Notes from the meeting:
Extension review and publishing (Everyone)
ExtensionsIndex#2341 by Steve: make it easy to install extension PRs, since unfunded review creates a backlog that hurts contributors and users.
To discuss:
- Tier-based filtering of extensions (status update from Kyle).
- Move packaging off the factory onto GitHub Actions:
- Andras’s prototype: Slicer#9118.
- Example use: SlicerMONAIAuto3DSeg#105.
- Proposals as to how much review we want:
- Andras: allow publish-without-review; surface quality via ratings/likes; promote highly-rated ones into higher tiers.
- Steve: treat it like publishing a repo/website; minimal formal process; users recommend to users.
- Murat: keep peer review but make high-demand extensions pay an annual review/support fee; use an AI agent to screen new submissions for malicious code and ship others as “use at your own risk.”
- Sandboxing to protect users from untrusted extension code (and untrusted AI agents). Options raised: containers, cloud execution, and eventually browser-based (SlicerTrame, VTK wasm, pyodide).
- A feature in Slicer to install/build extension PRs directly. Pure-Python extensions are low-hanging fruit; also a “check out and build” button when running a locally built Slicer.
Action for now regarding the open extn index PRs
First step: go through and tag as to whether they are awaiting response or whether maintainer response is needed.
In general just like we have a checklist for extension developers, we should also have a maintainer’s checklist of things to do. It will just be a set of steps to go through, and if it passes all those steps then it goes through. (Sam looking into this.)
slicer.packaging PR finalized (Ebrahim)
Slicer#9010 ready for review.
All review comments addressed, and now we can use the name slicer.packaging. Consolidated commits to somehting more comprehensible.
New rendering mode demo (Steve)
Continued demo of WebGPU rendering experiments in Slicer, with a differet approach:
Use WebGPU for volume rendering, but then have that volume rendering get composited into the vtk renderer.
Some kinks to work out but one thing that this can make possible is multi-volume rendering with proper occlusion!
