[CentOS-devel] Automating Artwork Production

Sat Mar 24 00:10:26 UTC 2012
Alain Reguera Delgado <alain.reguera at gmail.com>

On 3/19/12, Steven Crothers <steven.crothers at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm assuming all these graphics are placeholders and not the final product?

I posted the placeholder and the code that interacts with it
(centos-art.sh), but I cannot posted the content that let you verify
such thing because of Internet limitations on my side at this moment.
However, it is definitly my plan to post all the repository content to
let you not just produce the art works but the documentation related
to respository structure itself and other manuals you need to create
for whatever purpose.

At this moment I can tell you that once you've defined the Models
(i.e., the SVG files), the Backgrounds images and palettes information
inside the directory tree posted, producing all the CentOS-5.5
artwork production is a matter of few minutes only. This creates the
information needed to rebrand SRPMs very quick and will surely reduce
the rebranding time in the long time. Obviously, it is necessary to
define which are the files we need to rebrand before doing any
rebranding through the repository and the automation tool. I tried to
explain these things in the documentation link posted
(centos-art.xhtml).

> Also, there seems to be a few problems with the code, they're overly
> simple mistakes (make sure to test perhaps?)

I'm sure they do exist, even I tested it and worked for me (otherwise
be sure I wouldn't post it). The cgi code I posted (centos-web.cgi) is
a few weeks intention to learn Python doing something that could be
usefull. I'm not a Python expert and need to learn a lot about it. I
think the CentOS website must be simple, very simple indeed, and I'll
try to express that in a Python program that would be glad to share in
the community. I'm agree with the visual distribution you posted on
the wiki.

> I stopped attempting to run the code after this point, because it
> appears that it is beyond repair, unusable and and simply does not
> conform to any known standard of writing code.

Not much to say about that. I don't expect to learn how to run before
how to walk first. In that sake, I accept your observation.

> If this email seems condescending in anyway, it's probably because it
> is. I'm actually a little distressed that a completely non-working
> model has been submitted publicly to the list as an actual response to
> the need for a new site.

Well, it doesn't work the way you expect, but I warranty you (again)
that in my CentOS-5.5 workstation it does work. Remember, this is not
a solution yet. Just an intention to create one. Now I now that it
doesn't work for you so I will try to make a better proposition when
time permit me.

> It also appears that sometime between now and
> March 1st of last year, all the existing discussion appears to have
> been thrown out. I don't recall there being a discussion on the list
> about /this/ particular direction with the site (in terms of extreme
> brokenness, it was expected that something functional would be
> designed).

Keep working on your ideas and if no answer is returned, keep working
on your ideas anyway. The needs has been identified already, let's use
those needs as base to create the solutions that satisfy them.
Sometimes it is difficult to understand how much effort people need in
order to keep themselves going on without breaking themselves to stop
working in the former idea that motivated them to start. Consider that
I had to reduce my computer time to 4 hours a day and near 8 on
weekends. I'm working very hard to have more computer time and a more
frequent Internet access so we be able to strength our communication
and CentOS collaborations.

In all directions, I'm very glad to see your response and hope to see
more like this soon. Thank you very much Steven for taking the time.

Best Regards,
al.