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Recently I became suddenly curious about the sizes of buildings in Southampton, UK, where I live. I don’t know what triggered this sudden curiosity, but I wanted to know what the largest buildings in Southampton are. In this context, I’m using “largest” to mean largest in terms of land area covered – ie. the area of the outline when viewed in plan view. Luckily I know about useful sources of geographic data, and also know how to use GeoPandas, so I could answer this question pretty quickly – in fact, in only five lines of code. I’ll take you through this code below, as an example of a very simple GIS analysis.

First I needed to get hold of the data. I know Ordnance Survey release data on buildings in Great Britain, but to make this even easier we can go to Alastair Rae’s website where he has split the OS data up into Local Authority areas. We need to download the buildings data for Southampton, so we go here and download a GeoPackage file.

Then we need to create a Python environment to do the analysis in. You can do this in various ways – with virtualenvs, conda environments or whatever – but you just need to ensure that Jupyter and GeoPandas are installed. Then create a new notebook and you’re ready to start coding.

First, we import geopandas:

import geopandas as gpd

and then load the buildings data:

buildings = gpd.read_file("Southampton_buildings.gpkg")

The buildings GeoDataFrame has a load of polygon geometries, one for each building. We can calculate the area of a polygon with the .area property – so to create a new ‘area’ column in the GeoDataFrame we can run:

buildings[’area’] = buildings.geometry.area

I’m only interested in the largest buildings, so we can now sort by this new area column, and take the first twenty entries:

top20 = buildings.sort_values(’area’, ascending=False).head(20)

We can then use the lovely explore function to show these buildings on a map. This will load an interactive map in the Jupyter notebook:

top20.explore()

If you’d like to save the interactive map to a standalone HTML file then you can do this instead:

top20.explore().save(“map.html”)

I’ve done that, and uploaded that HTML file to my website – and you can view it here.

So, putting all the code together, we have:

import geopandas as gpd buildings = gpd.read_file("Southampton_buildings.gpkg") buildings[’area’] = buildings.geometry.area top20 = buildings.sort_values(’area’, ascending=False).head(20) top20.explore()

Five lines of code, with a simple analysis, resulting in an interactive map, and all with the power of GeoPandas.

Hopefully in a future post I’ll do a bit more work on this data – I’d like to make a prettier map, and I’d like to try and find some way to test my friends and see if they can work out what buildings they are.

Open Social, a tool within the Drupal community, is actually quite valuable for creating social platforms. It's user-friendly, flexible, and well-supported, making it perfect for setting up social networks, whether they're for internal company use or for the public. 

With features like user profiles, activity feeds, group discussions, events, and messaging, Open Social offers a comprehensive solution for building engaging online communities. 

It's important to spread the word about Open Social so that more people can benefit from its features and capabilities, ultimately enhancing collaboration and communication in various settings.

What is Open Social?

Open Social is a software platform that's open to everyone and is built on top of Drupal, which is a popular system for managing website content. It's designed specifically for creating online communities and social networks.

<strong>Topics covered in this episode:</strong><br> <ul> <li><a href="https://wasmer.io/posts/py2wasm-a-python-to-wasm-compiler"><strong>Announcing py2wasm: A Python to Wasm compiler</strong></a></li> <li><strong>Exploring Python packages with</strong> <a href="https://oven.fming.dev"><strong>Oven</strong></a> <strong>and</strong> <a href="https://pypi-browser.org"><strong>PyPI Browser</strong></a></li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLBiJ5kYUFg">PyCharm Local LLM</a></li> <li><strong>Google shedding Python devs</strong> <strong>(at</strong> <strong>least in the US).</strong></li> <li><strong>Extras</strong></li> <li><strong>Joke</strong></li> </ul><a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlLuQ7UT4t8' style='font-weight: bold;'data-umami-event="Livestream-Past" data-umami-event-episode="381">Watch on YouTube</a><br> <p><strong>About the show</strong></p> <p>Sponsored by ScoutAPM: <a href="https://pythonbytes.fm/scout">pythonbytes.fm/scout</a></p> <p><strong>Connect with the hosts</strong></p> <ul> <li>Michael: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@mkennedy"><strong>@mkennedy@fosstodon.org</strong></a></li> <li>Brian: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@brianokken"><strong>@brianokken@fosstodon.org</strong></a></li> <li>Show: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/@pythonbytes"><strong>@pythonbytes@fosstodon.org</strong></a></li> </ul> <p>Join us on YouTube at <a href="https://pythonbytes.fm/stream/live"><strong>pythonbytes.fm/live</strong></a> to be part of the audience. Usually Tuesdays at 11am PT. Older video versions available there too.</p> <p>Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of </p> <p>the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to <a href="https://pythonbytes.fm/friends-of-the-show">our friends of the show list</a>, we'll never share it.</p> <p><strong>Michael #1:</strong> <a href="https://wasmer.io/posts/py2wasm-a-python-to-wasm-compiler"><strong>Announcing py2wasm: A Python to Wasm compiler</strong></a></p> <ul> <li>py2wasm converts your Python programs to WebAssembly, running them at 3x faster speeds</li> <li>thanks to <a href="https://nuitka.net/">Nuitka</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>Brian #2:</strong> <strong>Exploring Python packages with</strong> <a href="https://oven.fming.dev"><strong>Oven</strong></a> <strong>and</strong> <a href="https://pypi-browser.org"><strong>PyPI Browser</strong></a></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://pypi.org">pypi.org</a> is great, but there are some handy alternatives</li> <li><a href="https://oven.fming.dev"><strong>Oven</strong></a> <ul> <li>Shows how to install stuff with pip, pdm, rye, and poetry</li> <li>Similar meta and description as PyPI</li> <li>Includes README.md view (no tables yet, though)</li> <li>Nice listing of versions</li> <li>Ability to look at what files are in wheels and tarballs (very cool) </li> <li>Can deploy yourself. Node/Remix app.</li> <li>Really slick.</li> </ul></li> <li><a href="https://pypi-browser.org">PyPI Browser</a> <ul> <li>View versions</li> <li>View wheel and tarball contents.</li> <li>Metadata and contents.</li> <li>No README view</li> <li>Is a Starlette app that you can deploy on your on with a private registry. So that’s cool.</li> </ul></li> </ul> <p><strong>Michael #3:</strong> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLBiJ5kYUFg">PyCharm Local LLM</a></p> <ul> <li>Pretty awesome full line completer based on a local LLM for PyCharm</li> <li>Requires PyCharm Professional</li> <li>An example, given this partial function in Flask: <pre><code>@blueprint.get('/listing') def listing(): videos = video_service.all_videos() </code></pre></li> </ul> <p>Typing ret →</p> <p><img src="https://python-bytes-static.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/llm-complete.png" alt="img" /></p> <p>That is, typing ret autocompletes to:</p> <pre><code>return flask.render_template('home/listing.html', videos=videos) </code></pre> <p>Which is pretty miraculous, and correct.</p> <p><strong>Brian #4:</strong> <strong>Google shedding Python devs</strong> <strong>(at</strong> <strong>least in the US).</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/29/google-lays-off-staff-from-flutter-dart-python-weeks-before-its-developer-conference/">Google lays off staff from Flutter, Dart and Python teams weeks before its developer conference</a> - techcrunch</li> <li><a href="https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/29/google_python_flutter_layoffs/">Python, Flutter teams latest on the Google chopping block</a> - The Register <ul> <li>“Despite Alphabet last week <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/26/register_kettle_ai/">reporting</a> a 57 percent year-on-year jump in net profit to $23.66 billion for calendar Q1, more roles are being expunged as the mega-corp cracks down on costs.”</li> <li>“As for the Python team, the current positions have <a href="https://social.coop/@Yhg1s/112332127058328855">reportedly</a> been "reduced" in favor of a new team based in Munich.”</li> </ul></li> <li>MK: Related and timely: <a href="https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/">How one power-hungry leader destroyed Google search</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>Extras</strong> </p> <p>Brian:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://andrewwegner.com/python-gotcha-strip-functions-unexpected-behavior.html">Python Gotcha: strip, lstrip, rstrip can remove more than expected</a> <ul> <li>Reminder: You probably want .removesuffix() and .removeprefix() </li> </ul></li> </ul> <p>Michael:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://lmstudio.ai/blog/llama-3">Using Llama3</a> in <a href="https://lmstudio.ai">LMStudio</a></li> </ul> <p><strong>Joke:</strong> <a href="https://devhumor.com/media/broken-system">Broken System</a></p>

53rd issue of Andrei Neagoie's must-read monthly Python Newsletter: Whitehouse Recommends Python, Memory Footprint, Let's Talk About Devin, and much more. Read the full newsletter to get up-to-date with everything you need to know from last month.

I’m assuming you are reading this because you are already convinced that migrating your Drupal 7 site to Drupal 10 is not just a proactive measure but a strategic move for your organization. But to anyone else on your team it looks like an unnecessary big project to rebuild the website when it’ll look and feel the same (we always recommend redesigns or additional features during a D7 to D10 Migration). We get it. For folks not in the know, this seems like a waste of funds. However, with Drupal 7 coming to an end in about 9 months (January 5th, 2025), the urgency to transition becomes increasingly stressful. We know you know, but you still have your team members (or your boss!) left to convince. Let’s make it easier for you with this article. Understanding the impact of Drupal 7 End of Life Before you talk to your team about why you need to migrate to Drupal 10, let’s examine some of the implications of persisting with Drupal 7.  No more security updates or advisories for core, contributed modules and themes. The Drupal Security Team may publicly post moderate to less critical issues affecting Drupal 7 in the public issue queue for resolution, provided they are not widely exploitable. Unsupported Drupal 7 contributed modules or themes won't be eligible for new maintainership or reclassification as supported. If you’re currently using them, it is a good idea to take ownership or be a maintainer of those projects. PHP version 5.5 and below will now be supported. This lack of support could lead to compatibility issues, security vulnerabilities, and potential performance drawbacks. If your Drupal 7 website is running on Windows, you will no longer receive security fixes for Windows-related issues. It is recommended to move to a different operating system. You will no longer receive assistance for tasks associated with Drupal 7, such as documentation navigation, automated testing, packaging, and other related activities. Making the case for Drupal 7 to 10 migration to your team Let’s give you some powerful pointers to discuss with your team to get buy-in on the Drupal 7 to 10 migration. Remarkably Enhanced User Experience for Content Editors and Site Builders in D10 There are 3 things that matter a lot to content editors and site builders :   User-friendly admin interface - It should allow for efficient content creation, editing, and site management without requiring extensive technical knowledge. Customization - This includes options for customizing layouts, adding new features, and integrating third-party tools and services. Media management - To upload, organize, and embed images, videos, and other multimedia content within articles. Claro admin theme Drupal 10’s new Claro admin theme (a part of core) offers a clean, modern and user-friendly interface to help organize and find what you need easily. Olivero is the new default front-end theme now and it comes with a modern look and feel. The theme integrates seamlessly with all of Drupal’s features and is the most accessible theme (WCAG level AA compliant) till now. The flexible Layout builder module is now in core and it is now easier to create pages and customize layouts the way you want. The modern and functional media management system makes it simpler to upload, reuse, and manage media assets on your Drupal site. Optimized Website Performance and SEO Improvements With every new release, Drupal is getting better at delivering performance. With Drupal 10’s new and improved caching mechanisms, BigPipe technology, optimized codebase, and effective content delivery mechanisms, your website can now load faster and offer a great user experience. It incorporates various enhancements to boost performance in content rendering and HTTP responses. With Drupal 10, you can implement lazy loading for embedded content and responsive images, significantly enhancing load times. Additionally, the introduction of the new JS minification feature dynamically reduces code and markup, thereby further improving performance. The new Single Directory Component (SDC) approach of theming your website is a revolutionary step towards frontend development which also greatly improves website performance by groupong together files necessary to render components (Twig, CSS, JS). And don’t forget, better website performance also means a better SEO ranking on search engines. Managing Content is Easier Now that you've settled into using Drupal 7 for a while, you might feel like managing content is pretty straightforward. But hold on – let me tell you about Drupal 10, where things get even smoother and more user-friendly. With Drupal 10, organizing your content consistently becomes much simpler. You can reuse existing fields easily and create new ones more smoothly, all in one place. Editing content is smoother too, with text fields that ensure your text looks just right. Plus, managing older versions of your content, whether it's in blocks or pages, is a breeze with the new unified editing experience. The new CKEditor 5 version offers an enhanced content editing experience. Its features like drag-and-drop image insertion, real-time collaboration, and seamless integration with Drupal's content management system make creating and editing content very simple. Its customizable toolbar allows you to tailor the editing experience to suit your specific needs. You also easily copy and paste content from Word/Google Docs to the editor without worrying about formatting as it automatically removes any markup. Improved Security And no, we’re not just talking about the lack of security support for Drupal 7 after Jan 2025. Because of the way it has been built and due to its many modern dependencies, Drupal 10 is now more secure than it has ever been. As you may already be aware, Drupal has been aligning its release cycles with its dependencies, including PHP and Symfony, since version 8. This means that as PHP versions continue to evolve, older versions like Drupal 7 may become incompatible with the latest PHP releases. This lack of compatibility can leave your Drupal 7 site vulnerable to security risks and other issues. Drupal 10 relies on the latest versions of Symfony (6) and PHP (8.1), making it more secure and better performing.  Twig, Drupal 10's default template engine, not only simplifies the development process but also enhances security by preventing direct database interactions within the code. This prevents vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting and code injections. By default, Drupal 10 strengthens website security by suggesting users choose stronger passwords, minimizing unauthorized access risks through parameters like minimum length and complexity. The Time is Now! The urgency for you to address the Drupal 7 migration depends on the complexity of your website. The more extensive your site's content and features, the longer the migration process will likely take. It’s going to take even longer if you have many custom modules and features. But you don’t want to rush the process. We have seen (and fixed) a lot of bad migrations (like a lot!), most of them done in haste or without proper planning. With a 9-month window to Drupal 7 end-of-life starting now, we believe this is the optimal time to initiate your migration process. A Drupal 7 to 10 migration is going to be a complete rebuild (which is why it takes time) but once you’re on Drupal 10, future upgrades are going to be very, very easy.  Don’t forget to check out this article that features our Drupal experts discussing what’s new in Drupal 10 in detail. You can even catch up with the video of this panel discussion. Final Thoughts If you’re thinking this migration (Drupal 7 to Drupal 10) is going to be your last big transition, you are absolutely right. Because even though Drupal continues to innovate, progress and release further versions, your website will now only need effortless and straightforward upgrades. Yes, upgrades will remain easy forever. So what next? Start looking for a Drupal certified migration partner (like Specbee) and get a site audit (we’ll do it for you for free!) so you know how much time you have to start the migration process.

I was looking at some code that sets file permissions – file modes – by calling chmod(2). The command-line chmod(1) has a bunch of possibilities for setting permissions, but the underlying system-call needs an int, and the C headers for it are annoying to use. So I fired up some C++ machinery to “make it nicer to use”.

tl;dr: scroll to the bottom for a compile-time, compact way of writing file permissions so that chmod(filename, "rwx--x--x"_mode) does something plausible, with good error messages in case of typo’s.

The manpage for chmod(1) is fairly extensive. There are two ways to specify a file mode, either in octal or symbolically. Octal is just a number, symbolically is much more complicated.

On the C API side, the manpage for chmod(2) shows you need a pathname and a mode, and there are a whole bunch of symbolic constants to use, like S_IRUSR.

How I think about file modes

It turns out I nearly always think about file modes in octal. I have somehow internalized things like “755 for executables” and “666 for crap” and “600 for files in ~/.ssh” but I don’t really have names for these things. If I think about it, I can use the symbolic manipulations like ugo+rw for crap. But I don’t see permissions in this symbolic form, and the octal form is persnickety in C source, probably because I don’t expect everyone to know “leading 0 means octal”.

But there is a form in which I see file modes every day: the output from ls -l, where permissions are shown with 10 characters, the first 10 on this line:

-rw-r--r-- 1 adridg users 0 Apr 30 11:46 example.txt

The first - says something about the type of file and is - for regular files, d for directories, l for symbolic links, and there are others, too. That’s not really the mode, though, while the next 9 characters are: each group of three shows r, w, and x in that order, or a - in each position, indicating the read, write, or execute bit for the corresponding class of logins. The first three are the current user, next three are group, the last three for others.

The C code to call chmod with this mode looks like

chmod("example.txt", 0644); chmod("example.txt", S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH);

One is octal-arcane and the other is just arcane and hard-to-read.

Turning readable modes into numbers

So I thought to myself: I can write a C++ function that turns the 9-characters of the mode in text form, into an actual mode_t value (that’s an integer).

That’s a trivial exercise, really, although it gets a bit persnickety in error handling. I would just throw on an incorrect length, or any incorrect character, and leave it at that.

From there, though, I went on to: I can write a consteval C++ function that does the computation at compile-time (guaranteed to be only at compile-time, because consteval). This is a function that can only be called with a compile-time string literal, so the function signature is potentially:

consteval mode_t from_readable_mode(const char (&permission_string)[10])

The array-reference is to 10 characters because there are 9 mode characters, and then a trailing NUL byte (zero) in a string literal. This function can be called (in the context, sill, of chmod()) like so:

chmod("example.txt", from_readable_mode("rw-r--r--"));

and at compile-time that is already computed to be 420 (that’s 0644 octal).

The last step of make-it-cool (for an appropriate value of “cool”) is to turn the whole thing into a user-defined literal. In my source code I can now write

chmod("example.txt", "rw-r--r--"_mode);

Which really satisfies my own desire for “readable, compact, compile-time”.

Don’t get me started on Qt

For some reason, the values of QFileDevice::Permission are in hexadecimal, but written as hex, look like the corresponding octal values. So in Qt code if you don’t use the symbolic representation of the flags, and just go ram an integer into there, you get 0x644 meaning the same as 0660 in the call to chmod() and everything becomes just that much more confusing and fraught.

Meaningful error messages

C++ and “helpful, friendly, easy-to-read error messages” go together like peaches and .. battery acid? Like things that don’t go well together at all. In recent GCC versions there has been a marked improvement in the look of error messages.

With some judicious use of templates and naming of types, existing error messages can be improved. You still get a veritable torrent of messages, but if, somewhere in the middle, the error message (here, from Clang 17) says:

mode.h:26:9: note: subexpression not valid in a constant expression 26 | throw invalid_permission_character{}; mode.h:41:9: note: in call to 'expected_character_at_position(&"rwxbadbug"[0])' 41 | detail::expected_character_at_position<3, 'r'>(s) |

Then it’s a lot easier to decide that the character at position 3 – the letter b – is not expected, and maybe an r was expected there instead.

User-defined file mode literals

Here is the definition of my _mode literal. String-based literals get a pointer and a size, which is inconvenient because they don’t turn back into fixed-size arrays.

consteval mode_t operator""_mode(const char *s, size_t len) { if (len != 9) { throw detail::invalid_permission_string_length{}; } return detail::from_readable_mode_string(s); }

Anyway, if the string is the wrong size then a meaningful exception is thrown, which isn’t constexpr, so you get a meaningful error message:

mode.h:65:9: note: subexpression not valid in a constant expression 65 | throw detail::invalid_permission_string_length{}; main.cc:44:24: note: in call to 'operator""_mode(&"birb"[0], 4)' 44 | std::cout << "birb"_mode;

Here us the implementation of the function that does the actual work, turning the string into a mode_t:

consteval mode_t from_readable_mode_string(const char * const s) { return detail::expected_character_at_position<0, 'r'>(s) | detail::expected_character_at_position<1, 'w'>(s) | detail::expected_character_at_position<2, 'x'>(s) | detail::expected_character_at_position<3, 'r'>(s) | detail::expected_character_at_position<4, 'w'>(s) | detail::expected_character_at_position<5, 'x'>(s) | detail::expected_character_at_position<6, 'r'>(s) | detail::expected_character_at_position<7, 'w'>(s) | detail::expected_character_at_position<8, 'x'>(s); }

It’s really wordy, which is unfortunate, but by writing it like this, the error message – at least with Clang 17 – repeats the template parameters and mentions the specific subexpression that is problematic.

Here is a Clang 17 error message when using an inappropriate permission character:

mode.h:26:9: note: subexpression not valid in a constant expression 26 | throw invalid_permission_character{}; mode.h:44:9: note: in call to 'expected_character_at_position(&"------uwu"[0])' 44 | detail::expected_character_at_position<6, 'r'>(s) | mode.h:67:12: note: in call to 'from_readable_mode_string(&"------uwu"[0])' 67 | return detail::from_readable_mode_string(s);

Huh, I guess you can’t give uWu permission to others. The same error message from GCC 13 looks similar:

main.cc:44:18: in 'constexpr' expansion of 'operator""_mode(((const char*)"------uwu"), 9)' mode.h:67:45: in 'constexpr' expansion of 'detail::from_readable_mode_string(s)' mode.h:44:55: in 'constexpr' expansion of 'detail::expected_character_at_position<6, 'r'>(((const char*)s))' mode.h:26:9: error: expression '<throw-expression>' is not a constant expression 26 | throw invalid_permission_character{};

And here’s the implementation that turns a single character into a bit in a file mode value:

template<int position, char accept> consteval mode_t expected_character_at_position(const char * const permission_string) { const char c = permission_string[position]; if(c == accept) { return 1 << (8-position); } if(c == '-') { return 0; } throw invalid_permission_character{}; }

This is a bit wordy, but it ensures that position and the acceptable (expected) char are front-and-center in error messages, and that the expected character and - are the only characters for which this is a constant expression – everything else will fail because exceptions aren’t constexpr.

So there you have it, a compact constexpr representation of file modes with meaningful error messages. You can find the code in my personal GitHub repository playground, in the subdirectory mode/ . I won’t link it here because, frankly, it is time I get my ass in gear and migrate to some other forge.

I'm happy to have been able to attend my first in-person KDE event, the Automation & Systematization Sprint in Berlin. Previously, my contributions to KDE have consisted of submitting and triaging bug reports. During this weekend, I was able to meet some of the KDE team in person, and become more involved. I've started working with the Bugzilla Bot code, and plan to start digging into the automated test code.

The Bugzilla product list had fallen out of date, so first I updated that (yay, my first accepted MR!). I also started working on using the GitLab API to automate these updates. In the near future, I'll be tackling some requested improvements to the Bugzilla Bot. This will lessen the amount of boring manual bug chores and free people up to do more valuable work.

Thanks to the KDE team for being so friendly and willing to help me learn the development environment. I'm happy to have found more ways to contribute that I enjoy, and will be valuable to the project.

Recently I revisited my previous interest in seL4 - a fast, highly assured operating system microkernel for building secure systems.

The seL4 Microkit tutorial uses a simple Wordle game example to teach the basics of seL4 Microkit (formerly known as the seL4 Core Platform), which is a framework for creating static embedded systems on top of the seL4 microkernel. Microkit is also at the core of LionsOS, a new project to make seL4 accessible to a wider audience.

The tutorial is easy to follow, needing few prerequisites beyond a QEMU emulator and an AArch64 cross-compiler toolchain (Microkit being limited to 64-bit ARM systems currently). Use of an emulator makes for a quick test-debug cycle with a couple of Makefile targets, so time is spent focusing on walking through the Microkit concepts rather than on tooling issues.

This is an unusually good learning experience, probably because of the academic origins of the project itself. The Diátaxis documentation framework would class this as truly a “tutorial” rather than a “how-to guide” - you do learn a lot by implementing the exercises.

The Amarok Development Squad is happy to announce the immediate availability of Amarok 3.0 "Castaway"!

The new 3.0 is the first stable Qt5/KDE Frameworks 5 based version of Amarok, and first stable release since 2018, when the final Qt4 based version 2.9.0 was released.

The road to 3.0 has not been a short one. Much of the Qt5/KF5 porting was done in 2015 already, but finishing and polishing everything up has been a slow, sometimes ongoing and sometimes stalled process ever since. 3.0 Alpha was released in February 2021 and has been since used by many people, as have been nightly builds of git master available for various distributions. Now in the past few months, an effort was made to get everything ready for a proper 3.0 release.

Common usecases should work quite well, and in addition to fixing KF5 port related regressions reported in pre-releases, 3.0 features many bugfixes and implemented features for longstanding issues, the oldest such documented being from 2009. However, with more than 20 years of development history, it is likely that not every feature Amarok has been tested thoroughly in the new release, and specifically some Internet services that have changed their API in recent years are not available, at least for now. It might well be that getting them in better state wouldn't require huge effort, however, so if you know your way with Qt and KDE Frameworks and your favourite Internet music service does not work with Amarok 3.0, you are extremely welcome to join in and help!

In the following months, minor releases containing small fixes and additions, based on both newly reported and longer-standing bug reports and feature requests, are to be expected. Work on porting to Amarok to Qt6/KDE Frameworks 6 should start in the following months, the goal being to have a usable Qt6/KF6 based beta version in 2024 still.

One should observe that due to scripting framework port from QtScript to QJSEngine still being a work in progress, previous Amarok 2.x scripts are often not compatible. The script API documentation at community wiki is also partially out of date. Additionally, due to incompatibilities and other issues, KNewStuff downloading of scripts is disabled for the time being. Having script support in more polished shape is something to work on after an initial Qt6/KF6 version starts to be usable. It is also evident that the web site and community wiki pages largely originate from more than ten years ago, and contain partially outdated information. Some work on refreshing them and pruning the documentation to make it more maintainable is likely to happen during the following months.

Now it's time to Rediscover Your Music in the 2020's! Changes since 3.0 Beta (2.9.82) FEATURES:

• Added a visual hint that context view applets can be resized in edit mode.
• Display missing metadata errors in Wikipedia applet UI.
• Add a button to stop automatic Wikipedia page updating. (BR 485813)

CHANGES:

• Replace defunct lyricwiki with lyrics.ovh as lyrics provider for now. (BR 455937)
• Show only relevant items in wikipedia applet right click menu (BR 323941), use monobook skin for opened links and silently ignore non-wikipedia links.
• Don't show non-functional play mode controls in dynamic mode (BR 287055)

BUGFIXES:

• Fix loading of some Flickr photos in the photos context view applet and show more relevant photos. (BR 317108)
• Fix playlist inline play control slider knob & draw playlist delegate icons with higher DPI.
• Fix searching for composer and album info for local files in Wikipedia applet.
• Don't remove wrong songs from collection when contents of a folder, whose name is a substring of another collection folder, are changed (BR 475528)
• Prefer symbolic systray icon to fix colours in Plasma6 systray (BR 485748)

The complete ChangeLog, which includes the pre-releases, is available in the git repository.

To provide some insight on the road from 2.9.0 to 3.0.0, statistics collected from git repository are presented:

Commits and added/removed lines of code between 2.9.0 and 3.0 alpha (2.9.71)

l10n daemon script: 117 commits, +898, -192
Heiko Becker: 72 commits, +5641, -2112
Laurent Montel: 69 commits, +9478, -9697
Aroonav Mishra: 65 commits, +15474, -6808
Pino Toscano: 31 commits, +6892, -1637
Malte Veerman: 30 commits, +19466, -29990
Olivier CHURLAUD: 27 commits, +1106, -474
Yuri Chornoivan: 19 commits, +966, -806
Pedro de Carvalho Gomes: 8 commits, +145, -407
Pedro Gomes: 7 commits, +7222, -805
Luigi Toscano: 7 commits, +15, -14
Mark Kretschmann: 6 commits, +27, -17
Wolfgang Bauer: 5 commits, +31, -7
Tuomas Nurmi: 4 commits, +39, -23
Stefan Derkits: 4 commits, +20, -19
Andreas Sturmlechner: 3 commits, +189, -75
Aditya Dev Sharma: 3 commits, +47, -46
Stephan Wezel: 2 commits, +12, -7
Andreas Sturmlechner: 2 commits, +8, -6
Andreas Hartmetz: 2 commits, +2, -2
Victor Mataré: 1 commits, +7, -3
Tobias C. Berner: 1 commits, +5, -1
Thiago Sueto: 1 commits, +1, -1
Sven Eckelmann: 1 commits, +5, -3
Somsubhra Bairi: 1 commits, +1, -1
Simon Depiets: 1 commits, +2, -2
Rishabh Gupta: 1 commits, +1, -4
Nicolas Lécureuil: 1 commits, +4, -2
Nate Graham: 1 commits, +7, -7
Johnny Jazeix: 1 commits, +2, -2
Elbin Pallimalil: 1 commits, +11, -5
Christophe Giboudeaux: 1 commits, +1, -2
Antonio Rojas: 1 commits, +1, -0
Alexandr Akulich: 1 commits, +1, -1
Albert Astals Cid: 1 commits, +1, -0

Commits and added/removed lines of code between 3.0 alpha 2.9.71 and 3.0.0

l10n daemon script: 317 commits, +1597783, -75585
Tuomas Nurmi: 147 commits, +3813, -1550
Friedrich W. H. Kossebau: 9 commits, +1075, -1044
Jürgen Thomann: 8 commits, +130, -101
Heiko Becker: 8 commits, +187, -19
Pino Toscano: 6 commits, +3361, -24
Toni Asensi Esteve: 4 commits, +100, -13
Pedro de Carvalho Gomes: 4 commits, +51, -9
Mihkel Tõnnov: 4 commits, +4486, -800
Zixing Liu: 2 commits, +140, -8
Fabian Vogt: 2 commits, +9, -0
David Faure: 2 commits, +4047, -15
Damir Islamov: 2 commits, +401, -420
Yuri Chornoivan: 1 commits, +1, -1
Sebastian Engel: 1 commits, +21, -21
Nicolas Fella: 1 commits, +1, -1
Nicolás Alvarez: 1 commits, +7, -7
Nate Graham: 1 commits, +1, -0
Matthias Mailänder: 1 commits, +5, -0
Jonathan Esk-Riddell: 1 commits, +2, -6
Jakob Meng: 1 commits, +1, -1
Heiko Becker: 1 commits, +17, -17
Christophe Giboudeaux: 1 commits, +3, -4
Carl Schwan: 1 commits, +7, -2
Boris Pek: 1 commits, +1, -1
Andreas Sturmlechner: 1 commits, +2, -0

Packager section

You can find the package on download.kde.org and it has been signed with Tuomas Nurmi's GPG key.

We’re often asked which platform is the best for creating landing pages. Our answer is always “it depends on your needs!” Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses. It takes a strong understanding of both your options and your needs to pick the right one.

We illustrated this point with a 'Landing Page Builder Battle' at EvolveDrupal Atlanta 2024. Developers were challenged to create a web page in just five minutes using either Drupal Layout Builder, Drupal Paragraphs, WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg), WordPress Elementor, or Webflow. On top of being a whole lot of fun, this competition highlighted the unique capabilities and limitations of each platform. It also underscored the practical implications of choosing the right tool for different projects.  

Curious what we learned? We’ve packed it all into this guide, which examines the pros and cons of each of the five page builders that battled it out at EvolveDrupal. Read on to find out who won and discover the best tool for you.

Drupal Layout Builder

Drupal Layout Builder is a core module in Drupal that lets admins customize content layouts without needing to dive into code. Its visual layout editor allows admins to design pages using a drag-and-drop interface.

Pros

• Effortless integration. Because it's part of Drupal core, Layout Builder works seamlessly with other Drupal functionalities.
• Highly customizable. It offers extensive capabilities to customize layouts for individual pieces of content or entire content types.
• Accessibility. Drupal prioritizes accessibility and Layout Builder is no exception, allowing admins to create better content for all users including those with disabilities.
• Regular updates. Along with other Drupal core and contributed modules, Layout Builder is continuously improved upon by the Drupal community.

Cons

• Complexity. There can be a steep learning curve for users who are unfamiliar with Drupal.
• No live preview. Unlike WordPress Gutenberg or Elementor, Layout Builder doesn’t offer a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface. 
• Performance. Heavy use of Layout Builder on complex sites can impact performance without proper optimization.

Drupal Paragraphs

Paragraphs is a Drupal module that replaces the basic body field with a set of customizable paragraph types, offering a cleaner way to manage content chunks.

Pros

• Flexibility. Users can add different types of content (images, text, videos) and arrange them with ease.
• Reusable components. Paragraphs lets you define types of components that are reusable across different pages, or even across different websites within a multi-site configuration. This reusability not only speeds up the content creation process but also helps maintain consistency across your digital presence.
• Content control. Paragraphs break content into discrete components that can be individually edited and arranged. This modular approach simplifies content management and enhances the editorial workflow. 
• Regular updates. As with LayoutBuilder, the Drupal community makes ongoing contributions to improve Paragraphs.

Cons 

• No live preview. Paragraphs doesn’t have a WYSIWYG interface, while Wordpress Block Editor and Elementor do. 
• Potential overhead. Managing an extensive library of paragraph types can become a cumbersome task.
• Less design control. Paragraphs gives you less control over the layout compared to Layout Builder. But there is a Layout Paragraphs module that lets you benefit from the layout control capabilities of Layout Builder in Paragraphs. It does this by using the underlying API of Layout Builder.

WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg) 

The default block editor for WordPress, colloquially referred to as the Gutenberg editor, introduced to make adding rich content to websites more accessible and enjoyable.

Pros

• Modern block editor.  The block editor offers a more intuitive and media-rich editing experience.
• Extensibility. Developers can create custom blocks, enhancing flexibility.
• Core integration. Being a part of WordPress core, the block editor is well-maintained and receives regular updates.
• User-friendly interface. A clean and straightforward interface simplifies the content creation process.
• Flexibility. It easily integrates with a wide range of themes and plugins designed.
• Regular updates. The block editor is continuously improved upon by the WordPress community.
• Live preview available. The block editor offers a WYSIWYG interface, allowing you to see changes in real-time as you edit. 

Cons 

• Mixed reception. Some users find the transition to block-based editing confusing.
• Limited layout options. The block editor is more restrictive in layout design compared to page builders like Elementor.
• Plugin dependencies. It often requires additional plugins to extend functionality to match other builders.

WordPress Elementor

Elementor is a powerful WordPress page builder plugin that offers a high degree of design flexibility with a drag-and-drop interface.

Pros

• Intuitive design interface. WordPress Elementor makes designing websites straightforward, even for those without coding skills.
• Template and widget variety. Comes with numerous widgets and templates that can be customized extensively.
• Responsive design controls. Users can tweak settings for different devices directly from the editor.
• Third-party add-ons. Supported by a wide array of third-party add-ons for additional functionality.
• Live preview available. WordPress Elementor offers a WYSIWYG interface, allowing real-time viewing of changes as you edit. 
• Regular updates. It’s continuously improved upon by plugin developers.

Cons

• Plugin dependency. Elementor relies on being compatible with the active WordPress theme and other plugins, which can sometimes lead to conflicts.
• Performance issues. It can become heavy and potentially slow down site performance due to extensive feature sets.
• Cost. While there is a free version, premium features require a paid subscription.

Webflow

Webflow is a standalone tool that combines website design and development in one platform. It allows users to design, build, and launch responsive websites visually. It also handles hosting and can export clean code.

Pros

• All-in-one solution. It combines design, development, and hosting in one platform.
  Visual CSS styling. Webflow allows designers to style elements visually, which is then automatically converted into clean code.
• Advanced animations. It supports sophisticated animations and interactions.
  Complete design freedom. Webflow offers extensive design control without needing to write code.
• Responsive by default. Designs are automatically responsive, which is excellent for mobile optimization.

Cons

• Learning curve. New users may find the interface and abundance of options overwhelming.
• Cost. Webflow can be more expensive than other solutions, especially for hosting.

Choosing Your Page Builder Champion

The choice between Drupal, WordPress, and Webflow tools boils down to specific project requirements, your technical comfort, and the scale of your digital ambitions. Below is a summary of what we think are the best use cases for each tool.

• Drupal Layout Builder – Best for complex, content-heavy websites needing deep customization.
• Drupal Paragraphs – Suitable for sites where structured, multi-use content is needed without layout concerns.
• WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg) – Great for content creators and bloggers who need an intuitive system integrated into WordPress.
• WordPress Elementor – Perfect for WordPress users who need detailed design control without deep coding.
• Webflow – Best for designers who want total design freedom and the ability to launch a site within one platform.

So who won the battle? Webflow emerged victorious for the ease of quickly assembling a functional website in 5 minutes. Although Drupal might still pose a learning curve for newcomers, its continuous evolution promises even more accessible and enhanced user experiences.

Wishing you’d caught the Page Builder Battle in real life? Join us at the next EvolveDrupal! Our next stop is Montreal on June 14, 2024. Come along for more live demonstrations and dozens of insightful sessions. It's a great opportunity to see digital tools in action and network with other professionals in the field.

 

Register for EvolveDrupal Montreal 2024 or sign up for future updates.
 

+ more awesome articles by Evolving Web

Today we are talking about Drupal 11 Readiness, What you need to think about, and PHPStan with guest Matt Glaman. We’ll also cover MRN as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: [www.talkingDrupal.com/448https://www.talkingDrupal.com/448)

Topics

• What do we mean by Drupal 11 Readiness
• How will this be different than 9 and 10
• Top 5 tips
• D11 Meeting and slack channel
• Will this be easier
• Major issues
• What is PHPStan
• How does it play a role
• How is PHPStan Drupal different than PHPStan
• Does using PHPStan with drupal reduce the need for tests
• How do you see it evolving over the next few years
• Drupal 12 wishlist

Resources

• PHPStan Drupal
• PHPStan
• Herodevs DrupalCon Party
• Smart date BC calls
• Contrib semantic versioning thoughts
• Change records
  • Drop is always moving
• Project analysis
• Gabor article Drupal rector
• Project update working group
• LTS even odd
• PHP version
• PHP stan rule levels
• Title issue

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Matt Glaman - mglaman.dev mglaman

MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu

• Brief description:
  • Have you ever wanted an easy way to generate detailed release notes for your contrib projects? There’s a web app for that
• Module name/project name:
  • MRN which is short for Maintainer / Module Release Notes
• Brief history
  • How old: created in Aug 2022 by today’s guest Matt Glaman
• Maintainership
  • Actively maintained, latest updates were earlier this year
  • Code project at https://github.com/mglaman/drupal-mrn has 13 open issues
• Usage stats:
  • Currently no usage reporting, but a tool I’ve been using a ton lately as I get modules ready for Drupal 11
• Module features and usage
  • It’s very simple to use, you just enter the machine name of your project, and then the numbers of the releases you want it to compare
  • It will generate the structure for your release note, include a spot for you to write a summary at the top, a list of contributors that links to their profiles, and a list of issues
  • Previously part of Matt’s drupalorg CLI project, MRN is now a lambda function on AWS, so there’s nothing to download or install
  • I like that you can choose which tags you want to compare, so if the release is part of a branch that doesn’t yet have a stable release, I’ll put a comparison to the previous release in the branch at the top, and then a comparison to the current stable release below it, so people can see the full list of everything new they’ll get by moving from the stable release
  • It’s worth noting that because this works from the git history, you need to make sure you credit everyone properly before clicking to merge an MR in the Drupal.org UI. You can give credit to other people after the fact using the checkbox and they’ll get contribution credits, but won’t be included in the release notes generated by MRN

We can’t wait to welcome Jay Miller, Kate Chapman, Simon Willison, and Sumana Harihareswara to our stage as PyCon US keynote speakers this year.

We asked each of our keynote speakers: 

• What excites them about the Python community? 

• What they’re looking forward to doing at PyCon US? 

• What can we expect from their keynote speech? 

• And any advice they’d like to share with the Python community. 

Check out our interviews with each of our keynote speakers below! 

Jay Miller

"I fully believe I owe my entire tech career to the Python community. I met so many amazing people that I would become long lasting friends with."

Kate Chapman

"I'm excited to connect with people who are passionate about free and open source software and to learn about technologies that I haven't spent much time with."

Simon Willison"Take advantage of the fact that so many people from the worldwide Python community are in the same place at the same time for just a couple of days. Everybody here wants to talk to you. And you should assume that anyone who you think is interesting will find you interesting as well and will want to hear from you."

Sumana Harihareswara

"I do stand-up comedy and theater. I take it seriously, my responsibility to educate and entertain if you're sitting in front of me for 40 minutes."

Register Now

Don’t miss out on meeting our keynote speakers in person! Register now for PyCon US before we sell out. As a note, some of our tutorials are already sold out, as well as our hotel room blocks. There are only a few short weeks left before the conference, so don’t wait, register today!

Stay in the Loop

The PyCon US website has all the information you need to know about attending our conference. In order to catch all the latest news, be sure to:

• Subscribe to the PyCon US Blog
• Follow @PyCon and @thePSF on Twitter/X
• Follow @pycon@fosstodon.org and @ThePSF@fosstodon.org on Mastodon,
• The PSF on LinkedIn
• And subscribe to PyCon US 2024 News!

Engage with our community on social media by using our official hashtag: #PyConUS.

Thank you for supporting the Python community. We can’t wait to meet you all in Pittsburgh in a few short weeks!

The Python standard library ships with a testing framework named unittest, which you can use to write automated tests for your code. The unittest package has an object-oriented approach where test cases derive from a base class, which has several useful methods.

The framework supports many features that will help you write consistent unit tests for your code. These features include test cases, fixtures, test suites, and test discovery capabilities.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to:

• Write unittest tests with the TestCase class
• Explore the assert methods that TestCase provides
• Use unittest from the command line
• Group test cases using the TestSuite class
• Create fixtures to handle setup and teardown logic

To get the most out of this tutorial, you should be familiar with some important Python concepts, such as object-oriented programming, inheritance, and assertions. Having a good understanding of code testing is a plus.

Free Bonus: Click here to download the free sample code that shows you how to use Python’s unittest to write tests for your code.

Take the Quiz: Test your knowledge with our interactive “Python's unittest: Writing Unit Tests for Your Code” quiz. You’ll receive a score upon completion to help you track your learning progress:

Interactive Quiz

Python's unittest: Writing Unit Tests for Your Code

In this quiz, you'll test your understanding of Python testing with the unittest framework from the standard library. With this knowledge, you'll be able to create basic tests, execute them, and find bugs before your users do.

Testing Your Python Code

Code testing or software testing is a fundamental part of a modern software development cycle. Through code testing, you can verify that a given software project works as expected and fulfills its requirements. Testing enforces code quality and robustness.

You’ll do code testing during the development stage of an application or project. You’ll write tests that isolate sections of your code and verify its correctness. A well-written battery or suite of tests can also serve as documentation for the project at hand.

You’ll find several different concepts and techniques around testing. Most of them surpass the scope of this tutorial. However, unit test is an important and relevant concept. A unit test is a test that operates on an individual unit of software. A unit test aims to validate that the tested unit works as designed.

A unit is often a small part of a program that takes a few inputs and produces an output. Functions, methods, and other callables are good examples of units that you’d need to test.

In Python, there are several tools to help you write, organize, run, and automate your unit test. In the Python standard library, you’ll find two of these tools:

1. doctest
2. unittest

Python’s doctest module is a lightweight testing framework that provides quick and straightforward test automation. It can read the test cases from your project’s documentation and your code’s docstrings. This framework is shipped with the Python interpreter as part of the batteries-included philosophy.

Note: To dive deeper into doctest, check out the Python’s doctest: Document and Test Your Code at Once tutorial.

The unittest package is also a testing framework. However, it provides a more complete solution than doctest. In the following sections, you’ll learn and work with unittest to create suitable unit tests for your Python code.

Getting to Know Python’s unittest

The unittest package provides a unit test framework inspired by JUnit, which is a unit test framework for the Java language. The unittest framework is directly available in the standard library, so you don’t have to install anything to use this tool.

The framework uses an object-oriented approach and supports some essential concepts that facilitate test creation, organization, preparation, and automation:

• Test case: An individual unit of testing. It examines the output for a given input set.
• Test suite: A collection of test cases, test suites, or both. They’re grouped and executed as a whole.
• Test fixture: A group of actions required to set up an environment for testing. It also includes the teardown processes after the tests run.
• Test runner: A component that handles the execution of tests and communicates the results to the user.

In the following sections, you’ll dive into using the unittest package to create test cases, suites of tests, fixtures, and, of course, run your tests.

Organizing Your Tests With the TestCase Class

The unittest package defines the TestCase class, which is primarily designed for writing unit tests. To start writing your test cases, you just need to import the class and subclass it. Then, you’ll add methods whose names should begin with test. These methods will test a given unit of code using different inputs and check for the expected results.

Here’s a quick test case that tests the built-in abs() function:

Read the full article at https://realpython.com/python-unittest/ »

[ 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 ]

On behalf of the Nikola team, I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of Nikola v8.3.1. This release fixes some small bugs, including some introduced by the new Nikola Plugin Manager.

The minimum Python version supported is now 3.8, and we have adopted a formal policy to define the Python versions supported by Nikola.

What is Nikola?

Nikola is a static site and blog generator, written in Python. It can use Mako and Jinja2 templates, and input in many popular markup formats, such as reStructuredText and Markdown — and can even turn Jupyter Notebooks into blog posts! It also supports image galleries, and is multilingual. Nikola is flexible, and page builds are extremely fast, courtesy of doit (which is rebuilding only what has been changed).

Find out more at the website: https://getnikola.com/

Downloads

Install using pip install Nikola.

Changes Features

• Support passing --poll to nikola auto to better deal with symlink farms.

Bugfixes

• Remove insecure HTTP fallback from nikola plugin

• Fix the nikola plugin command not working (Issue #3736, #3737)

• Fix nikola new_post --available-formats crashing with TypeError (Issue #3750)

• Fix the new plugin manager not loading plugins if the plugin folder is a symlink (Issue #3741)

• Fix the nikola plugin command not working (Issue #3736)

• Remove no longer used leftovers of annotations support (Issue #3764)

Other

• Nikola now requires Python 3.8 or newer.

• Nikola has adopted a policy for Python version support, promising support for versions supported by the Python core team, Ubuntu LTS, or Debian stable, and taking into consideration Debian oldstable and PyPy.

• Remove polyfill from polyfill.io.

New draft of the Open Source AI Definition v.0.0.8 is live!

• The draft is ready for feedback. 
• The changelog: 
  • incorporated feedback from legal review in Gothenburg and 0.0.7
    • transformed Data transparency to Data information following feedback from the
    • separated the Out of scope section to a FAQ document 18
    • added mention of frictionless in the preamble
    • moved the definition of preferred form to make modifications to ML above the checklist
  • updated language to follow the latest version of the Model Openness Framework
  • added the legal requirements for optional components
  • the first incarnation of the FAQ added
• The next steps now include:
  • Widen the call for reviewers in the next couple of weeks
  • Test the Definition with more AI systems (Olmo, Phy, Mistral, etc)
  • Run a review workshop at PyCon US

Initial reactions 

• Question regarding why under “Preferred form to make modifications to machine-learning systems” and “model”, mention of model weights has been removed. 

Vote on how to describe the acceptable terms to receive documentation?

• As part of the next steps, we are continuing to review legal documents from different AI systems to test our definition. Should we describe the terms listed on the 0.0.8 draft under “checklist to evaluate machine learning systems”, should we consider them OSD Compliant or OSD Compatible?
  • This matters as it has different implications for documentation for the components in the class of Data transparency: There is no formal definition of “open documentation” and the OSI hasn’t reviewed licenses used for documentation.
• A user has concerns with both, stating that:
  • OSD-compliant means that documentation need to be under a license that fulfils all ten OSD criteria, and many of those are quite software-specific. This could be tricky, there is a reason why OSI hasn’t approved (m)any non-software licenses thus far.in its meaning. Many proprietary licenses are compatible with many (non-copyleft) OSD-compliant licenses, that It can lose its meaning.
• Maffulli replies stating that:
  • The main difference he sees lie in their perceived legal strictness, where “Compatible suggests a lightweight review that anyone can do”
  • He further suggests that OSI could create a special category of licenses for documentation only. When stating that documentation of Open Source AI needs to be available with OSD-compliant terms, do we need to create a special category of OSI Approved Licenses for documentation?
  • He further adds that he reads “compliant”, not in terms of existing licenes but rather in terms of the checklist
• Regarding creating a “special category of license for documentation only, a user adds:
  • “We need that the documentation is free from restrictions that would limits its circulation, including by requiring seeking additional permission or requiring royalties or requiring audited distribution or the likes.” and its scope therefore is quite limited.

FAQ document has been created 

• An FAQ needs to be written to address concerns heard often during the drafting process. The document is a work in progress and is waiting for contributions.

See if OSI is coming near you to host a workshop

• The Open Source AI Definition is going on tour to get a wide array of reviews. This is important to ensure through reviews and secure global significance. Check the dates of the roadshow.

The goal of KDE neon is to build all KDE’s software on a stable Ubuntu LTS base, we do it in an automated way and for the User edition have automated QA to deploy rapidly but safely. For the KDE 6 Megarelease there was a lot of updates and the system didn’t work as well as it ought, not all the update issues could be tested and this broke some the operating system on some people’s computer which is a horrible experience that should not happen.

What happened?

We were testing KF6, Plasma 6 and KDE Gear 24.04 in our unstable and testing repos for some time before the release. A week ahead of release we were building it in our User repo and testing upgrades. Jonathan, as release manager for both the MegaRelease and neon, travelled to Malaga to do an in person joint release with Paul from promo, this helped the coordinated release but lost some testing time. Some package transitions happened during the pre-release week which made the updates more complex than they had to be and meant extra work (for better end result in theory). Once the MegaRelease sources were published on Thursday the testing of Neon was ongoing and many later fixes were made to make for a successful upgrade on the tests. Neon’s KF6/Plasma6/KDE Gear 24.02 packages were published later on Thursday and Jonathan drove home, alas due to bad weather there was no internet available on the ferry limiting later fixes.

Although the semi automated upgrade tests passed this didn’t cover all cases and some people had incomplete upgrades due to packaging transitions being incomplete. This was fixed over the next day or two and also an update to the installer Calamares was brought in which turned out to have a bug with the final install setup so although upgrades now worked the ISO installs were broken. Quite horrible.

On the Monday Jonathan fixed some more upgrade issues and Calamares so the neon end of things was fixed but there remain other problems with KF6 and Plasma 6 which affect all distros and many of these have since been fixed and some are ongoing, many caused by the switch to Wayland or Akonadi switching to sqlite.

Issues?

There wasn’t one big problem that caught everyone. There was lots of small but significant problems which caught many people.

• KMyMoney package issues – needed a rebuild which we did after release
• Ocean sound theme not installed – new package which was added after release
• Palapeli packages in wrong location – an incomplete change that was made during the transition
• Video and pdf thumbnailers broken – these packages needed added to the main install
• KOrganizer had invalid dependency – that needed removed
• xwaylandvideobridge error on shared library – needed a rebuild
• libzxing needs soname bump – that transition needed completed
• akonadi not working on upgrade – for some reason some users had to manually reinstall the mysql akonadi backend
• Calamares install fails to happen – a bug from Calamares that was initially avoided but later included in our ISO
• OEM mode no longer worked – this affects Slimbook systems and some parts just needed ported to Plasma 6, ideally it would be code which was in Calamares and not in Neon

NVidia users had a number of issues often caused by the switch to Wayland. Most users can switch back to X11 to get it working but that is hardly a user friendly setup.

This is just a small sample, there were more similar issues.

Review

Neon is a small team, Jonathan working on it (alongside release duties for Plasma and Frameworks) from Blue Systems and top volunteer helper Carlos with occasionally Harald and others helping out.

We had a review with KDE’s QA star Nate of what happened and why and mitigations and we also had two open calls with neon community members where they gave their feedback.

Ponderings

The Plasma 6 and KF6 upgrades in neon were too fragile and caused too much pain for many of our users.

There wasn’t one single problem and many people had a perfectly good experience doing the upgrade but too many people were caught with problems which will be painful when you are just wanting to have a useful Linux system.

Conclusions

Our constantly rolling release model and small team means we can’t guarantee total stability so we will stop using terms like “rock solid base” on our website and emphasise the new-ness factor.

When doing big updates test and if travelling bring in other people to do testing and fixes.

We can’t support NVidia hardware as we don’t have the skills, time, hardware or access to source to fix it.

Switching to Wayland was a choice of Plasma and after a decade in development a necessary choice but we should be aware of issues there and communicate those.

Get more QA on ISO images, currently we don’t have any prior to release which is going to lead to problems.

Consider if we can to upgrade QA on older snapshots as well as the current one.

Consider how to do more QA on KDE PIM apps.

Thanks to all our lovely users for staying with us, sorry to those who we let down and those who have left us. Thanks to our community for staying supporting of each other and us as developers. Of course there’s plenty of alternatives if you want a slower release cycle (Kubuntu have just made a new LTS with Plasma 5) but if you want the freshest software from KDE then neon continues to be a great place to get it.

Getting Smart Date Dialed Up to 11

I just tagged the first stable release for Smart Date 4.1, a year (almost to the day) since the first stable release of Smart Date 4.0. A lot of work went into this new release, but I'm thankful beyond words to the many people who helped shape it into what it is today.

mandclu Mon, 04/29/2024 - 06:14 Tags

• Drupal

• Read more about Getting Smart Date Dialed Up to 11
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The Impact of Web Design on Conversion: Strategies and Tools for a Successful Web Project Editor Mon, 04/29/2024 - 13:01

Do you still doubt that web design directly affects the conversion of your Drupal site? Today, high-end web design goes beyond a simple and beautiful layout, well-optimized photos, or an eye-catching color scheme. If you neglect the connection between web design and conversion, your lead generation progress won’t help you realize your digital marketing objectives and desired ROI rates.
With the right choice of design strategies for conversions, novice professionals can drastically improve the target platform’s responsiveness and accessibility — with user journeys improved and bounce risks reduced. 

We are happy to announce the release of the Qt Visual Studio Tools version 3.2.0. Installation packages are now available at the Visual Studio Marketplace and download.qt.io.

This update of the Qt VS Tools extension adds experimental support for QML LSP server, as well as full support of the Qt VS Tools for Visual Studio 2022 on ARM64.



Qt MSBuild file support:

Alongside providing Qt-related MSBuild files within the Qt VS Tools package, we now offer them as a separate .zip download for your convenience. Starting from version 3.2.0, access the standalone Qt MSBuild files by visiting our public server download location: Official releases. 

Please refer to the project's Changelog for a list of all changes included in this release. Feel free to report any problems, or make any suggestions or comments, in the Qt Visual Studio Tools bug tracker.