VATSIM.net

Hi all,

before and after the release of EuroScope v3.1, we spent some thoughts on how we could improve the development process of EuroScope in the light of what we have in mind for future versions. Without going into details, let me just say that there are still lots of major changes to be implemented, which made us realize, that we need to test some new approaches to improve productivity. Reality is, that my time for development is limited besides my day-time job, so we are unable to proceed as fast as we would like to.

However the plug-in environment is a very powerful tool, as some of the already developed plugins impressively demonstrate. That made us consider outsourcing part of the core features into plugins, to share some of the workload and to try to include some new capable hands into core development.

Here is what we are going to try (and what we are offering):

During the last months, we cleaned up the current beta-team and removed the inactive members of the team. Instead of just appointing some new members for the hereby freed spots, we want to try something new, and we expect something in return besides the usual testing participation. Since there have been lots of people in the past, who tried to get in by asking over and over again, hopefully some of them are still interested and are willing to give some of their time and programming ability in return.

As a test, we are now offering 10 spots for the beta-team for people who are capable of plugin development. You will need to demonstrate that capability by either presenting a (large) plug-in project you are already working on, or by at least showing your knowledge about plug-in development and by giving some perspective in what you think you can contribute during the next months.

If you already know that you will not have time during the next months, do not apply for those spots, as we expect to see some working progress from you. If you join now, and in three months noone has heard from you, you will lose your spot. We want to try to assign some of the core development tasks to you, and have you implement them as core-plugins deployed with the installer. This is still an idea, so we don't expect everything to work out smoothly from the beginning. But if this works as we hope, it should significantly improve development.

So if you always wanted to get your hands on the beta (which is by the way now limited to CIDs of official testers, so there will not be any leak as the version deployed by someone from the team last year), and if you are able to put some effort into development, please send your application to support@euroscope.hu using the following template to specify what you can contribute. In this case, obviously number 6 is mandatory for an application to be considered:

1 - testing new features an reporting bugs
2 - testing on different operating systems (XP, VISTA, Win7)
3 - designing new features (suggesting and describing the exact behavior for coding)
4 - adding real life experience
5 - updating documentation (indicate if you are ready to translate it to different languages)
6 - plug-in development (indicate if you have your own idea, or if you are ready to build official plug-ins like strip bay, counter clock, etc)
7 - supporting on VATSIM forums
8 - testing non beta bug issues and prepare repeatable environment for debugging
9 - helping on beta forum (classifying the suggestions and bugs)