The mailing list for users of the eduroam Configuration Assistant Tool (CAT)

[Stefan Winter <stefan.winter AT restena.lu>]

Hello,

the Android app sources are now ported to the public SVN repository and
ready for your viewing pleasure.

Please follow the instructions described under "SVN Access" here:

https://forge.geant.net/forge/display/CAT/Downloads

The source to the Android app is, unsurprisingly, under androidsource/trunk.

During our relocation of source from the previous repo to this publicly
accessible one, unfortunately SVN commit history was lost. But that
doesn't strike me as terribly important.

I like to understand why people need/want source code to the app.

Is it just curiosity, or the desire to audit us? That's fine; please do
send bug reports etc. to the dedicated App contact address
"playstore AT eduroam.org".

If however people want the source thinking that it's a good idea to fork
the code, let me clearly state that I want to avoid that. Forks are
always a matter of last resort when the code owner is unreasonable. I
like to think of us being reasonable persons; I would much rather accept
patches if you find something in the app not to your liking. That way,
the entire Android user community can benefit from such fixes. Please do
talk to us before forking.

Greetings,

Stefan Winter

Am 28.01.2016 um 12:37 schrieb Ralf Jung:
> Hi,
> 
>> Okay, let me rephrase it then as: we are not intentionally closed
>> source; it just happens to be so right now due to historical developments.
> 
> Sure, I understand.
> 
>> It IS our intention to move the code to the other SVN tree with
>> anonymous read access to the source.
> 
> Great :) And thanks a lot for making this happen!
> 
>> You say "easily avoid" and that the replacement is "very badly
>> documented" in the same paragraph here.
>>
>> That's a bit of a contradiction; if one needs to search for hours for
>> undocumented API calls then it is not at all "easy" to use those APIs.
> 
> Well, okay, you are right. I meant something more like, if developers
> care and if they knew, then it's not like they would have to
> re-implement half the API or something.
> 
>> However, at some point some probably very sadistic person in the know
>> let me know that it *is* possible in older versions but only via an
>> undocumented API call, and that it'd be easy to find it if I knew where
>> to look. And then not telling me where to look. I spent hours and days
>> looking through Android source (still occasional nightmares from that
>> ;-) ) and couldn't find it. That's time burnt for nothing.
> 
> Oh wow, what a mean person...
> 
>>> <http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/app-microg-gmscore-floss-play-services-t3217616>
>>
>> This seems to be about end-users who want to use apps which would
>> usually require Google Play Services to not need them. It doesn't seem
>> to help developers with anything?
> 
> No, sorry for the confusion - that was the footnote [1], just giving you
> an explanation of what I meant when I said "open-source reimplementation
> of the Play Services".
> 
> As I said, I don't know any Android programming, all I do is tell gradle
> to compile stuff. I can ask a friend for the details about that API, if
> you are interested. The link was not meant to be those details.
> 
> That said, the µG project is *also* about re-implementing the
> application side of the Play Services, so that you can create a fully
> open-source apk file. Right now, if you use Play Services, there is
> proprietary Google code injected into your App. This is of course
> alpha-quality, too, and probably even less tested than the services-side
> of the Play Services, so I'm not at all advocating that you should use
> that in eduroamCAT, just explaining the scope of µG and what it has to
> do with app developers.
> 
>> One needs to be very desparate to fall back to such hacks.
> 
> Kind of, yeah ;-) . That, or curious and convinced that this is the
> "Right" (TM) thing to do, and willing to take the consequences.
> 
> The "hacks" part is only necessary because of Google's (and the Custom
> ROM authors) lack of cooperation, of course.
> 
>> I'm sure Gareth can do that - if our attempts to move source are not
>> finished soon anyway. I have opened a ticket in our project for that,
>> and hope it will be resolved within hours or days. I hope the delay is
>> acceptable.
> 
> It will be probably a few weeks until my institution is registered in
> the eduroamCAT database at all (or whatever time it takes to do that),
> so right now, the App would not even be helpful for me. So, yes, I'm
> totally fine waiting a little.
> 
> Kind regards,
> Ralf
> To unsubscribe, send this message: 
> mailto:sympa AT lists.geant.org?subject=unsubscribe%20cat-users
> Or use the following link: 
> https://lists.geant.org/sympa/sigrequest/cat-users
> 


-- 
Stefan WINTER
Ingenieur de Recherche
Fondation RESTENA - Réseau Téléinformatique de l'Education Nationale et
de la Recherche
2, avenue de l'Université
L-4365 Esch-sur-Alzette

Tel: +352 424409 1
Fax: +352 422473

PGP key updated to 4096 Bit RSA - I will encrypt all mails if the
recipient's key is known to me

http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xC0DE6A358A39DC66

Attachment: 0x8A39DC66.asc
Description: application/pgp-keys

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature