Biweekly report #3

Weeks #5 and #6 were quite fun and productive. Here’s what was happening.

Support for Gamepad API landed

The support for Gamepad API for the Gtk port has landed in WebKit. The feature is currently disabled at compile-time due to the specification still being a work in progress. This might change in the future if API for enabling experimental features at run-time is introduced for WebKitGTK+. Currently there’s no release version (stable or unstable) available that includes the support, but the next unstable release (1.9.5) will have it as well as the next stable release series. Build instructions for the impatient are found on the project’s page in the Wiki (will be updated soon).

GNOME Settings Daemon plugin almost done

The GNOME Settings Daemon plugin is pretty much finished. The code (available on GitHub) is based on the 3.4 branch and will go through a review by my mentor, Carlos, and will eventually be rebased on the master branch. The plugin’s task is to apply any previously saved configurations to the device on its connection. Currently the axes and buttons mappings are applied, but the axes calibration data will be applied as well (support for this will be added parallel with support in the Control Center panel). Currently saving the configuration data is only available through the command line, using the gsettings application’s capabilities. This is extremely hacky approach though, and not a pleasant user experience.

Next two weeks

The next two weeks will be mostly focused on implementing the panel in GNOME Control Center. The code is available on GitHub. Also in this timespan is the mid-term evaluation.

Expecting an interesting summer

Hi all,

I’ve been accepted as a Google Summer of Code 2012 participant to work on the proposed project titled “Support for Gamepad API in WebKitGTK+ and general gamepad configuration options in System Settings” (abstract on google-melange.com). The wiki page for the project will be located here. The project will cover three notable additions to GNOME-related projects:

• Gamepad API specification support for the GTK+ port of the WebKit rendering engine
• Gaming devices panel in the GNOME Control Center for advanced gamepad and joystick configuration
• Plugin in GNOME Settings Daemon to load configuration for previously configured devices when they’re connected

My mentor will be Carlos Garcia Campos.

Looking forward to a productive summer!