Initializer

E17 is finally gearing up for release. Seriously, we’re doing it. I’m doing it.

Among the many tasks necessary for the release, there is one which is by far the largest: bug fixing. Yes, we have bugs in the few applications that the EFL community produces.

E17 has likely broken many records with regard to software development by now, and there’s a few in particular that I’d like to mention:

• Longest maintained application in EFL community

Usually we have an app that is developed over the course of a month or two, it gets used frequently for about the same length of time, then its author(s): quit the community; decide to rewrite it in a way that requires new libraries, leading to; never touching it again.

• Most-changed application in the EFL community

Some of you may recall a previous look that E17 had:


The current appearance is a bit different:

There’s also a number of other themes, though at this point most of them have probably stopped working. Those that do “work” are still in our SVN (yes, we still use it) http://trac.enlightenment.org/e/browser/trunk/THEMES

• Most configurable

I’ve used a lot of desktop environments and window managers in the 15 or so years I’ve been using Linux (GNU/Linux if you want to be annoying). Out of them, E17 is able to be configured in every way I can think of. From appearance to behavior, E17 has settings for it all. And if you don’t like the available visual layouts? Write your own!

• Most open bug reports

We rarely check our trac. It’s actually pretty embarrassing. I committed a patch last week that had been literally just sitting on trac for 5 years. It was posted there by someone who had (CVS) commit access at the time and continues to have it now. We live mainly on mailing lists and IRC, and I can probably paint a house faster than our trac loads, so it’s no surprise that this happened. As a result of our infrequent visits to our bug-shooting range, however, the reports have been piling up. When I started, the E17 reports alone numbered over 300; bugs, feature requests, spam and unintelligible gibberish — all waiting for me. A month later, I can proudly say that we’re down to under 100 E17 bugs.

• Highest developer turnover

There have been dozens of developers who have worked on this project over the years — far more than actually listed in the AUTHORS file. Out of all those people, somewhere between 10-15 are still active. Out of those, only 3-5 actively commit to E17.

So what’s actually going on now?
Mainly a lot of me grumbling at the bug reporters for leaving bad bug reports. Aside from that, there’s usually between 5 and 20 bugs being closed every day. In other parts of the community, prep is already underway for the next release of the EFL: version 1.7. In a carefully thought-out decision, this will be the FINAL release prior to the release of E17 itself. Version 1.7 for E17: we’re the most clever by far.

There’s probably been better times to try out E17 given how many things I actively break while trying to fix other things, but I can definitely assure readers that there has never been a time closer to its release than right now. Except now. And now.
So if you’ve tried E17 before and gave up because it lacked something, give it a shot again. If it’s still missing that exact feature that you need, file a bug in trac: I get paid to do nothing but fix them!
If you’ve never tried E17 and you want a highly configurable, good-looking desktop environment, try it. If you don’t like it, I’ll personally refund the cost.

rasterman quote of the day:
<raster> BOOM
<raster> badness
<raster> REJECT!