Future of this repository

[uykusuz]

Hi guys,

I skimmed through the open PRs. There are 70 open PRs, some from spring this year. Who is going over these @kb100 @jolange ?
If nobody has time, then how should we proceed here? Would be nice to see some PRs merged.

[jolange]

I indeed follow what's happening here, but I don't have push rights to this repo, sorry.

[denisse-dev]

I have time to maintain this and use i3blocks everyday, I'd just need access from @vivien @kb100 .

I'd love to become a maintainer.

[danihodovic]

Are there any forks that are better maintained than this repo?

[mustaphazorgati]

I'd be happy to help here and there. - need write access too.
@da-edra Should we give @vivien and @kb100 a deadline to answer?
Suggestion: If we don't get an answer by 06th Jan 2020 we create a fork and try to transfer the PRs over there?

[denisse-dev]

I'll start gradually merging PR for this repo on my fork, so I can merge my own PR's and other peoples PR's.

I'll also write an email to @vivien to see if he can give me write access, if he gives me write access we can merge my fork with all the commits for PR's.

If he doesn't give me write access we could continue using my fork.

[jolange]

I would not recommend moving development to a different fork. It is hard for users to find it and even harder to tell which of the hundreds of forks is the one to use...

I guess @vivien will at some point check back here and hopefully give write access to some active people.

[mustaphazorgati]

Any updates? What should we do?

[Aster89]

@da-edra , if you have in fact sent that e-mail, have you received any answer?

[denisse-dev]

I'm waiting for a reply to the email.

I have the following ideas to the repository:

In order for a Pull Request to be merged they need to:

1. Be compliant with the CONTRIBUTING.md document therefore, a new blocklet will need at least a README.md, a blocket configuration file, a screenshot and a LICENCE.md as well as the branch naming convention and commit guidelines in order to be merged (this could probably be validated using a CI)
2. Use linters and checkers for all the code before merging (this could probably be done with a CI).
   • Perl critic for Perl.
   • Shell check for Shell scripts.
   • gofmt for Go.
   • pylint for Python.
     If you have any suggestions for the linters and checkers or would like to add one for other languages, please let me know.
3. We should have one commit per pull requests, therefore we could do the following so we can request contributors to amend their commits when updating their pull requests, this would help us to have a clean tree and easily navigate the commit history

---

As for the repository I started integrating the Pull Requests that are compliant with the requirements:

1. xkb_layout: a simple keyboard layout indicator persistent block #254
2. backlight: add backlight script #266
3. go: Add blocklet to show currently installed vesion of Go #279
4. New block: ssid: SSID of current wifi connection #295
5. sway-focusedwindow: add blocklet #293 Merged after the contributor made it compliant.

There are some pull requests that have all the requirements but Shell check, Perl critic or Pylint found things for improvement, I left comments on them and those Pull Requests are:

1. dimmer script added #48
2. nvidia-temp: add nvidia-temp, Display temperature of NVIDIA GPU #149
3. speedtest: visualize ping and bandwidth speed #154
4. netspeed: initial commit #164
5. keyindicator: customizable ON/OFF strings #213
6. timer_and_stopwatch: minimal stopwatch and colored timer #215
7. kbl_switcher: Switch and display keyboard layout #245
8. dunst: add dunst, a do-not-disturb button for muting notifications #246
9. Add module for Rescuetime productive hours #276
10. New blocklet reporting status of a systemd unit #283
11. weather_US_NWS: add weather_US_NWS, fetches weather from the US NWS #286
12. sway-focusedwindow: add blocklet #293 Merged after the contributor made it compliant.

I found the following pull requests that could be conflicting with each other, they must be reviewed carefully:

AUR Helper:

1. rofi-arch-update: rofi list of available updates upon click on blocklet #190
2. arch-update: add support for yay AUR helper #163
3. [arch-update] Display singular when only one update is available #247
4. [arch-update] Add ability to set any aur helper and yay as default #262
5. Update arch-update for change of checkupdates #270
6. aur-update: enable caching of updates list #272
7. arch-update: handle non-zero exit code of checkupdates #285
8. Arch update: add yay #290

Pull requests that need discussion:

1. Change shebang to conform to /usr/bin/env #229

---

As for the Pull Requests that are not complete, have comments from @kb100 with no updates from the uploaders, are updates to an already existing blocklet or have conflicts I'll be leaving comments on each of them to tell them what they can improve in order to get merged in the following weeks.

So that would be it, I reviewed all of the Pull Requests for this repository and added the compliant ones on my i3blocks-contrib fork, if you'd like write access to this repository, please let me know.

If we get a response from @vivien and I get write access we could simple move the work that has been done on my repository to this one and continue using this one after all, the hardest part was reviewing each pull request, running the code trough a linter and sending feedback, that's mostly done for PR that have everything we request before merging, some are incomplete and the code may be good, I have yet to try them out. If someone could help telling the contributors what their Pull Request is missing before merging (screenshot, LICENCE.md, README.md, etc) I would greatly appreciate it.

Please let me know what you think.

[danihodovic]

If you are serious about maintaining it I would start with a fresh repo and not from a fork. People tend to be skeptical when they see forked repos.

[mustaphazorgati]

Hmm.. And how can we mark this repo as deprecated or moved?

[jolange]

If you are serious about maintaining it I would start with a fresh repo and not from a fork. People tend to be skeptical when they see forked repos.

Hmm.. And how can we mark this repo as deprecated or moved?

That's what I was talking about... we can't. We need the owner to take action, so we can just wait.

As I said, nobody will identify "the one" of the 250 forks as the one to use and nobody will find a new repository that is not related to this one. So @vivien will have to update links and everything here, anyway.

So I think the best way is still to wait for @vivien to give someone (or a couple of people) write access here, so that we can continue maintenance in this repo.

[danihodovic]

I would create a fresh repo and maintain that. Over time people will find out that this repo is unmaintained and perhaps find @da-edra's up-to-date project. You only need a few active contributors to keep it alive.

A good idea is to state the reasons of why the new repo was made in the new readme file.

[Aster89]

I think the fork is a better idea at the moment, for the simple reason that the maintainers have been away for barely one year (they could be busy with a PhD, or just travelling the world, ...). We can use @da-edra's fork as a temporary solution. If/When the maintainers will be back, they will have the chance to between the following:

1. keep maintaining this main repo by themselves,
2. give write permission to somebody else (whoever this somebody is),
3. put links into this repo to one of the forks (e.g. @da-edra 's fork).

If they pick 1 or 2, they will simply have to merge from @da-edra's fork.

[skidnik]

a new blocklet will need at least a README.md, a blocket configuration file, a screenshot and a LICENCE.md

@da-edra, including licence with a blocklet is not obligatory. The CONTRIBUTING.md states that it should (not must) include one, the LICENSE.md in the root of the repository states that any blocklet not containing an individual license in its directory is under GPLv3.

Thanks for the effort.

[vivien]

Hi folks, I've been out of the loop for a little while, sorry about that. Note that before the last release, I've prepared a Blocklets page to list all repositories containing one or more blocklets. As of today I'm still not sure what is the best way to provide generic blocklets to people, but there's definitely a need for an official repo such as this one. @da-edra you seem to have a good view how to handle this, I'll provide you write access to this repository for a little while and we'll see how it goes! Thanks all of you for your interest in the project!

[vivien]

@jolange let me know if giving you write access too would help.

[jolange]

@vivien at least it would not harm. As I said, I'm following the developments here, anyway, so I can also help as a maintainer.

[denisse-dev]

Thanks for replying @vivien , I sadly don't seem to have write access to the repository yet but I'd love to help you maintaining this repository. :)

Edit:
I can confirm I have write access now, I thought the invitation would show on the repository but it was on my email address, my bad.

[denisse-dev]

After testing the blocklet myself and validating they pass the linter tests I've already merged the following branches:

1. xkb_layout: a simple keyboard layout indicator persistent block #254
2. backlight: add backlight script #266
3. go: Add blocklet to show currently installed vesion of Go #279
4. New block: ssid: SSID of current wifi connection #295
5. sway-focusedwindow: add blocklet #293
6. key_light: add script to control keyboard backlight #222
7. New blocklet reporting status of a systemd unit #283
8. dimmer script added #48

I left comments from 5 to 8 and the commiters made the changes I requested so they're compliant now.

As for the Pull Requests that are not complete, have comments from @kb100 with no updates from the uploaders, are updates to an already existing blocklet or have conflicts I'll be reviewing them manually over the following days.

[vivien]

@vivien at least it would not harm. As I said, I'm following the developments here, anyway, so I can also help as a maintainer.

Oops, I didn't follow up on that. @jolange I've added you as a collaborator. I'm sure you and @da-edra will figure out how to avoid stepping on each other toes. Let me know if you need anything from me, thank you!

[danihodovic]

86 pull requests open and no merged commits since March 26. It seems like we are back in square 1 😃

[carlsmedstad]

It sure seems that way! Been following the development here and would be able to assist in whatever way I can should that help to get some momentum in this repo :)

[vivien]

@da-edra, @jolange, do you need help with the repository?

[jolange]

At the moment not, no.

I wasn't that active here during the last weeks, because I'm quite busy. But I will try to improve that soon!

[denisse-dev]

Not at the moment, I think we're doing better.

Thanks for asking. 😄

[thiagowfx]

@vivien I am happy to step up as a maintainer as well to help clear some of the PR backlog.

I have contributed a blocklet in the past.

[Pysis868]

Code seems updated recently by Denisse. Close this issue now?

[zDEFz]

102 pull requests open. Ideas/Solutions?