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Rockbox General => Rockbox General Discussion => Topic started by: Soaa- on December 26, 2008, 07:41:38 PM

Title: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: Soaa- on December 26, 2008, 07:41:38 PM
I've been a long time Rockbox user, even though I stopped using since I broke my gigabeat about 9 months ago. That said, I'm still very much interested in the project, and I'm hoping to port it to my current player, the Samsung P2, someday.

However, as much as I love Rockbox, its philosophy and mine are just a bit different, and there are a number of changes I'd like to make that are likely never going to be committed. I'm an interface polish freak, and the Rockbox core devs are not. :P

In that case, would it be legal for me to fork Rockbox and maintain a separate repository with my changes? Of course, everything will use the same license as Rockbox (GPLv2?) or a compatible one.

My aim is to provide a major overhaul of the user interface without sacrificing the many advanced options by tucking them away neatly into submenus and keeping the essential visible. I'm also hoping to provide a very touchscreen-friendly interface.

Being a visual overhaul, my fork will probably drop the voiced menus, as it doesn't aim to be blind-friendly.

All this is purely talk at the moment, but it's what I'm hoping to accomplish some day, having learned a lot about embedded device programming lately.
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: Llorean on December 26, 2008, 07:53:47 PM
It's GPLv2 or later licensed. There's nothing in such a license that disallows forks.
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: Soaa- on December 26, 2008, 07:57:57 PM
Wonderful! I'll get to work on it once my current project is complete then. Since the D2 has a sort of dual-boot mechanism, it'd be fun to dual-boot my P2 as well.
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: saratoga on December 26, 2008, 08:05:28 PM
Sitting down and reading the license on the source code would be a very good idea right now that will save you some hassle later on.  It has lots of useful information, and would have saved you the trouble of posting this thread.
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: Llorean on December 26, 2008, 08:06:41 PM
It's also important so that you know what your obligations are if you do choose to start distributing your own version, and what other people will be allowed to do with your code.
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: Soaa- on December 26, 2008, 08:33:21 PM
Of course, I know that's a part of GPL. I don't plan on restricting my source code any more than you do with yours.

I only wanted to clarify the forking bit, because I recall a project where a fork was controversial, so I just wanted to ask to make sure it's alright.
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: Llorean on December 26, 2008, 08:41:38 PM
Forks are usually controversial because of why they're being forked, not simply because they are a fork.

That being said, I'm somewhat surprised you aren't going to at least try to polish the interface in a way that preserves blind usability first. Surely it's possible to improve it while coinciding with existing principals of strong functionality and speed of use?
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: Soaa- on December 27, 2008, 01:30:27 AM
I'm targeting large screen players with faster processors, which are mostly visual players, which is why I want to take advantage of the screen and not be limited by blind-accessibility. That being said, I do believe in blind-accessibility, and that's the reason why I want to fork. My changes will be mostly visual, and I believe blind-accessibility should stay strong within the official Rockbox.

With large screens and faster processors, many players are capable of handling extra eye candy, but don't. Rockbox's interface, while being fast and effective, doesn't look very pretty. This limitation can be somewhat remedied through themes, but the interface is still vastly text based.

With my fork, I aim to provide a visual interface that's a bit more friendly, perhaps with a nice home screen, antialiased fonts (maybe even freetype?), some menu transitions, etc. Yes, I am an eye candy freak, and that's why my changes will definitely not fit in the official Rockbox SVN.
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: AlexP on December 27, 2008, 08:04:39 PM
Incidentally, which "large screen players with faster processors" are you thinking of?  The ipods do not have a fast processor if that is what you are thinking of.
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: Soaa- on December 27, 2008, 10:16:04 PM
I'm thinking mostly of the Toshiba gigabeat F/X and S series, the Cowon D2, and the Samsung P2.
Title: Re: Forking Rockbox?
Post by: AlexP on December 28, 2008, 10:41:43 AM
Righto :)