Help needed

Hi!
Maybe you’re not aware of it but Synfig Project needs help!

It might look like a topic but this time the thing is coming real.
As you already might know, Synfig Team is very narrow. Let me place here the current status of it:

(This is a personal view of the situation and me and only me is responsible of its content. If someone else noticed to be not mentioned, please complain!. Older regular contributors aren’t mentioned because the list will be endless)

Nikitakit: Coder (regular coder), forum support, IRC support
Status: taking a breath from Synfig code. Lately dedicated to svg2sif Inkscape exporter, after that will have Synfig vacations. Dunno when or if will return. See viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3024
Jcome: Coder (starter coder), forum support
Status: Recently incorporated to the team starts to learn about the Synfig code. I think he will be with us long time. :slight_smile:
Pixelgeek: Windows binaries maintainer (regular contributor) monthly challenge keeper, forum & IRC support.
Status: Although his contributions are from release to release he is a long term contributing to the project.
Zelgadis: Packaging scripts coder, Infrastructure maintainer -wiki, forum, website-, forum support, IRC support (regular contributor)
Status: Long time contributor, expected for long Synfig Project support.
Genete: Chief coder, forum support, IRC support, release responsible.
Status: Long time contributor, expected for long Synfig Project support.

The reason for this post is for ask for help.

I have personal reasons to dedicate to my self my free time so I need someone who want to care about the Release procedure.

First thing to do is to update the wiki to what really it is being done. It doesn’t differ so much but there are some other tasks not reflected there. Second is to do some local exercise of debu

If someone is willing to help in that area please contact here. I will do my best to pass the stuff to him/her. Please take in mind that some kind of knowledge of Synfig code is needed. Also it is needed to have a Linux environment to be possible make the release easier.

Of course, any kind of help on any aspect is welcome.

Thanks!
-G

Hi Genete, unfortunately i’m not a coder and i might not be very experienced with the terminal, i learned many things recently from the tutorials and i’m starting to feel familiar with the program, in short words, i’m a regular user, how can i contribute with Synfig Studio or the project in general?

Hi Cæncel!

There is room to help in many areas where no specific knowledge is needed:

  1. Using Synfig Studio regularly and reporting here or at the Sourceforge Trackers or at the mailing lists the bugs found, wanted features, new ideas, incorrect/unexpected behavior.

  2. Promoting Synfig Studio! Be fan of Synfig at Facebook, add Synfig to the credits any of your animations, tell friends to use it, to contribute to it.

  3. Translate Synfig to your language. Now it is very easy to translate Synfig to your language or any language you know well. This is a continous work because there are new translatable strings from time to time. It is also good to review the spelling of the current ones and suggest a new way to tell the same thing.

  4. Update the wiki content. Wiki is always evolving. Every time any artwork is updated and any feature improved, wiki becomes obsolete. Review, correct, update and create the English pages of the wiki is always welcome. Spam cleaning is welcome too but there are some admin rules to do that. Translate the wiki to your own language is welcome too but for me it is more important to have the English version up to date.

  5. Participate on the challenges! It is very atraccting for new incoming members to see what can be done with Synfig Studio. Don’t be shy! Being a good artist and animator is not at the hand of many people so every one will appreciate the efforts.

  6. Help at forums and IRC. Take always a lot of patience with the newbies and put yourself on his skin for the time you were one! This is a good way to return the help received!.

  7. Donate to Synfig!. Currently the serves that are hosting the forums and website are not free and are supported by particulars. Also, participate to LGM costs money and donations might help to that once raised a decent amount.

8.) Organization of Synfig Demo reels. This is a very entertained task that implies lots of activites. But the result will be very good for to grow Synfig’s audience.

There are also many ways to help if you have knowledge of the following aspects:

  1. Coding. C++, gtkmm knoledge is needed. If not an expert it can be replaced with heaps of voluntarism. It is also possible to write external applications that cooperate with Synfig Studio. Latest svg2sif Inkscape pluging is one good example.

  2. Infrastructure maintenance: Specific knowledge of phpBB, Mediawiki, Concret5, ssh, etc. is needed. You’ll need to be upgraded to admin in some of the databases.

  3. Building binaries. Currently there is not regular development snapshots binaries releases. It would be good to have a weekly/monthly snapshot release to allow people test upcoming versions. This can be done using your local computer or a server but in any case needs attention.

  4. Creating binaries for Windows and Mac. We have two people working on that (Pixelgeek for windows) and secondplanet for Mac) but I swear that they will appreciate any continuous help. Also Windows binaries creation is not a mature task because it is made with some ah doc scripts that are not reproducible in any other machine than the Pixelgeek’s one. Also Mac packages is always having lot of difficulties due to the lack of people with a Mac working on it.

  5. Reading and cleaning the mailing lists. It is needed to be administrator of them to be able to do that. There is many spam there and it is tedious to distinguish the legal post form the spam. Currently It is me the only one who is in charge of that.

  6. Cleaning forums and wiki from spam. Wiki is luckly with less spam since we added the anti-spam stuff but it can get worse. Forum is still having spam (less but still hiving) and it is always welcome any kind of spam killer help.

  7. Organize Google SoC for next year! We have never been able to participate to that and it is always needed a leader or volunteers to be responsible of the campaing, code mentor, etc.

8.) Participate at LGM. If you are near the next LGM and want to prepare a talk about Synfig you’re welcome. And I’m sure LGM people will welcome you as well!

  1. Revamp Ideas Torrent. It is basically dead because no one is maintaining it. Discuss if it is needed or not. Maybe we won’t use it anymore.

I think that anyone can understand that it is not easy to directly join the community and start doing Infrastructure maintenance (for example). All the users that want to reach those delicated tasks (the second list) need to demostrate his fellowship and some history of contributions to the project before being promoted. We embrace any help but as it is said: “have a lot of power implies a lot of responsability”.

-G

I can do this, i’m not touching the wiki at the moment because i’m not familiar with the format, and because i’m myself learning from it at the moment, but i would like to help with that in the future, thank you for your answer, i’ll give my best.

Hello Genete. As you know, I have a group in Emagister learning and using Synfig. I have verified that the tutorials that are videotaped help them much more than the other who are write, and so that I will record more of them when I could have some time (like the translations).

Hello there

I am totally new to Synfig, but I am already impressed by Synfig and the people here. I want to help!

I am a coder, not C++ but Objective-C. I work on a Mac (obviously), so if I want to clone your repository and try and build Synfig, are there any gotchas? I must say I never succeeded in installing Synfig via homebrew or the .dmg, I ended up installing the macports package.

I can also make a translation to danish, but how do I use this transfix thing? Do I need a account?

As I am on a Mac, I can also help with packaging for Mac if you get me up to speed in what is needed.

Anyways, I would like to help if I can.

Best regards
Søren

For Transifex you need an account. Registration is free.
For the Mac issues I can’t help so much but any help is welcome!
-G

In Transifex there are some strings with - and _ in them, like “translation-credits” and “_Snap to grid” and “S_how grid”. They look more like keyword to me, how should they be translated?

Best regards
Søren

Hi, Genete. Now I’ve some free time (algo más del habitual) and if it’s ok for you, I can do this.

Yes, and the underscore should define the hotkey in tour local language.
-G

You’re welcome! Go Rafael!, Go!
-G

Ok, are there a list of all hotkey enabled items, or how do I avoid a conflict?

/Søren

Hi Søren,

Based on my experience, a translator doesn’t need to pay too much attention to hotkey definition in translatable strings while translating.

For example, when I am doing Chinese localization for Synfig Studio, if a string which has a shortcut definition, it will be translated as following:

_Snap to grid
吸附网格(_S)

S_how grid
显示网格(_H)

Snap to _frame
吸附至帧(_F)

And then, in Chinese version of Synfig Studio, the shortcut Alt + S is mapped to Snap to grid function as in English version

this is ageneral and informative question that you need help . any can give you opinion but you have to chose best one .As I am on a this basis, I can also help with packaging for it if you get me up to speed in what is needed. thanks for being here and you can get what you expect