ChicagoLUG hacking on GNOME

The Chicago GNU/Linux User Group had a GNIGHTS and GNYMPHS of GNOME* meetup and hackfest yesterday. This was the second such event, and I'd say it went pretty well. I gave a talk on dconf - how it is similar to and different from gconf, how you can use dconf-editor to manage and reset system settings, and how you can use the command-line tools to list keys, read the values of keys, write changes to key values . . . We also had a look at setting default system configurations with profiles and locks. All in all, it was a bunch of dconf goodness.

Dee Newcum followed-up with a lightning talk on an application that she's getting ready to release, termdetect. It's a utility that detects the type of terminal to which you are connected. From her gitub page on the project, it communicates, "directly with the terminal via escape codes, it doesn't use any other information, so it's much more reliable than $TERM." For those who know how different terminals can affect your session, this is some pretty cool stuff.

Aeva Ntsc (who recently implemented 3d printer support on MediaGoblin) wrapped up the talks with an overview of Vala. She really likes working with Vala, and her overview was very comprehensive.

On top of that, it was also nice to see some new folk. Brandi, Chris, and John showed up after hearing about the event on the website.

We rounded out the day with an afternoon of hacking. I made initial attempts at creating a quickstart for Mediagoblin on OpenShift, and reviewed sysadmin guide docs. Meg Ford continued her work on GNOME Documents, and Chris Webber worked on a MediaGoblin plugin for Shotwell.

Many thanks to Pumping Station: One for being our host venue (Though I am a member there, but I still feel like I'm getting use of this great space for free), and to the GNOME Foundation for providing money for food.

We're planning to have these monthly, with the next one likely on Saturday the 15th of December (though we may take a break for the holiday . . . we'll see). If there are topics you'd like to present, or something you'd like to learn about, feel free to share via our mailing list.

*It's a long story . . . we used to have "Programming Tonight," events in the city, and I thought up the idea of having Nights of GNOME, which became GNIGHTS of GNOME, but some people thought it referred to a male GKNIGHT of GNOME, and we aren't just a bunch of guys, so . . . we may be deciding on a GNEW GNAME for this event.