Variations on World Schools Style

[0zlw]

Hi CZ, thanks for a great app. I just wanted to raise this as an issue first - I'm happy to make the XML files if you're happy to implement the styles.

I'm with Auckland Schools Debating and we had some feedback from teachers that it would be good if there were apps available that support timing. We have 5 world schools style grades, 3 of which are largely supported by the app.

Premier Advanced - World Schools
Premier Junior/Advanced Open - Thropy but 1 hour prep
Senior Open - 6 minute speeches, no POIs with one bell at 5 minutes
Junior Open - 5 minute speeches, no POIs with one bell at 4 minutes

I was wondering if it would be easier to add these styles as variations to World Schools, rather than as completely new styles i.e.

Premier Junior/Advanced Open - World Schools (6 minutes)
Senior Open - World Schools (6 minutes, no POIs)
Junior Open - World Schools (5 minutes, no POIs)

We also have an additional Impromtpu Cup tournament modeled on NZ Easters, except with 5 minute speeches and one bell at 4 minutes which is a one off annual thing but would be nice to have.

Let me know what your preferred approach to this is - I'd like to be able to promote this app with our teachers, especially in Junior/Senior Open which is teacher adjudicated, but you may think we should just stick to custom formats.

[philipbelesky]

Hey, I don't work on this app in particular, but just as a heads up if you have some iOS users I'm happy to provide promo codes for timekept for use in schools judging.

[czlee]

Hey! I'd be happy to add more formats, and if it's okay with you my preference would be if someone submitted a pull request with the XML files all ready to go. I can't make any promises about rolling this in soon, though—I'll try my best, but my debating software bandwidth is taken up mostly by Tabbycat at the moment, and the first thing I have to do next time I dust off Debatekeeper is bring it up to speed with modern Android standards! (It's really been that long since I last updated the app. You can sort of see this from the existing backlog of pull requests on this repo 😯.) So sorry in advance if it takes a while.

Hopefully in the meantime, Android Beam or other means of exchange files will be a stopgap? (Android Beam works with Debatekeeper: if you have the new custom format on one phone, just touch phones with another Android phone, and if both phones have Beam enabled, then it should start the transfer.)

[0zlw]

@czlee thanks for that! Definitely appreciate both you and Philip's work on Tabbycat. I'll make a pull request sometime soon.

@philipbelesky I'll flick you an email as timekept was going to be the place I go next for adding formats!

[czlee]

Well, I suppose this issue has become more relevant to me in the last year 😉

Because updates are so infrequent, in the next update I'm moving to an online repository for formats, which is here, hence the issue transfer. We'll put the formats here, and they'll then be available to users after they update Debatekeeper, after the release goes out later this month.

The formats don't have to be in before the Debatekeeper update (which has to go out this month, because of Android legacy support deadlines), since formats will be distributed separately from the app. They'll just become available whenever they appear in this repository.

[daankoning]

@0zlw, do you still need these formats? If so I'd be happy to create them for you.