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fgaddon inclusion standards; standards; query.

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fgaddon inclusion standards; standards; query.

Postby captainjack » Sat Nov 26, 2016 4:58 am

Hello,
I would like to contact the person or people who decide whether or not any particular aircraft is admitted into the approved, "official" fgaddon hangar.
I would like to correspond with that person or those people to learn the standards governing whether or not a particular aircraft is admitted membership into that hangar.
I would like to understand this process and the standards governing the process.
I believe I am posting into the appropriate forum category, but if not, please redirect me to the appropriate forum category that I might repost.
Thank you,
captainjack
cj
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Re: fgaddon inclusion standards; standards; query.

Postby Thorsten » Sat Nov 26, 2016 8:09 am

Please see the wiki

http://wiki.flightgear.org/FGAddon#Aircraft_development

In general, it's not really a question of quality control on aircraft (they ought to come with a rating reflecting FDM/texture/model quality) but of understanding correct licensing and adhering to it, of mastering repository tools and of demonstrating good judgement in not using hacks and letting unused files accumulate.
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Re: fgaddon inclusion standards; standards; query.

Postby captainjack » Sun Nov 27, 2016 5:11 am

Thorsten, thank you.
I will research your linked information.
captainjack
cj
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Re: fgaddon inclusion standards; standards; query.

Postby captainjack » Sun Nov 27, 2016 5:51 am

Hello again Thorsten,
I have read the fgaddon wiki page that you linked.
I found it very interesting about the history of fgaddon and full of technical advice on how to enter an aircraft into the fgaddon hangar.
I was hoping to find mention of aircraft quality standards in the wiki article, but there are none.
I ask you to turn your attention once again to the question of quality standards governing admittance of aircraft into the hangar.
In your initial response, you stated that there are no such quality standards.
So my question is whether or not aircraft quality standards have been imposed in the past, and
if so:
Why were the standards removed?
and if not:
Why are no standards applied for aircraft quality?
It is a question about the philosophy of the FG project, I am aware.
I ask because as a FG user, I spend many hours enjoying FG, and many hours of frustration modifying FG aircraft in order to get those aircraft to work properly according to my own basic, "common denominator" requirements.
captainjack
(john)
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Re: fgaddon inclusion standards; standards; query.

Postby Thorsten » Sun Nov 27, 2016 7:55 am

Why are no standards applied for aircraft quality?


Because that would inhibit part of how a GPL project works.

People as a rule don't have the skill-set to do all tasks required for aircraft creation - I'm a decent coder, but really not a 3d modeler for instance. So what can (and has) happened is that someone creates a really nice FDM with just a rudimentary 3d model and puts it onto the repository. That's essentially unfinished work - and it may rest there for three years till a 3d modeler comes along, picks it up and finishes it.

So we're actually fine with people adding parts of an aircraft to the repository - and that means we're fine with parts of the aircraft being non-existent or having extremely low quality.

To improve end user experience, the status of the aircraft should be indicated by a rating

http://wiki.flightgear.org/Aircraft_rating_system

so that users who want to see only finished aircraft can filter the list of available aircraft by rating. So if you download e.g. the Seneca II

http://wiki.flightgear.org/Piper_PA34-200T_Seneca_II

you can expect from the rating that FDM and systems are very well modeled (5 stars) but that the exterior model could use some attention (3 stars).

The general idea is that if you like an aircraft and decide to improve it according to whatever your standards are, you can contribute these changes back to the project.
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Re: fgaddon inclusion standards; standards; query.

Postby captainjack » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:52 am

Thorsten,
Thank you for the explanation.
I did read through the links you provided.
I read all of the content at your links:
http://wiki.flightgear.org/Aircraft_rating_system
and
http://wiki.flightgear.org/Piper_PA34-200T_Seneca_II
I understand now that it is important to not inhibit the GPL project, and to instead allow the GPL project to flourish.
I see too that aircraft can be included into the fgaddon hangar even if they are not complete, and still require much work, even if those who do that work come along much later (even years later) to do that work.
I see also how any person can add improvements to any aircraft in the repository, that is excellent.
I appreciate the rating system, and I use it to decide which aircraft to review/install. The rating system is excellent.
The allowance that anyone can improve an aircraft and submit any improvement back to the community is an excellent allowance.
All of these are excellent.
Yet from your answer, I still understand that anyone may place any aircraft into the official FGAddon hangar without having met any minimum quality standards at all, and without any supervision or approval from any manager of the FG GPL project.
Am I correct?
I am trying to determine whether or not there are any minimum standards for aircraft creators to enter their aircraft into the official fgaddon hangar.
I believe there are no minimum standards for entry of any aircraft into the official fgaddon hangar.
I am hoping to receive a confirmation from you that "there are no minimum standards to add any aircraft into the official fgaddon hangar."
Thorsten thank you again, and I take great interest in your response.
cj
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Re: fgaddon inclusion standards; standards; query.

Postby Thorsten » Tue Nov 29, 2016 7:37 am

You can't put a plane into FGAddon yourself unless you have repository commit rights. So how this works in practice is that you create a patch, tar archive or merge request and write to the mailing list asking for a mentor.

Someone will then take a look at your work, go through it and check for things like

* does it actually work?
* is licensing properly done - are authors and sources identified?
* are all files that are distributed also used, or is there temporary files lying around all over the place wasting space?
* does it do dangerous things (the flexibility of FG design unfortunately means you can do a lot of problematic things aircraft-side, for instance override user settings for rendering or disable memory-saving LOD limits, do your own weather,...)?

If your work does any of these, you'll get feedback what the problem is and are expected to fix it. If your work passes through the review, then it will be added to FGAddon.

If you manage to produce work that's deemed unproblematic a few times, people will judge you fit to get commit rights, and from that point on you can access the repository on your own and add planes according to your best judgement.

There is no hard list of things that are considered unreasonable - much of it is common sense.
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Re: fgaddon inclusion standards; standards; query.

Postby captainjack » Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:56 pm

I understand now, very good and thank you.
Edit: following comments added a few hours later:
Thorsten, I wanted to clarify a bit.
I understand now that standards are applied grossly, via mentorship.
I also understand that standards are not applied finely, as to do so would go against the spirit of the open source philosophy.
I did not understand these distinctions before, I understand them now.
I am finished with this thread, unless you have something more to add.
Thank you for your time to explain these things to me.
cj
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