Debian patches

[Elliria]

Here are some Debian patches that have been applied on Debian, but that never got forwarded to us. They may be helpful for our efforts to clean up and update the code.

[ineuw]

Are these patches applicable to 96.0?

[josephj11]

@Elliria These are very old and were all incorporated in 0.95.10 and as such, became part of 0.96.0.

These changes were (partially) made to get Debian's blessings for 0.95.10 - which they did subsequently package. This is why all Debian-based distros offer 0.95.10 as the current version.

Since then, there were new packaging problems for 0.96.0 which prevented it from being included in Debian. Elliria has recently fixed these problems, but Debian hasn't noticed yet.

It references three patches.

The first one was done by our Debian packager and just updates a dependency. This should be updated in our current dependencies.

It's in ./lib/autokey/gtkui/notifier.py
Doesn't appear to be relevant in the Qt version.

The other two were done by us (Sam).

The second one is done because our desktop files include that parameter with all those arguments and a few more. This was filed as issue #370 and implemented in PR #480 .

The third one is done because that option is in the autoKey-qt man page for 0.96.0...

[ineuw]

Would it be possible add a revision number and offer a single version based on the current code?

[josephj11]

@ineuw Not sure what you are asking. These particular changes are all long done and incorported.

Almost sounds like this comment was meant for the other thread that we both just replied to.

We can create and release 0.96.1 whenever we want to (as a maintenance release). There's a separate discussion #770 for what should be included in that and when it should be released.

[Elliria]

Nope. My mistake. They've all been done already.

[Elliria]

You can clone the current code at any time, @ineuw.

[ineuw]

In your opinions, what is the most important issue that should be addressed, before releasing a maintenance version?

[ineuw]

Can we consider a fundraising project like gofundme for tech projects? I am willing to write the story on how an Autokey user suffers, just by reading these posts.

Based on the open issues:

1. Many of them are using an esoteric environment with which we are not equipped to deal with.
2. The posters don't care about continuing or closing the issue as a common courtesy, whatever the outcome was.
3. After six months, we should close them as unresolved. The speed of upgrades and improvements that are being introduced on a daily basis correct many old issues, and (naturally), create new ones.

We should focus on fundamental issues surrounding Autokey. By the surrounding, I mean updates to libraries required by Autokey. Historic issues with GTK support, etc.

I would like to see input from all users, not just the ones who report issues. I regret not being able to follow discussions of problems and their resolutions elsewhere.

[josephj11]

TL;DR: It's more complicated than it sounds.

Issues:

Much as I like money and woud love to be paid, what difference would having (presumably small) amounts of money make?

Theoretically, I have several ways to accept payments now, but those funds would come to me and be mine. It would be taxable income. Obviously, this wouldn't be fair to the other contributors to the project.

If you want the funds to come to "AutoKey" where would they go?

Someone would have to set up an organization like a 501C3 corporation which costs money to do and it would involve recurring work and expenses for license renewals, filing tax returns, etc.

It's a nightmare unless someone decides to donate thousands of dollars.

Assuming we did all that, we would still have to pay a substantial amount to a competent programmer to do anything. That would require contracts, project management, etc.

I would love to be wrong about this!

For my one-person project, I set up a donation link years ago on sourceforge. No one has ever used it in almost two decades. I can't even get forum comments or reviews let alone money. If I did, it would be personal income which is no big deal to account for.

A group project is a whole other deal.

[Elliria]

Since @josephj11 hasn't had a nibble in nearly twenty years, it's unlikely to go anywhere, but you can try, @ineuw. I'd say most of us who have contributed and are contributing to the project have been and are in it for the love of the program, but it couldn't hurt to attempt to lure in knowledgeable programmers with cold, hard cash. Meanwhile, we'll mosey along and slowly figure this thing out.

[josephj11]

@Elliria We have had a number of users offer to donate to the project, but it never got to the point of mentioning an amount.

The first problem is that there's nowhere to transfer any donated funds to (from a donation service or directly from an individual). The IRS or its equlivalent in another country is going to want to collect taxes on it or get proof that the recipient is tax exempt. These days, there are also AML (anti money laundering) concerns that have to be addressed.

In the simplest case, if someone sent me money directly, I would be liable for any taxes on it. If I then wanted to split the proceeds with the rest of you, I would have to calclulate the net after taxes first and then each of you would have to pay taxes (again) on your cut.

The only people likely to benefit from such transactions would be our tax accountants.

Failure to account for the income could open one up to legal and financial difficulties.

Again, if the amount(s) donated is large, then such machinations might be justified.

If we all had Lightning wallets, we could "zap" each other Sats (tiny fractions of a Bitcoin). That would allow us to remain pseudonmyous, but that still wouldn't address accounting for it.

Most of you probably wouldn't want to reveal a conventional bank account or other personal information so I had somewhere to send your cut to.

[Elliria]

I number among those who wouldn't. In the end, a project like ours will benefit the most from those who love it, I think.

[josephj11]

This stuff is just part of the FOSS ecosystem. The only ways around it are to get really big, offer support contracts/consulting, or get large paying sponsors.

Until I had my own project, I didn't even think about contacting the projects of things I downloaded. Now, I sometimes go out of my way to do so because I found out how lonely it gets if you're not a super star.

[ineuw]

@josephj11 - An excellent assessment. I remember discussing this in the past with you. and this article agrees with your experience and assessement But, I am an optimist. We should assess the time realistically. You should determine what is the most important corrections need to be done.

Generally, I have more time than either you or @Elliria, but I am not qualified. Also, my experiences are with using Autokey in browsers and the web. Firefox in particular, and then Chrome/Chromium and Vivaldi. I rarely use Autokey offline.

[josephj11]

Also remember, that we don't have any governance policy here. The only restraint is that AFAIK, I am the only active member who can grant elevated access to our repo to a new developer (although I may have given that level to Sam).

Other than that, we each have our opinions as to what should be done, but a developer can work on whatever they want to. (If we gave them a hard time, they could just fork AutoKey and ignore us. Some people already do this and it's not a problem.)

We have a say in what PRs get merged, what goes into a release, and when releases come out.

I sort of run things, but only because I am tolerated by the rest of you. And I try to do whatever the team wants unless it's something I strongly disagree with (which hasn't happened yet).

You and anyone else who puts in substantial work on the project have an equal say as to what gets done. I just help make it happen and help keep it going.

Feel free to review all the open issues and point out any which you feel should have higher or lower prioritiy. (Keeping in mind that some great ideas aren't going to be done any time soon because we lack developer resources.)

If you know someone interested in supporting the project financially in a substantial way, we can certainly consider that. It would give them a lot of influence over the project.

I would probably not be interested in running a formal AutoKey organization. It sounds like quite a bit of additional work. I have no experience running organizations and I'm not sure I would be good at it. I don't think I could do it for free.

Just read that article and bookmarked it. Thanks. It's thoughtfully written.