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Hi Everyone,<br>
<br>
Thanks for the great suggestions for Thunderbird projects which
would be suitable for a group project!<br>
<br>
To summarise the suggestions thus far, I believe that the following
projects have been proposed by the following people (in
chronological order):<br>
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<ol>
<li>Replace the HTML editor (Axel Grude; Tanstaafl; Joshua
Cranmer).<br>
<br>
</li>
<li>
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Ensemble Project - new Address Book (Tanstaafl;
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Joshua Cranmer).<br>
Sub-project:
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Implement CardDAV in the Address Book (neandr; Dave Koelmeyer).<br>
<br>
</li>
<li>JSification of the main UI code (Tanstaafl).<br>
<br>
</li>
<li>Chat projects (Patrick Cloke).<br>
<br>
</li>
<li>Improving the usability of encryption (Magnus Melin).<br>
<br>
</li>
<li>
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Enable Boolean expressions in Filter UI (Axel Grude).<br>
<br>
</li>
<li>
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Implementing the thread pane in HTML (Philipp Kewisch).
[Sub-project of No. 3, above?]<br>
<br>
</li>
<li>Gmail integration with Thunderbird (Jim Porter).</li>
</ol>
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That's a really good set of projects to choose from! If I've missed
any suggestions, please feel free to amend the list.<br>
<br>
With regard to scope, Magnus said it perfectly: "Ideally it should
be a lot of smaller related bugs so that you can move forward and
feel you achieve something." It would also give the opportunity to
revise the work plan if the project is ahead or behind schedule.<br>
<br>
While I did write that the students will be spending about 150
hours each on the project, this will include the time they spend
managing the project and the technical work achieved will likely be
a lot less than 900 hours for a team of six students.<br>
<br>
If there is sufficient interest from the Thunderbird community and
there were people willing to be mentors, two (or even three)
Thunderbird projects could be offered. The projects I think would be
best suited to the course and most attractive to the students are:<br>
<ol>
<li>Gmail integration with Thunderbird.</li>
<li>Encryption usability enhancements.</li>
<li>Ensemble Project.</li>
</ol>
Closely followed by:
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4. Chat project(s). I'd like to hear everyone's views on my ranking.<br>
<br>
Patrick, I'd like more details about the chat project(s) you had in
mind if you're keen for a project to be offered. I think chat
clients are something the students generally find attractive.<br>
<br>
The Filter UI enhancements would be great, but I wonder if there's
enough work there for a team and how attractive it would be on its
own to students in their very early 20s? Axel, if there were some
related work which could be combined into a larger project I think
it would work well.<br>
<br>
I agree that the Compose UI enhancements and JS/HTML rewrite of UI
are really important, but they feel too large in scope for group
projects at this point. It's an opportune moment for me to mention
that our honours-year (4th year) individual projects are also just
about to begin and represent 300+ hours of a more experienced
student's time, similar to Google Summer of Code. I'd be happy to
offer a 4th-year Thunderbird project, but there would be no
guarantees it would be filled. Anyone interested should please
contact me directly, the deadline for this is 21 February.<br>
<br>
If there are any other group project suggestions, I'm very much
open to hearing about them.<br>
<br>
Thanks to all who have proposed projects thus far,<br>
James.<br>
<br>
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