Weeknight 'Virtual' Dev session #17, Thursday 6th May 2021, 7pm - 10pm (BST)

[BigEd]

Just a quick report on the virtual dev night on Thursday. We had about 13 people, I think, and we more or less went around the room and covered some developments in the areas of hardware, tools, emulators, and games, as well as other Acorn-related topics, in the course of 3 hours. I ran out of energy about 10pm, and I've no idea what happened after I'd left!

If anyone has any suggestions for topics or improvements to the way we do it, I'm all ears. The one thing I wondered about is whether we could do better at giving a one or two sentence orientation to what something is, before diving in. I didn't even think of it. I'm sure sometimes it's immediately clear, and sometimes it isn't, to anyone who hasn't been following closely.

If anyone is thinking of joining in: it's very informal, it's not recorded or prepared, there's no need to have any great amount of progress to report, and it's fine if you don't presently have a dev topic but are interested in what's going on. Other than progress reports, there is of course the possibility of asking for advice or assistance, or just noting something interesting that's come to light which might appeal to the group.

[tricky]

I'm sorry that I missed Thursday, I haven't been feeling well, but I'm feeling much better now.

[BigEd]

Oh no, glad you're a bit better. Hope to see you at the next one!

[nismo]

Do you ever hold these sessions during the day at the weekends? For example during the ABug all-dayers?
Due to the time difference it looks like it's always going to be a little difficult to attend these (on a workday, 3am-6am JST when BST)/4am-7am JST when GMT).

I'm not working on anything interesting personally at the moment but listening to techniques as to how others overcame technical problems, or maybe helping in getting those problems solved, has always been interesting.

Please don't consider changing anything about the normal scheduling just on my account. Just asking...

[tricky]

There are often updates on the Saturday sessions and usually some chat in the help section at the beginning.

[nismo]

Understood. Thanks for letting me know.

[tricky]

I know we don't record them, but maybe we could record a 30 seconds per project update every now and then?

[nismo]

Oh, no... wouldn't dream of putting you to such trouble. In the first instance I would prefer to be able to just be present and mostly observe really... you don't know in a three-hour session when the interesting minutia are going to pop-up so I wouldn't want to put anybody in the position of having to decide what the most "interesting" 30 seconds per project would be.

One of these days I'll be able to join at the normally scheduled time if I have Friday off or there's a Friday bank holiday (which do occur).

Thanks for asking, though

[oss003]

Maybe an ABUG Dev thread with a little writeup with a few lines per subject.
If anyone wants to know more about a certain object, he can post it in that thread.

Greetings
Kees

[nismo]

Very kind suggestion. Thanks!

Again, though, that seems like a bit of an imposition on the presenters given (I guess) the intended informality of the event and I wouldn't want to impose. I'll join the ABug all-day'ers in the mean time when I can (although wasn't able to join the last one unfortunately).

[BigEd]

Agreed, that dropping into the morning session of an all-day event (when they resume) is a pretty good start. Ask a question that relates to your interests, and you'll most likely get an answer that you find interesting!

I hesitate to try to make a list of the people and their projects, but if anyone from the Dev sessions wants to say a few words in this thread about the various things they tend to be busy with, that would be a fine thing.

Dave has in the past asked anyone to comment in a thread if there's anything particular they want to bring up and discuss, and once or twice has got a few responses, but I think the majority of conversations have been things which come up on the day.

The crucial thing is, if you have something, find the space to offer it or ask it - if you don't feel adept at jumping in, use the chat box to lodge an idea, or send a PM, or post on a thread.

It's one of the reasons I'm not too keen on the conversations going too far off topic - it's quite possible that a lively discussion about the price of cheese is actually crowding out someone with a question or a project. Personally, I'd rather have a bit of dead air. We can talk about cheese any time with anyone, but we're not usually surrounded by fellow Acorn enthusiasts, so a meetup is a chance to make the most of that.