DCM notes for 2025-05-12

[glopesdev]

Features

• Improved gallery package builder dialog #2269
• Add support for watching individual operator state #1975
• Replace MyGet with NuGet as default package source #2285
• Consider adding restore source to package install log messages #2292

Bugs

• Fix package source configuration dialog missing from the taskbar #2295
• Make package source configuration dialog a true modal window #2297
• Consider explaining or removing the "fudge factor" in HighResolutionScheduler.cs #2286
• Package manager installed tab shows false updates when Packages directory contains multiple versions of the same package #2289

[banchan86]

Notes for DCM:

Overview

• This meeting primarily focused on the improved gallery package builder dialog, all other issues were either pushed to the next meeting or discussed offline.

Features

• Improved gallery package builder dialog #2269
  • Additional notes in the linked issue.
  • Motivation:
    • While the current Bonsai Gallery for sharing Bonsai examples has existed since the early days, adoption has remained low due to several issues including:
      • Discoverability of the Bonsai Gallery and Export -> To Gallery option
      • Poor browsability of examples
      • High friction for the submission of examples
    • As part of a planned revamp of the user experience for sharing Bonsai examples (Template workflows for freely moving tasks roadmap#6), this PR aims to address the last point by reducing friction for the gallery package builder dialog.
  • Proposed solution:
    • This PR removes several outdated fields, auto populates several fields with package metadata, and marks out clearly which fields are required and which are optional.
  • Feedback:
    • We felt that several additional fields could be inferred or made optional.
    • We discussed in-depth naming/ID conventions.
      • While we wanted to avoid generic workflow IDs, the worry was that tagging the ID with a Bonsai specific prefix/suffix would either lock submissions to the official Bonsai NuGet account (which would force curation by us) or would pollute search results for Bonsai packages.
      • In any case, these examples would still be tagged by a BonsaiGallery package type and remain discoverable.
    • We discussed improving the discoverability of the Export -> To Gallery menu option.
      • For instance, folding the Export -> To Gallery option inside the Bonsai Gallery viewing window.
      • While improvements could be made now, it might be better to wait till we build out other parts of the examples submission infrastructure (like the frontend for browsing examples). For instance adding a toolbar button is a big change that increases visibility but promotes the feature before it is ready.
  • Additional points of discussion:
    • Improving the entry points for launching examples
      • A clickable web link protocol (like zoom or discord invite links)
      • Double clicking/drag and drop example packages
      • Bootstrapping environments