Ubuntu Wiki

Performance

• Startup time
  • Startup time on reference hardware (Dell Mini 10) tracked at:
    • For Oneiric (and current Precise):

      • http://people.canonical.com/~mvo/software-center/mini10-startup/start-times-oneiric.png

      • ~6-7s startup
    • For Natty (by way of comparison):

      • http://people.canonical.com/~mvo/software-center/mini10-startup/startup-times.png

      • ~3s startup
  • USC 5.0.2 update in Precise and Oneiric (SRU) is a nice improvement, but more to come

  • Bug for tracking https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/876210

  • Startup time when opening a standalone deb or clicking an apt url link
• Other performance issues

  • "History is very slow to load": https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/879185

  • Install view loading time/reload each time selected

Unit Tests

• Current unit test coverage is 68% for Software Center 5.0.2

  • Report at http://people.canonical.com/~tremolux/software-center/coverage_html/

• Coverage target for Precise: TBD
• Automatic i18n testing
• Automatically running the testsuite using something like jenkins

Development and Process

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuEngineering/12.04/UpstreamDevelopment

• clean up code structure to (among other important things) facilitate unit tests
• make a chart for unit test coverage similar to our startup time
• Improve developer documentation, common pitfalls (like usage of _()) how we expect patches, our development process
• Overview of contributer docs (ie. architecture, writing tests etc.), as this is a source of the translation bugs.

Also because our code structure - having to follow through lots of files to debug something.

• More code reviews - building a code-review culture.
• The other thing we want to do is expand test-coverage. We're not doing too bad, but lots of room to improve.
• We don't want to make it suck to contribute by being too restrictive (branch must do X and Y etc.), while at the same time building a helpful process.

Enhanced Unity Launcher Integration

• Specification at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter/#Learning_how_to_launch_an_application

• Software Center side near complete (needs updating for 5.0 user interface)
  • lp:~gary-lasker/software-center/launcher-integration-for-o
• Unity side in-progress

  • https://code.launchpad.net/~bilalakhtar/unity/software-center-integration-for-o

Additional Tile Views for Subcategories and Exhibits

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter#subcategory

• We have tiles showing up on the home screen and category screens / search results etc., we'll also want these in category/sub-category lists.

Installed View Improvements

• Scroll position isn't remembered going Back/Forward to "Installed": https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/828887

• Expanding and collapsing items in the 'Installed' tab needs work: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/877130

OneConf Enhancements

• optimize performance
• add back search capability inside the oneconf view
• there will be a oneconf session on Friday

Displaying multiple versions of a application (from e.g. the -backports branch)

• Making newer versions of software more accessible to users.

• Already specified at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter#updates

Other Ideas and Miscellaneous Topics

• python3, code style, tests, docstrings,

• the store db tweaks & improvements,

• bringing some of the synaptic actions to usc, reinstall, update, pin a version ... which would we want?

  • Reinstalling: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter#reinstalling

  • Backports and other optional updates: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter#updates

• video clips
• system capabilities (e.g. to know if a app needs full opengl or not)
• plugin architecture
• improve cdrom support
• Seb24 :
  • "XX items in the list" in the list
  • New categories : ebook, Indicator, lens and scopes
  • update/upgrade directly in SC ?
• dpm: Useful to report bugs in other languages.
• mvo: Accessibility (ties into testing, as it'll help run ldtp)
• Check with Mikail about whether Dash/Lenses should be something we're starting to focus on.
• Update to Python 3? mvo is doubtful (dbus and xapian) - mvo will go to the python3 session.
• kiwinote's new db-backend: we'll need to do a risk-assessment and see when we can ship it.
• Supporting videos: hosting and streaming ourselves, or using a service (without breaking their terms), such as using webkit to render youtube flash/html5 player).
• Supporting multiple screenshots (or localized screenshots?)
• We need to develop plugin apis and docs. What type of plugins do we want to support? Eg. A plugin that we want to use to create a download bundle - a bundle of apps in a single download that you can take to a friend on your usb stick. The point is to foster creativity for this kind of thing. And once we have the api, we should refactor our own code to use it also.
• New user interface for a help or support action, or even refund for for-pay apps. mpt drafted an interface design for it:

  • https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter#isv-support