[Tux4kids-tuxtype-dev] TuxMath now in MacPorts & todo/roadmap stuff

[David Bruce]

Hi everyone,

Lately my main concern has been getting a current working Mac build for 
tuxmath.  I've gotten tuxmath added to the excellent MacPorts (formerly 
DarwinPorts) project (http://www.macports.org), and it mostly works properly.  
MacPorts is conceptually derived from FreeBSD's ports collection and is a 
system for fetching and building programs from source, including any needed 
dependencies.  The project is hosted by Apple and has the involvement of 
Apple engineers, but just in an unofficial capacity AFAIK.  Importantly, 
MacPorts includes infrastructure for automagically generating universal 
builds and dmg files that can be used for installation on Macs that do not 
themselves have MacPorts installed.  The tuxmath port doesn't yet create 
shortcuts or icons, but I'm working on it.  Also, one of the needed libs 
(smpeg) won't build as a universal lib right now, so I can't make a universal 
dmg for tuxmath just yet.  Anyway, I think MacPorts will prove to be the best 
option for Mac builds for tuxmath and tuxtype.

I think tuxmath itself is in fairly reasonable shape now.  Of course, there 
are still more enhancements and code improvements that could be done, but 
nothing really pressing.  We certainly can use more po files.  Regarding the 
program itself:
- I noticed that I haven't updated the Win32 installer build to include the 
tuxmathadmin program, which I plan to address.
- the command-line options for tuxmath itself need some attention
- font handling is still just a hard-coded hack
- we still need some sort of options screen

On the tuxtype side, I think some fairly invasive changes are in order.  The 
tuxtype source tree has a really bizarre structure which ought to be fixed.  
I also think we should switch to standard Gnu gettext instead of the 
home-brew version currently used.  This will mean paying attention to 
locales, etc., but I think will be a long-term improvement.  The use of 
autotools for the build could be tuned up a lot. Much of the improved menu 
code that Tim contributed to tuxmath in the last few months would also be 
useful.  I'd also like to do the same cosmetic makeover on tuxtype that we 
added to tuxmath a few months ago, with the shiny icons.

My thought is to get out a new tuxtype release with the new icons and the 
recent translations before doing anything invasive.  If anyone is hacking on 
tuxtype currently, this might be a good time to get any changes committed.  
It is possible that the invasive changes will break tuxtype for some time.

(I'm double posting to the tux4kids-tuxtype-dev at lists.alioth.debian.org list 
as well, because IIRC that's what we're supposed to be using for tuxtype, 
even though it hasn't quite taken effect yet).

Cheers,

-- 
David Bruce