Trialling proposed new functionality

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cadcam
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Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by cadcam »

Over the last few years there have been some amazing work on producing new
functionality for FreeCAD. Some can be tried by the general users relatively easily as they are
macro based, but others need the compiling for which many may not have the system or expertise.
This tend to lead to the discussion being dominated by those who have the facilities/time to compile.
Not trying to put down these peoples amazing input, but there may be a large body of users who
could comment more if they had direct access to a working version.

Apologies if I have missed it but is there anywhere in the FreeCAD environment a place where
developers of individual enhancements can place a easily installed binary download? Similar to the
weekly builds/RT releases, but with only the appropriate mods for the particular functionality to
minimize difficulties.

If not, do people think it would be a good idea so as to get more/faster? feedback on new functionality
as it is being developed?

BW
chrisb
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Re: Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by chrisb »

It had already been discussed before and I would appreciate something like that so that users could sometimes try more experimental stuff before it goes into master and is sort of too late.
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aapo
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Re: Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by aapo »

cadcam wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 5:30 pm If not, do people think it would be a good idea so as to get more/faster? feedback on new functionality
as it is being developed?
Yes, that would be very nice for better testing coverage. However, the practical problem is that collecting the build is rather difficult, as all the correct libraries (DLL:s on Windows) have to be included in the build. The compiler's machine automatically has all the necessary libraries, but distributing the correct files to some other machine is not too straightforward if the whole filesystem is not copied. Some developers have scripts for complete builds, though, so it could work in principle.

Also, I guess that's what the weekly builds already are for, to test new features. Getting even more alpha-pre-master wild builds would be fun, though! :D
cadcam
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Re: Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by cadcam »

Sorry I missed the previous discussion, probably looking for the wrong keywords. But fully agree it would be good to
get more user feeedback. A while ago someone offered a server to build things on, beyond my knowedge, but would it be
possible for developers to request an area on that? I guess the real ideal would be for the developer just to have to up
load the source and the system to automatically generate the windows/linux binaries.

Obviously it would have to be upto the developer to get the system working, but it must be possible to build a body of
knowledge of what needs to be copied, or infact a number of scripts the developers can pull down to help copy all the
libraries/dlls etc they have/need.

Looking at the number of downloads there must thousands of users (new and old(bringing good/bad experiences of functionality from
other packages) that are not/can't taking part in the discussions until, as chrisb says, it is too late.

It must be a problem seen with some of the other opensource packages, is there any prior art as to how to implement with the minimum
of inconvenience to everyone?

Regards
aapo
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Re: Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by aapo »

cadcam wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:55 pm Obviously it would have to be upto the developer to get the system working, but it must be possible to build a body of
knowledge of what needs to be copied, or infact a number of scripts the developers can pull down to help copy all the
libraries/dlls etc they have/need.
Yes, I think the Conda build and library system is one such system, but I believe it's notoriously difficult to master. FreeCAD developer looo is the one making the weekly Conda builds, and judging by the difficulty of subject matters discussed and going on in the Packaging forum these build systems are the no-man's-land of the open source wars. I dare not step there, but here is a link: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewforum.php?f=42 :lol:
Haavard
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Re: Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by Haavard »

Yes, good idea! And as soon as a PR is merged, it might be more resistance to do major changes to it that becomes apparent after more users test it.

I had only used appimages until last weekend, and wanted to test this awesome feature, so had to learn a bit of git and compiling. It took much longer to get up and running than i had imagined, so i understand that many rather waits for PR's to get merged.

There is a Compile on Docker wiki, however it seems to be a WIP

It would be awesome to have a separate "testing" build, with all pending PR's that pass CI testing. Or if PR's could be tagged with "testing" when they are mature enough, and then be included? Sort of a alpha/beta of the dev version.

As a quicker option, i could write a short guide on how to set up a VM to compile, with a step by step guide, as long as there is any interrest. :?:
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Kunda1
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Re: Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by Kunda1 »

issue #3259: Buildbot framework (could be extended to pull PRs and build cross-platform test builds)
Alone you go faster. Together we go farther
Please mark thread [Solved]
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bleber
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Re: Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by bleber »

+1
cadcam
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Re: Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by cadcam »

A few more quick comments/thoughts

1) Having a location (or even better a generation system) for PRs would be good, but in many cases
may be a bit later. I must admit my thoughts about this had also been pigued by wanting
to test this awesome feature,
, which is pre PR.

2) While any system that helps with generating Linux builds would be good, I guess many of the 'newer users'
will be running on windows platforms^^ (often refugees from other CAD systems - These seem to be a good group to involve (a) to show they are welcome to the FC community (b) Will come with ideas/thoughts that may be much easier to incorporate early in the development cycle ** I understand why some of the developers being a little resistive to accepting changes/alternatives after a PR has been merged!) Thus access to a simple .exe would be useful if at all possible.

(^^ I have seen posts about total down loads, is there an easily accessible table of popularity of the various download options? Might be interesting to see the similar figures for RT's branch?

***************
EDIT/UPDATE - link https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=41870
- Where is seem to show the majority of downloads are for windows.
It would be nice to have a 'live' graph on the FreeCAD main page, linked to from forum, showing daily and cummulative numbers both for the interest of current users and as confidence raiser for potential users
******************



3) It was mentioned that simply copied binaries may lack the required libraries/dlls. I am wondering how long it would take for these to be identified and a note of the associated error message + instructions of what else to be downloaded added. As I imagine the site is likely to be updated quite quickly as the developer changes/enhances the code it may not take many interations before any require additions are included in the single binary

Regards
Last edited by cadcam on Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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obelisk79
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Re: Trialling proposed new functionality

Post by obelisk79 »

Generally, good sentiment, but this could easily get out of hand with multiple circulating builds causing confusion among inexperienced users.
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