Notices by Chris 🌱 (brainblasted@jade.moe)

If you're starting a new project, making accessibility a goal is the least you can do. How come some developers can't even do that?

If you could use any programming language to write a GNOME app, that isn't already supported by existing bindings, what would you use?

In addition to making it easier for developers to learn while they work, online documentation makes it easy to learn while changing contexts. I look at docs on my phone to help keep my train of thought going as I get food, for example.

If you're publishing a programming library that you want others to use, please be kind enough to publish documentation somewhere easily accessible. No one wants to trawl through source files to figure out what APIs you provide.

Some last minute changes in GNOME Weather landed from Cleo Menezes Jr. and Oscar Pritchard, giving the header a flat look and making the temperature graph a smooth curve.

One thing I really like to do when we're working on new API for libadwaita is test it in the apps that need it most, before we land the API in main. This makes it easy to verify what apps need and what use cases we've forgotten to account for.

This also means that once we merge the new API, we can rapidly roll it out to apps with confidence.

This is the sort of freedom that I wouldn't get in a proprietary ecosystem. I want to use software and platforms that empower me to create new and exciting things. I don't want to use platforms that try to lock me into their ways.

Existing clients doing something you don't like? Or get abandoned? No prob, fork it if it's FOSS or roll your own.

This is another reason why I love the fediverse - anyone can make their own clients. No need to purchase API keys, no arbitrary restrictions on what you can and can't make with the APIs. Want to make your own app for a platform only you use? Go ahead!

Using a third-party Discord app could get your account banned, and third-party YouTube apps break every few weeks. Reddit is the only one of these sites that has an open API.

I think the main thing holding back GNOME mobile (for my usage) is a lack of reliable native apps for sites like YouTube, Reddit, Discord, or even federated services like Mastodon. It's unlikely we'll ever see official clients for these services, so it falls on dedicated users to create applications for them. Too bad most of the proprietary services actively kill third-party applications.

Some really, really cool stuff is happening behind the scenes in GNOME, and I can't wait for all this work to reach users.

ChatGPT kicked me out for finally correcting it :o

I've been playing around with ChatGPT, trying to figure out if it can write some simple GTK4 code. It instead wrote invalid GTK3 code. I tried to hint that it made a large mistake, and it kept writing the same program again and again. Finally I dropped a hint that got it to recognize that its code was invalid GTK4, so it made up a brand new function to replace the GTK3 functions it was using :D

Netflix seems like it's destroying itself, and I have to wonder: why? What's the rationale behind these bone-headed decisions? How in the world do they think they'll work out?

I'm thinking about getting a different drawing tablet soon. Does anyone have recommendations for display tablets that have good colors, good resolution, and work nicely with Linux?

For those that use assistive vision technologies such as screen readers: how do these technologies work with apps like image viewers and image editors? Do they describe the image?

I love open source libraries. Whenever I have a question about how some API works, I can just go look at the source code for clarification.

It's really lovely to see that someone cared about my app enough to make their first GNOME contribution there.

I volunteered to port a large Python app from GTK3 to GTK4 + libadwaita, and I am not looking forward to it