teams earlier - up to two years in advance - for better flexibility and planning. However, there's still more we aim to achieve.
I’d love to keep supporting our Django community as a board member, promoting more diversity and inclusiveness while encouraging collaboration and exciting initiatives.
Lilian United States ¶View personal statementI’m Lilian 👋, a DSF Member, Django ORM contributor, and Djangonaut Space Coordinator.
Lots of talent is locked up in the industry simply due to gatekeeping. Let’s improve processes and tap into this pool of talent, so we can move Django forward in the right direction.
The DSF should do more to facilitate the connection between newcomers and maintainers. Let’s create a space where we provide the support system they need to collaborate productively, for technical teams and working groups alike.
We also need to facilitate bolder decision making. For the framework: sponsored features and fundamentals like async support, JIT, type annotations. For the Foundation: more transparency, an Executive Director, a newsletter.
How can we achieve this?- Coordination with the Steering Council for tech decisions, via a Board Liaison role.
- Gather feedback from program organizers to determine gaps that need support.
- Facilitate collaboration among newcomers and maintainers.
- Better marketing: such as promoting community initiatives.
- Documented playbooks! To scale the Working Groups concept.
Frustrated by the status quo in the industry, and yet inspired by changes happening to Django, I’m motivated to help more people get involved with Django as code contributors and leaders.
Marcelo Elizeche Landó Paraguay ¶View personal statementWhy I’m RunningBefore assisting to DjangoCon US, I saw Django as just part of the larger Python community. But seeing how this community goes above and beyond to support both longtime members and newcomers changed that for me. When others suggested I run for the board, it felt like a way I could give back and share what makes Django special on a global scale.
A Bit About MeI co-founded and organized the Python Paraguay community, starting with our first PyDay in 2015, which was a huge success and sparked a lasting momentum. Since then, I’ve organized meetups, events, workshops, and grown our community to almost two thousand members—the most active tech group in Paraguay! I also used Django for projects that make a difference: AyudaPy.org, a mutual aid platform during COVID-19 (which I presented at DjangoCon US 2022), and Lista Hũ, a tool to protect against scammers, both of which highlight Django’s potential for social good.
Ideas for Django- Learning Curve: Improving the Django tutorial and expanding learning resources can make Django more accessible and less intimidating for newcomers. Creating more comprehensive, step-by-step guides will empower new developers and ease their journey into Django.
- Supporting Global Accessibility: Expanding Django’s reach by focusing on language accessibility and gathering regional feedback is key. Adding questions to the Django Developers Survey on preferred languages and translation quality could help the community prioritize localization efforts, ensuring developers worldwide feel supported in their native languages.
I believe this community is on the right path, and it would be an honor to contribute as a board member
Paolo Melchiorre Italy ¶View personal statementThe Django community is the best one I could be a part of, and since I started using Django, I have seen wonderful initiatives born and thrive within it (e.g., Django Girls+, Djangonaut Space, Django Fellow). We should bring this momentum to other areas as well: fundraising, the website, development sprints, content translations, self-promotion (e.g., release videos), multimedia content (e.g., videos, books, podcasts, photos, …), feedback from Django users, Django's environmental impact.
I think that the Django Software Foundation has the potential to facilitate and promote these initiatives. It also has the authority to relate to other Open Source communities, to seek synergies, and with big corporations, to grow from an economic point of view, being able to pay more people (e.g., Django Fellows, Directors, UI/UX experts, …)
I believe I can give a boost to these initiatives, with my experience in the Django community, and with an original point of view in the Board, as a member of the Italian Python community, and founder of a local community.
Patryk Bratkowski Patryk Bratkowski ¶View personal statementHello, Djangonauts!
If you are one of the regulars on the official Django Discord server, my passion and dedication to both the Django community and framework should be no secret. As a helper, I have helped countless other developers use Django successfully. As a moderator, I do my best to ensure that we have a community that we can all be proud to consider our own, regardless of our background. An environment that is inclusive, diverse, and welcoming. To me, it feels like home, and I hope you all feel the same way.
For those I haven't yet had the pleasure to meet on Discord or elsewhere, I hope we do soon.
About me:
- I have been building on the web since the Geocities days, and have over 17 years of professional experience, meaning I know how to get things done.
- I have experience building and managing communities, including forums and subreddits, meaning I can readily help with the technical and human aspects.
- I am proactive, and lucky enough to have a lot of flexibility in how I spend my time, meaning I can help turn decisions into action.
- I am open-minded, and eager to learn, meaning I am looking forward to working for the community, with the board, rather than wanting to impose my own ideas.
- I am a polyglot speaking more than four languages fluently, meaning I feel connections to others, regardless of geographical borders.
If elected, my goals will be:
- Collaborating with the other board members. Django's popularity and stability is a testament to the fantastic work current and past board members and developers have done, and while I may have my own ideas, I would first want to know more about any backlog, plans, or other issues that need to be resolved rather than bring about drastic changes.
- Efficiently implementing board decisions. While plans may sometimes forcibly change, they at least need someone to take charge of them. I am happy to lend my technical expertise when required, and deal with other roadblocks.
- Community representation. As a fairly visible member of the Django community, I am looking forward to ensuring the community feels represented and heard, and seeing what more we can do to help the community grow.
- Increase representation of non-English speakers. While English is the de facto business language, there are other large markets that would benefit from better support.
As Django nears twenty years of existence, becoming a board member certainly gives us some big shoes to fill, but between my passion, this amazing community's support, and the time I can dedicate to the position, I am confident that I can help the community continue to thrive, make a tangible difference, and better serve the community we all know and love.
Best regards, and best of luck to all the other applicants,
Pat
Priya Pahwa India, Asia ¶View personal statementBalancing code, community, and collaboration, I am actively holding the following position of responsibilities:
- Co-Chair of the Fundraising Working Group at the Django Software Foundation
- Session Organizer of Djangonaut Space
- Software Development Engineer (Django backend and Infra) at a wealth tech startup.
- 2023 SWE intern (Django techstack) under the GitHub Octernships program.
Having had the experience of building inclusive student tech communities and organizing numerous meetups and global hackathons as a GitHub Campus Expert, I can bring fresh perspectives to the DSF Board and bridge the currently huge gap between the student community and the potential Django leadership positions. As a DSF Board of Directors, I will push for initiatives to:
- Build a Django Evangelist Program or a Django Developer Advocacy Working Group
- Introduce a dedicated Django track at student hackathons to increase the framework’s visibility amongst budding developers.
- Establish a robust DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) framework in both theory and practice for DSF
- Include subtle subconscious yet impactful details, such as designing the assets of custom merchandise—like stickers—that represent diverse races and backgrounds to ensure everyone feels valued.
- Continue driving fundraising efforts to engage potential corporate sponsors with a structured funding roadmap and prospectus that aligns with our community needs.
- Develop a one-stop-solution DSF community handbook - an easily accessible guide for newcomers
I’m dedicated to bringing the voice of the Asian Indian community to the DSF Board. The lack of DjangoCons and a strong local Django network in this region limits talented individuals from essential growth opportunities. I aim to foster a sense of belonging at the table, expand rewards in exchange for volunteering, and ensure the Django community thrives everywhere, especially in underserved areas with psychological safety and welcoming ways for one and all.
Tom Carrick Amsterdam, Netherlands ¶View personal statementHello! For those that don't know me, I've also been actively contributing features for most of the last decade. I help run the Discord, the accessibility team, and I'm on the fundraising working group. If that sounds like a lot of time commitment already, you're right. If you vote for me I might have to become dormant in some other roles.
But I don't really want to talk about my perspective as a contributor, I want to talk about my experience as a user. I've been using Django since around 2008. We have great batteries for 2008. For 2024? I am not so sure. I feel like we are missing things like:
- Built in 2FA with WebAuthn / passkeys.
- Better serialization to make APIs without needing a second framework.
- A better frontend story, whether that's tutorials on integrating frameworks or how to use simpler solutions like HTMX, template components (or all of the above).
- A more modern, accessible admin interface with better UX.
- Simpler project setup for small projects, including deployment and static files (integrating white noise?).
- (type hints maybe?)
- I could increase the size of this Wishlist by several factors and still not be done.
The reason I believe we're missing these things is simple (and possibly wrong). Django is getting bigger, more mature, and prioritises stability. These are all great things, but they do slow down development when almost all new features are contributed by people volunteering their time.
To fix this, Django needs money, which is why I joined the fundraising group, and then there is the question of spending that money. And for the me the priorities are clear:
- Spend money to make more money.
- Hire more fellows and widen their remit to contributing new features.
And that's my "manifesto", if you like.
Vitaly Semotiuck Rzeszow, Poland ¶View personal statementhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/vitaly-sem/
Your move nowThat’s it, you’ve read it all 🌈! Be sure to vote if you’re eligible, by using the link shared over email. To support the future of Django, donate to the Django Software Foundation on our website or via GitHub Sponsors.
PreviousNext: Becoming a Drupal Certified Partner: How commitment to open source drives value and success at PreviousNext
For PreviousNext, the decisions to make contribution part of how we work and to become a Drupal Certified Partner (DCP) have paid off many times over, both in terms of business growth and team development. I would encourage any agency considering it to take the leap. The Drupal ecosystem is a community that gives back as much as you put in, and becoming a DCP is one of the best ways to contribute to its continued success.
by Owen Lansbury / 29 October 2024DCP: a certification that mattersAs one of the co-founders of PreviousNext, I’ve seen firsthand how our commitment to open source and our partnership with the Drupal community has shaped who we are as a company and driven our success. Being a Drupal Certified Partner isn’t just a credential; it’s a core element of our business model and a commitment to our clients, our team, and the open source community we rely on.
Here’s why being a Drupal Certified Partner matters to us, and why I think other Drupal agencies should consider joining the program too...
The early days: how PreviousNext found its path with DrupalWhen we founded PreviousNext back in 2009, my co-founder, Kim Pepper, and I had both been working with web technologies since the early days of the web itself. As we looked at the technologies available, Kim’s background in Java and his interest in “serious tech” like Ruby and Python made those tools a natural focus. Then, a project opportunity arose with a leading public broadcaster and I suggested we pitch Drupal.
At the time, people didn’t necessarily recognise Drupal as a serious player in the enterprise tech stack yet, so I had to convince Kim to take a closer look. We ended up winning that project, and before we knew it, Drupal was opening doors to big, new clients. Our decision to specialise in Drupal was cemented in 2010 during our first DrupalCon in San Francisco.
Image attribution: DrupalCon SF
Walking into the same keynote room as Steve Jobs would announce the latest Apple products, seeing thousands of people and realising the scale of the Drupal community made it clear that this was something much bigger on a global scale than we had ever imagined. A vibrant community of thousands of people was pushing the platform forward and were enthusiastic to help us become a part of it. That moment changed everything for us.
Fostering a culture of contributionOne of our early initiatives was integrating contribution into new team members’ onboarding and professional development process at PreviousNext. Whether they had prior Drupal experience or not, we introduced new hires to the world of Drupal contribution as part of their journey with our team. This helped build their skills, broaden their professional profiles and connect them to the global Drupal community. Our developers quickly became module maintainers and many grew to play key roles in critical areas of the Drupal project.
Our culture of contribution also extended to encouraging team members to speak at DrupalCon and other conferences. We supported those who wanted to share their expertise, recognising that building their personal and our company profile in the community was a valuable form of marketing and growth.
Contribution as …A competitive advantageFrom early on, we understood the importance of actively contributing to the Drupal community. Contribution became a core part of our company’s culture and a competitive advantage for us. We adopted a policy inspired by Google at the time, allowing our developers to dedicate 20% of their billable hours to contribution and professional development. This policy attracted the best developers and ensured that our team remained engaged, motivated and on the cutting edge of Drupal development outside of their regular client work.
For PreviousNext, contributing isn’t about checking boxes or chasing credits - it’s a key part of our process and commitment to the Drupal community. As contributors, our team members develop and deepen their skills and have opportunities to collaborate with and be mentored by some of the most brilliant Drupal developers globally. This investment in people is the foundation of our reputation as Australia’s most experienced Drupal agency and gives us a competitive advantage both in our region and internationally.
A hiring and retention advantageFinding and training new talent is costly for everyone in our industry, so supporting contribution and personal and professional development for our team members is a massive win in this regard. Our employee retention across the entire team is up to triple the industry average, with studies I've read indicating tech industry employee tenure is typically 2–3 years in one company.
A sales advantageContribution helps us sell, too. We quickly realised that contribution gave us a significant edge when pitching to clients. By showing our contributions and involvement in the community, we could demonstrate that we weren’t just Drupal users but actively shaping its future. This deep involvement gave us insights and access to networks beyond what other agencies could offer and it helped us win clients by emphasising our commitment to open source and best practices.
A business advantageOur profit margin is consistently three times higher than the Ibis World benchmark for Web Design Services in Australia, which we get from our annual independent valuation as an employee-owned company. While we might occasionally lose a pitch on price alone, high-end customers are generally happy to pay a bit more for a stable team with a proven track record of deep experience and high quality outcomes.
As you can see, contribution is not something we view as a business cost at PreviousNext, it's a well-proven business accelerator!
Contribution benefits clients and strengthens projectsWe’ve seen that contributing to Drupal isn’t just about the altruism of 'giving back'; it’s a deeply practical business advantage. When our developers fix a bug or add a feature in Drupal core or modules, they improve the tools that our clients rely on. By committing these improvements back to the community, we ensure that future projects can leverage them without reinventing the wheel. That is, without wasting time and effort to recreate work over and over.
Our commitment to contribution is a big reason why our code adheres to the highest coding standards. Sure, we follow best practices, ensuring that every line we write can be picked up by any other Drupal expert and understood. But also, when you know you’re submitting code publicly for review by Drupal’s Core and Security Teams, it's a strong motivator to deliver high quality work. This transparency and adherence to standards offer clients security: they know that if they choose to work with another agency down the road, the work is maintainable and up to the highest standards. It’s a win for our clients, the broader community, and us.
The long-term value of supporting open sourceWhile many agencies might measure ROI in terms of leads generated or short-term gains, we take a very different approach. Our outlook is simple: if Drupal succeeds in the long term, so does PreviousNext. Whether a client picks us or another DCP, the pie grows for everyone if they stay with Drupal. That’s why we invest in the platform and focus on contributing where we can make the most impact.
Our contributions aren’t centrally directed or micromanaged - each developer follows their passions. This approach fosters engagement and allows developers to shape their contributions around both client work and personal development goals. Recently, our team chose to focus on the Experience Builder initiative - which will be incorporated into the new Drupal CMS - a community-driven project dedicated to making Drupal a best-in-class low/no-code CMS for content creators and ambitious marketers. This decision came from the team, driven by their excitement to make a difference in an area they care about and have the expertise to assist.
Why being a Drupal Certified Partner mattersBecoming a Drupal Certified Partner (DCP) when the program first launched was a natural step in our company's journey. The DCP designation is more than a badge; it recognises our commitment to quality, collaboration and the future of Drupal. Clients look to us for our technical abilities, deep understanding of the ecosystem, and active involvement within it.
This partnership with Drupal also gives us a unique advantage when talking with potential clients. At the end of every pitch, we emphasise that we’re not just users of Drupal - we’re contributors. We understand the ins and outs of the platform, influence the roadmap and can leverage our relationships with an entire network of other Drupal developers around the world. This level of involvement is something we would never achieve as a small Australian company if we were simply downloading and using the software. We bring that value to every project we take on and it has been a significant factor in winning business and building client trust.
You should consider becoming a DCPFor any agency working with Drupal, becoming a DCP isn’t just another badge for your website - it’s a way to amplify your connection to the Drupal community, clients, and the future of the platform. The program provides visibility and demonstrates commitment, giving clients confidence in your skills and dedication to Drupal’s success. DCP status has brought us even closer to the Drupal community, helping us build relationships and leverage a wealth of knowledge and expertise. While it might seem counterintuitive for a company to encourage its competitors to boost their expertise and credentials, Drupal itself benefits tremendously when clients know there's an entire ecosystem of highly qualified vendors who can deliver their projects. Find out more about the Drupal Certified Partner program.
Akademy 2024 Experience
Wow! What a trip! 20 hours across 2 flights, 2 hours on the train with travel buddies Nate Graham and Bhushan Shah, and several bus "adventures" with Nate Graham to our hotel. The hotel... Let's not go into too much detail, suffice to say it was an absolute mess.
This being my first Akademy in person it was a very anxious experience getting there, but with global roaming on my phone to keep communication flowing and a few travel buddies it was certainly made much better!
But once we were settled in and unpacked, it was off to the first event!
The Welcome Event!Wow, was it chaos once all the people showed up, but amazing to see so many KDE users and developers! A few locals even popped their head in, confused by the packed out venue. We thankfully managed to get a ride in Adriaan de Groot's smooth E.V to the venue and found a few others after parking.
The place had a great vibe and the free drinks and snack courtesy of KDE went down a treat! I quickly connected to the free Wi-Fi, spun up some translations of the menu and grabbed the Mexican Fries with guacamole, tomatoes and onions. It was amazing with a few drinks to wash it all down!
On to the main event!
Saturday Talks!Having the talks start a little later was great as it meant we didn't have to get up early and get rushing out the door!
Adriaan also bought Stroopwafels with him! So delicious!
Only Hackers Will SurviveThe first talk (barring the brief opening by the Akademy team) was right into the thick of it, and it was about circular economies, electronic waste and how we, the hackers, have the right mindset to keep things working well beyond manufacturers expected lifetimes. Whether they be limited by lack of software updates or pushed out of the market by ever more demanding software performance requirements.
The scenes of landfills around the globe on display with people in Third World countries sorting through them to reclaim precious metals on display to really bring home the true impact. Here's hoping KDE's software and projects can help with this, especially with the Blue Angel Certification. I am really hoping to see Plasma Mobile continue to take charge in this area, where mobile devices are often discarded rapidly in favour of the newest shiniest thing.
Goals Wrap Up!Every two years, KDE chooses new goals to focus on to make KDE's software better for all. At this year's Akademy it was time to review the goals outcomes for the last two years.
Carl Schwan went through his accessibility goal outcomes which included a discussion about how our hardware partners want to improve accessibility, 190 code changes that were accessibility related and a new accessibility inspector application! There was also notes around the Appium CI/CD test suite and Selenium driver test suite to help with ensure accessibility in our as well as Project Spiel a new text to speech engine for the Free Desktop plus turning accessibility into a permanent goal for KDE.
Nate Graham wrapped up his goals around automation and systematisation. These were about being lazier in a good way, automating the boring trivial things we spend time doing all the time. Creating policies to reduce the debate on issues with opinions impacting what we do, instead of policy. Working as teams instead of alone and documenting how we do things instead of keeping tribal knowledge locked away in our brains.
I wasn't able to attend much of Cornelius Schumacher's KDE Eco goal so I didn't get any notes on that but I do love that KDE cares for the environment and this should be an ongoing goal to make sure our software (and hardware partners) are acting responsibly to ensure a brighter future for the next generations.
Report of the BoardThe KDE board assembled in person to give us a run-down of 2023 including all their favourite things that happened like paying members going from 53 to 719, GitHub sponsors up to 132 from 67, and 170 nonmember recurring donations up from 130 on Donorbox! On top of that, the best fundraising campaign ever in December 2023. A monumental task was also completed with the release of Plasma 6 alongside Frameworks and Gear at the same time! The KDE Eco grant was extended, they hired new staff as part of the Make a Living goal, including someone to manage the goals. The new financial situation improved vastly due to a successful Donorbox rollout and fundraising campaign.
In looking to the future the board are encouraging more community members to get on board with the KDE Goals, with the improved finance situation they are hoping to leverage that to continue improving KDE's offerings. Conferences and in-person sprints are now viable post-apocalypse! Ask for funding/organisation from the board if you want to organise/attend one and represent KDE! They are also aiming to move beyond the Make a Living effort and leverage current staff for further work without losing sight of their goals and improve management of staff, contracts and keeping staff on. They're also hoping to expand our app store presence on Google Play, Windows Store and Flathub to get more apps on and investigate possible revenue sources from this.
Adapt or Die: How new Linux packaging approaches affect wider KDEDavid Edmundson gave an awesome talk about Linux packaging and where we are headed. Flatpaks! Oh, and I guess Snaps and Appimages and that new one from Deepin… But his talk was generally focussed on how KDE as a community will need to face the challenges of containerised applications since immutable distros are appearing all the time now. In this well researched discussion, he raised several case studies that he has identified as problem points for progress. This was one of my favourite talks, as I am a big proponent of Flatpak as the future of application distribution and plan on working with David to that end.
Looking Back: What's NextWait what? What does that even mean? Nicolas Fella decided to share with us his run-down on how the porting from Qt5 to Qt6 went as a whole. From the timeline stretching way back to 2019 to the KDE Megarelease of 2024 including how each step was planned out and then managed into a reality. He also gave us a run-down of the good and the bad from his viewpoint. The good included lots of great new features and loads of pre-release testing. The bad included bugs (but you can never get rid of all of these), controversial decisions and broken distros as of release. He also noted a lack of documentation for third party users of KDE frameworks and some things that got left on the cutting room floor due to a lack of time to get them in. Those have been marked TODO KF7 😂
An Operating System of Our OwnHarald Sitter gave us a run-down of his new Operating System KDE Linux (previously - and my favourite name - Project Banana). This is a new image based distro that uses BTRFS and images of the OS, with easy switching between them. This will be designed for anyone to use, from KDE developers to users and hardware vendors! It will bring apps from Flatpak (my favourite) and Snap to keep the OS and applications separate. I've been watching this for a little while before Akademy so I was happy to see it announced, and it has attracted many people onboard and has accelerated the development of it immensely! Come join us @ #kde-linux:kde.org on Matrix!
A look on the Bright Side of LifeHarald gave us a quick lightning talk about remaining calm and enjoying what we do. Sometimes things are annoying or frustrating but sometimes we need to step back, look at all the awesome things we make and the amazing people we do that with. If in doubt, ask for help or a rubber duck and come back to fight another day.
Sunday Talks!Sadly I didn't take a lot of notes on Sunday but I attended a few talks.
-
Openwashing - How do we handle (and enforce?) OSS policies in products? by Markus Feilner, Holger Dyroff, Richard Heigl, Leonhard Kugler and Cornelius Schumacher. A discussion on companies using the title and reputation of open source without actually being open or contributing anything to the community.
-
Group Photo - My first time in a KDE related photo!
-
Contributing is more than just code by Kai Uwe Broulik was a really important talk for me as I can't code. It's just not how my brain works, but the topic of his talk resonated with me so much. KDE has lots of code, frameworks, apps, libraries and that requires a lot of code. But there is SO much more work to be done around that code, translations, quality assurance, bug triaging, documentation just to name a tiny few. If you're interested in contributing to KDE, there are LOTS of things you can help with!
-
Financial support for working on KDE Jos van den Oever gave a great talk about how you as a KDE contributor can apply for funding. It was mostly focussed around NLnet who had a representative there to encourage us to apply for funding and explain the application and approvals processes. They also stuck around for the next few days to help anyone who wanted to apply to submit their application!
Another talk that really hits home for me was by Bart Ribbers on Plasma Mobile. We've got amazing stories for our desktop offering, but the mobile space is a huge part of most people's daily lives. So many people don't own a computer any more, and they're living their digital life through a mobile phone. This talk gave insight into Bart's daily life with his Plasma Mobile enabled phone and where we need to narrow our focus to improve the experience.
BoFs & DaytripOver the following days I attended many BoFs:
-
Opt Green: Website Bloat and Green Web which we discussed how our website content affects the environment, from intensive JavaScript, oversized or large images increasing CPU usage and bandwidth to the core of the web itself and what Data Centres and traffic hubs use for their electricity, is it renewable or fuelled by dirty fossil fuels
-
Opt Green / KDE Eco which was all about KDE Eco's certification of Okular, their involvement in defining the Blue Angel specification, getting more KDE apps certified and how KDE was recognised as an expert in sustainability in the German parliament!
-
KDE Goals - We care about your Input where discussions happened around how we improve input methods for those who use alternate languages and alphabets to game controllers and digital input tablets and devices.
-
KDE's release schedules was all about starting discussions about when and how we release software, including how we can better cooperate with downstream distros who are kindly distributing our software
-
Plasma Discover by Aleix gave us insight into the recent changes to performance by Harald and himself, and just a great general discussion around Plasma's current state and what is needed for the future of software stores. KDE Goals - Streamlined Application Development Experience was a rather interesting chat about how we currently develop apps and many discussions about how we improve that process, introduce new blood to the community and make it seriously easy to start a new KDE application.
This worried me in the lead up and on my way to Germany, as I had earlier this year decided to go Vegetarian. However, I was delightfully surprised and the quality and variety of food available, with the food organised by Akademy team being inclusive of my requirements and tasty! The food at University cafeteria was also amazing to my surprise and I learned that they had won awards!
I also thankfully found some students who sold me a crate of Cola for 10 Euros. I grabbed one and gave the rest to the Akademy help desk for them to give out to attendees for a 1 Euro donation ;)
Outro- What an amazing event, thank yous in no particular order go to Nate Graham, the KDE e.V for sponsoring my travel, the Akademy team and everyone I met at Akademy for making it an awesome experience especially for someone who hasn't been to a conference before, to all of the KDE community for making awesome software and the Akademy and KDE sponsors who make these events possible!
Ruqola 2.3.1
Ruqola 2.3.1 is a feature and bugfix release of the Rocket.chat app.
New features:
- Use "view-conversation-balloon-symbolic" icon when we have private conversation with multi users
- Add version in market application information
- Fix reset password
- Fix mouse position when QT_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTORS != 1
- Add missing icons
- Fix create topic when creating teams
- Fix discussion count information
- Remove @ or # when we search user/channel
- Fix edit message logic
URL: https://download.kde.org/stable/ruqola/
Source: ruqola-2.3.1.tar.xz
SHA256: 99356ec689473cd5bfaca7f8db79ed5978efa8b3427577ba7b35c1b3714d5fcb
Signed by: E0A3EB202F8E57528E13E72FD7574483BB57B18D Jonathan Riddell jr@jriddell.org
https://jriddell.org/jriddell.pgp
Warning: Krita 5.2.6 beta on Android is currently broken
On releasing the latest version of Krita in our Android/ChromeOS beta program, we discovered, too, late that there was a problem that could prevent Krita from starting.
Since the Google Play Store Console does not allow revering a release to an earlier version, we are now urgently working on a fix which we will release as soon as possible.
Our apologies for the inconvience.
The currentl nightly builds for Android work again, with some limitations:
- take care removing the store version of Krita does not remove the application data: your artwork could be lost.
- in the Nightly builds you need to install any brush presets separately
You can get the night builds here: Krita Next Nightly Builds. You will need to select the package that is right for the architecture of your device.
Installing the nightly builds requires enabling developer mode on your device and needs considerable technical insight.
If you do not feel comfortable with this, please wait until the new official release lands in the play store in a about two days.
PSA: KDecoration API break in Plasma 6.3
Fractional scaling is hard. Anyone that had the misfortune of working on it knows that… so it won’t surprise a lot of people that it’s not all figured out yet! Today I’ll talk about the fractional scaling problems with KWin’s server side decorations, and why we need to do an API break to fix it.
What’s the problem?This is the simplest part. Many decorations have elements that need to be pixel perfect, like outlines that are only a single pixel wide. When they’re not perfectly scaled, or positioned wrongly, that’s sometimes quite visible and annoying:
What causes these issues?
The source of all evil with fractional scaling is also the cause of most issues here: Integer logical coordinates.
Logical coordinates are a way to represent the size of something on the screen in a mostly display-independent way and are quite useful for the size and position of things like windows or the cursor. They’re calculated in a really simple way:
coordinate_logical = coordinate_pixels / scaleWith just that equation, there are no problems just yet - you can just multiply the logical coordinate with the display scale, and you get back the original coordinate in pixels. When you round that logical coordinate, and do some calculations with it, things get weird though… let’s look at the concrete example of a window at scale 1.25, and with a 1 pixel wide outline:
unit outline width window width outline width total size total size in pixels (integer) pixels 1 27 1 29 29 fractional logical 0.8 21.6 0.8 23.2 29 integer logical 1 22 1 24 30As you might’ve guessed, KWin’s decoration plugin API is using integer logical coordinates, and this mismatch between the window size vs. the size of its components causes most of the problems. Just doing a straight forward int -> float conversion isn’t enough to fix this though, a few more changes are needed.
Changes in KWinKWin will provide decorations with the fractional logical size of windows, provide them with the scale factor they should render for, and use the decoration’s fractional border sizes to position the window and decoration pieces properly in the scene.
Changes in DecorationsBecause of the API break, decorations using the C++ API need to be updated to the new KDecoration3 API, or they will not be loaded. A minimalistic port would only need to round all the values, but there will of course still be fractional scaling issues with that.
Assuming you want to make the decoration work properly with fractional scaling, you also need to use the provided scale factor to calculate border sizes, and when painting things with QPainter, you need to take care to snap all geometries to the pixel grid, or anti-aliasing may turn single-pixel lines into a blurry mess.
Note that this work isn’t completed yet, and some additional API changes may happen while we’re breaking the API already. A porting guide with all the changes will be provided before the release of Plasma 6.3.
As Aurorae decorations are just svg files, they are not affected by this API break and will continue to work like before without any changes.
If you have any questions about this change, or about how to port a decoration over to the new API, please reach out to us at #kwin:kde.org on matrix!
GNUnet News: GNUnet 0.22.2
This is a bugfix release for gnunet 0.22.1. It fixes some regressions and minor bugs.
Links
- Source: https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gnunet/gnunet-0.22.2.tar.gz ( https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gnunet/gnunet-0.22.2.tar.gz.sig )
- Source (meson): https://buildbot.gnunet.org/releases/gnunet-0.22.2-meson.tar.gz ( https://buildbot.gnunet.org/releases/gnunet-0.22.2-meson.tar.gz.sig )
- Detailed list of changes: https://git.gnunet.org/gnunet.git/log/?h=v0.22.2
- NEWS: https://git.gnunet.org/gnunet.git/tree/NEWS?h=v0.22.2
- The list of closed issues in the bug tracker: https://bugs.gnunet.org/changelog_page.php?version_id=459
The GPG key used to sign is: 3D11063C10F98D14BD24D1470B0998EF86F59B6A
Note that due to mirror synchronization, not all links may be functional early after the release. For direct access try https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnunet/
Paolo Melchiorre: 2025 Django Software Foundation board nomination
My self-nomination statement for the 2025 Django Software Foundation (DSF) board of directors elections
Community Working Group posts: Nominate someone for the 2025 Aaron Winborn Award
The Drupal Community Working Group is pleased to announce that nominations for the 2025 Aaron Winborn Award are now open. This is your chance to recognize someone for their service, integrity, kindness, and above-and-beyond commitment to the Drupal community.
In addition to receiving a physical award, winners of the award also receive a scholarship and travel stipend for them to attend DrupalCon North America and recognition in a plenary session at the event.
Nominations are now open to everyone in the Drupal community! Whether someone has made an impact locally, regionally, or across the globe, we want you to nominate them. If you know someone who’s made a meaningful difference, big or small, now’s the perfect chance to recognize their contributions.
The Aaron Winborn Award was established to honor the legacy of Aaron Winborn, a long-time Drupal contributor whose battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease ended on March 24, 2015. Inspired by a suggestion from Hans Riemenschneider (https://www.drupal.org/u/nonprofit), the Community Working Group, with the support of the Drupal Association, created this award to celebrate individuals who embody Aaron's spirit and dedication.
Nominations are open until Friday, March 21, 2025.
A committee consisting of the Community Working Group members (Conflict Resolution Team) as well as past award winners will select a winner from the nominations.
* Current members of the CWG Conflict Resolution Team and previous winners are not eligible for winning the award.
Previous winners of the award are:
- 2015: Cathy Theys
- 2016: Gábor Hojtsy
- 2017: Nikki Stevens
- 2018: Kevin Thull
- 2019: Leslie Glynn
- 2020: Baddý Breidert
- 2021: AmyJune Hineline
- 2022: Angie Byron
- 2023: Randy Fay
- 2024: Mike Anello
Now is your chance to be heard, show, support, and recognize an amazing community member!
Please submit a nomination today!
Call for Creators!If you or someone you know is an amazing creator who’d like to help craft one of our future Aaron Winborn Awards, please reach out to the Drupal Community Working Group.
Talking Drupal: Talking Drupal #473 - Color in CSS with Sass
Today we are talking about Color with CSS, Sass, and bringing it all into Drupal with guest Aubrey Sambor . We’ll also cover Navigation Extra Tools as our module of the week.
For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/473
Topics- A little career background
- Why Front end
- Do you prefer JS or CSS
- How do colors work today in CSS
- Is this different from the past
- What is gamut
- Can color functions help with contrast
- What color functions make you the most excited
- Is Sass still a thing
- Do you use preprocessors with color functions
- Post CSS in Drupal
- Any modules you can recommend to help with CSS colros
- Any benefit for single directory compontents or web components
- New England Drupal Camp
- Color in CSS: using new spaces, functions, and techniques to make your site shine
- Text wrap
- Gamut
- Do you still need Sass in 2023
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Aubrey Sambor - star-shaped.org starshaped
MOTW CorrespondentMartin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
- Brief description:
- Have you been using the new Navigation module in Drupal core, but wanted some of the useful links previously available in the Admin Toolbar Tools submodule? There’s a module for that
- Module name/project name:
- Brief history
- How old: created in Oct 2024, less than a week ago by friend of the podcast James Shields aka lostcarpark
- Versions available: 1.0.0-beta3 which works with Drupal 10.3 and 11
- Maintainership
- Actively maintained, already 3 releases
- Security coverage - too new, but hopefully will have in time
- Test coverage
- Number of open issues: 8 “open” issues, 4 of which are bugs, but all but one of which are now marked as fixed with the latest release
- Usage stats:
- 12 sites
- Module features and usage
- With this module enabled, the new left side Navigation menu available in Drupal core will include links to clear caches (all or a specific cache), run cron, and run database updates
- It’s a good example of a module that does something very specific and very useful, so I wanted to share it with our listeners as quickly as possible
- I know these functions are ones I’ve been missing in my own Drupal 11 dev sites, so I’m looking forward to using this module right away
Improving Xwayland window resizing
One of the quickest ways to determine whether particular application runs using Xwayland is to resize one of its windows and see how it behaves, for example
A script element has been removed to ensure Planet works properly. Please find it in the original post.While it can be handy for the debugging purposes, overall, it makes the Plasma Wayland session look less polished. So, one of the goals for 6.3 was to fix this visual glitch.
This article will provide some background behind what caused the glitch and how we addressed it. Just in case, here’s the same application, which was shown in a screen cast above, but with the corresponding resizing fixes in:
A script element has been removed to ensure Planet works properly. Please find it in the original post. X11 frame synchronization protocol(s)On X11, all window changes typically take place immediately, including resizing. This can lead to some issues. For example, if a window is resized, it can take a while until the application repaints the window with the new size. What if the compositing manager decides to compose the screen in meanwhile? You’re likely going to see some sort of visual glitches, e.g. the window contents getting cropped or seeing parts of the window that have not been repainted yet.
In order to address this issue, there exists an X11 protocol to synchronize window repaints during interactive resize. An application/client wishing to participate in this protocol needs to list _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST in the WM_PROTOCOLS property of the client window and also set the XID of the XSync counter in the _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER property. When the WM wants to resize the window, the following will happen:
- The window manager sends a _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST client message containing a serial that the client will need to put in the XSync counter after processing a ConfigureNotify event that will be generated after the window is resized. The compositing manager and the window manager will block window updates until the XSync request acknowledgement is received;
- The WM resizes the client window, for example by calling the xcb_configure_window() function;
- The client would then repaint the window with the new size and update the XSync counter with the serial that it had received in step 1;
- The window manager and the compositing manager unblock window updates after receiving receiving the XSync request acknowledgement. For example, now, the window can be repainted by the compositing manager and there shouldn’t be glitches as long as the client behaves well.
Note that the window manager and the compositing manager are often the same. For example, both KWin and Mutter are compositing managers and window managers.
The frame synchronization protocol described above is called basic frame synchronization protocol. There is also an extended frame synchronization protocol, but it is not standardized and it is implemented only by a few compositing managers.
_NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST and XwaylandKWin supports the basic frame synchronization protocol, so there should be no visual glitches when resizing X11 windows in the Plasma Wayland session, right? At quick glance, yes, but we forget about the most important detail: Wayland compositors don’t use XCompositeNameWindowPixmap() or xcb_composite_name_window_pixmap() to grab the contents of X11 windows, instead they rely on Xwayland attaching graphics buffers to wl_surface objects, so there is no strict order between the Wayland compositor receiving an XSync request acknowledgement and graphics buffers for the new window size.
In order to help better understand the issue, let’s consider a concrete example. Assume that a window with geometry 0,0 100x100 is being resized by dragging its left edge. If the left edge is dragged 10px to the right, the following will happen:
- A _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST client message will be sent to the client containing the XSync counter serial that must be set after processing the ConfigureNotify event that will be generated after the Wayland compositor calls xcb_configure_window() with the new window size;
- The Wayland compositor calls xcb_configure_window() to actually resize the window;
- The client receives the sync request client message and the ConfigureNotify event, repaints the window, and acknowledges the sync request;
- The Wayland compositor receives the sync request acknowledgement and updates the window position to 10,0.
But here is the problem, when the window position is updated to 10,0, it’s not guaranteed that the wl_surface associated with the X11 window has a buffer with the new window size, i.e. 90x100. It can take a while until Xwayland commits a graphics buffer with the right size. In meanwhile, the compositor could compose the next frame with the new window position, i.e. 10,0, but old surface size, i.e. 100x100. It would look as if the right window edge sticks out of the window decoration. After Xwayland attaches a buffer with the right size, the right window edge will correct itself.
So, ideally, the Wayland compositor should update the window position after receiving the XSync request acknowledgement and Xwayland attaching a new graphics buffer to the wl_surface.
With that in mind, the frame synchronization procedure looks as follows:
- The compositor blocks wl_surface commits by setting the _XWAYLAND_ALLOW_COMMITS property to 0 for the toplevel X11 window. This is needed to ensure the consistent order between XSync request acknowledgements and wl_surface commits. As long as the _XWAYLAND_ALLOW_COMMITS property is set to 0, Xwayland will not attempt to commit the wayland surface, for example attach a new graphics buffer after the client repaints the window;
- The compositor sends a _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST client message as before;
- The compositor resizes the client window as before;
- The client repaints the window and acknowledges the XSync request as before;
- After receiving the XSync acknowledgement, the compositor unblocks surface commits by setting the _XWAYLAND_ALLOW_COMMITS property to 1. Note that the window updates are still blocked, i.e. the window position is not updated yet;
- After Xwayland commits the wl_surface with a new graphics buffer, the window updates are unblocked, e.g. the window position is updated.
The frame synchronization process looks more involved with Xwayland, but it is still manageable.
_NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST support in applicationsMost applications that use GTK and Qt support _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST, but there are applications that don’t participate in the frame synchronization protocol. If you use one of those apps, you will observe visual glitches during interactive resize.
Closing wordsFrame synchronization is a difficult problem, and requires some very intricate code both on the compositor and the client side. But with the changes that we’ve made, I’m proud to say that KWin is one of the few compositors that properly handles frame synchronization for X11 windows on Wayland!
Pages
Recent Publications
- Managing Hidden Dependencies in OO Software: a Study Based on Open Source Projects
- Open Source Communities as Liminal Ecosystems
- Investigating developers' email discussions during decision-making in Python language evolution
- Developers, Quality Control and Download Volume in Open Source Software (OSS) Projects
More...FLOSS Project Planets
- www-zh-cn @ Savannah: Welcome our new member - bingchuanjuzi
- Matt Glaman: Lenient Composer Plugin officially replaces lenient packages endpoint
- libtool @ Savannah: libtool-2.5.4 released [stable]
- Trey Hunner: Python Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales (2024)
- Security advisories: Drupal core - Moderately critical - Gadget chain - SA-CORE-2024-008
FLOSS Research
- Give Your Input on the State of Open Source Survey
- Open Data and Open Source AI: Charting a course to get more of both
- The Open Source Initiative and the Eclipse Foundation to Collaborate on Shaping Open Source AI (OSAI) Public Policy
- ClearlyDefined v2.0 adds support for LicenseRefs
- ClearlyDefined at SOSS Fusion 2024: a collaborative solution to Open Source license compliance