Aight, I'll Post It Then!

[Tensuke]

is it possible to have it so the pnd files show up in a slot folder rather than populate onto the desktop? when you have 32gig and only 4.something inches of space for things to spread over, populating straight on the desktop would get pretty mess at times i reckon. the option to load a SD1 or SD2 folder would certainly suit me

From a cursory glance of the wiki, it looks like you will be able to change that.

 

[cameroncros]

So good I watched it twice. Top job guys.

It doesn't look much but wow... just wow. Totally noob proof.

Just wait until someone complains that they can't get it to work without the sd card in.

 

[conso]

how deeply is it integrated in xfce? will pnd'd apps also show up in the proper xfce-menu (or a replacement plugin) categories?

Would be cool to have something like a "desktop"-tag that specifies if an app should be displayed on the desktop or just in the menu.

 

[kagato]

Not sure if I should ask this here or elsewhere -- How do pnd apps handle configuration and save data?

Given there are two SD card slots, aside from NAND there isn't a 100% reliable location to write to.
Can the apps identify the SD slot from which they were loaded, and therefore write back to it if needed?

Is there a standard path (eg. /pandora/appdata) for this job?

 

[Dead1nside]

Struggled to see what was going on there, until I read the accompanying text. That is very cool. However I too would like to be able to specify a folder or a menu for the detected .pnd files on the SD card/s to populate instead of spamming my already limited desktop real estate.

Looking really cool though. I'm glad that XFCE will be the default, so will there be a GRUB type menu on boot to select which environment? Can you add to this with say Ubuntu etc. ?

 

[Vimacs]

Not sure if I should ask this here or elsewhere -- How do pnd apps handle configuration and save data?
(...)
Is there a standard path (eg. /pandora/appdata) for this job?

yes, kinda
an app is supposed to only write to its own folder/pnd(cwd), those writes get redirected to %mountpoint-the-file-is-on/pandora/appdata/appname-uid using aufs.
This ensures a logical place for app specific configs etc and also always keeps the appfolder/pnd in a clean stock state, you can just give em to someone else and they are as good as new.
Made some mess in an app and want it to revert to its shipped state? Just delete its appdata folder!

 

[second exodous]

Not sure if I should ask this here or elsewhere -- How do pnd apps handle configuration and save data?
(...)
Is there a standard path (eg. /pandora/appdata) for this job?

yes, kinda
an app is supposed to only write to its own folder/pnd(cwd), those writes get redirected to %mountpoint-the-file-is-on/pandora/appdata/appname-uid using aufs.
This ensures a logical place for app specific configs etc and also always keeps the appfolder/pnd in a clean stock state, you can just give em to someone else and they are as good as new.
Made some mess in an app and want it to revert to its shipped state? Just delete its appdata folder!

I could never understand why all OS's don't functioned like this. I remember Mozilla on Windows did this, not sure if Firefox on Windows does it now. I remember explaining this to my older brother once, he's a Microsoft fan boy, and he didn't understand this concept, he thought he needed to run a program to get rid of things, even config files.

A perfect program install is one that is contained solely in one folder, not scattered throughout the hard drive.

 

[Yoyobuae]

*snip*
A perfect program install is one that is contained solely in one folder, not scattered throughout the hard drive.

Or throughout the Windows Registry. *shudders*

 

[kagato]

an app is supposed to only write to its own folder/pnd(cwd), those writes get redirected to %mountpoint-the-file-is-on/pandora/appdata/appname-uid using aufs.
This ensures a logical place for app specific configs etc and also always keeps the appfolder/pnd in a clean stock state, you can just give em to someone else and they are as good as new.
Made some mess in an app and want it to revert to its shipped state? Just delete its appdata folder!

Awesome.
That's exactly the sort of info I was hoping to hear

A perfect program install is one that is contained solely in one folder, not scattered throughout the hard drive.

Two folders -- application and saved data.
You should have the option to keep your saved data if you upgrade/uninstall, and you should be able to delete your saved data without breaking the application. Exactly what the pnd format provides!

 

[second exodous]

A perfect program install is one that is contained solely in one folder, not scattered throughout the hard drive.

Two folders -- application and saved data.
You should have the option to keep your saved data if you upgrade/uninstall, and you should be able to delete your saved data without breaking the application. Exactly what the pnd format provides!

I would like that also, keeping all saved game data of every game/emulator in one folder would be nice. I also like the idea of a central rom folder, this way browsing your rom collection would be easier and there would never be any guessing where to put roms.

 

[God Ginrai]

A perfect program install is one that is contained solely in one folder, not scattered throughout the hard drive.

Two folders -- application and saved data.
You should have the option to keep your saved data if you upgrade/uninstall, and you should be able to delete your saved data without breaking the application. Exactly what the pnd format provides!

I would like that also, keeping all saved game data of every game/emulator in one folder would be nice. I also like the idea of a central rom folder, this way browsing your rom collection would be easier and there would never be any guessing where to put roms.

This is different, actually. The way the PND format does it, is that each separate application would have it's own settings (or saved data) folder. There are way too many errors that could crop up by putting them all in the same folder. (such as save files for 2 different emulators requiring the same name)

-God Ginrai

 

[second exodous]

A perfect program install is one that is contained solely in one folder, not scattered throughout the hard drive.

Two folders -- application and saved data.
You should have the option to keep your saved data if you upgrade/uninstall, and you should be able to delete your saved data without breaking the application. Exactly what the pnd format provides!

I would like that also, keeping all saved game data of every game/emulator in one folder would be nice. I also like the idea of a central rom folder, this way browsing your rom collection would be easier and there would never be any guessing where to put roms.

This is different, actually. The way the PND format does it, is that each separate application would have it's own settings (or saved data) folder. There are way too many errors that could crop up by putting them all in the same folder. (such as save files for 2 different emulators requiring the same name)

-God Ginrai

I meant a sub folder in a save folder, say /saved games/Snes9x/zelda.sav for SNES and /saved games/pico drive/sonic.sav for Sega or something to that effect. So if you throw away the program for a time you can still install it later and have all your saved data in the saved games folder but separated from all the other .sav files(or whatever the extension is). This way it would still be easy to get rid of saves from a particular program even if they were in save folder.

Did I make sense? I sometimes have trouble explaining things.

 

[God Ginrai]

A perfect program install is one that is contained solely in one folder, not scattered throughout the hard drive.

Two folders -- application and saved data.
You should have the option to keep your saved data if you upgrade/uninstall, and you should be able to delete your saved data without breaking the application. Exactly what the pnd format provides!

I would like that also, keeping all saved game data of every game/emulator in one folder would be nice. I also like the idea of a central rom folder, this way browsing your rom collection would be easier and there would never be any guessing where to put roms.

This is different, actually. The way the PND format does it, is that each separate application would have it's own settings (or saved data) folder. There are way too many errors that could crop up by putting them all in the same folder. (such as save files for 2 different emulators requiring the same name)

-God Ginrai

I meant a sub folder in a save folder, say /saved games/Snes9x/zelda.sav for SNES and /saved games/pico drive/sonic.sav for Sega or something to that effect. So if you throw away the program for a time you can still install it later and have all your saved data in the saved games folder but separated from all the other .sav files(or whatever the extension is).

Did I make sense? I sometimes have trouble explaining things.

Yes, I understand you now.

-God Ginrai

 

[Trip]

Looking good and working great.
Bet it seems amazing to actually use it, compared to the way that you have to install software on other computers

 

[bzar]

About the "executable directories" (a directory containing a pxml)... I'd just like a little clarification. Say I'm developing something for the pandora and have an svn repository to host my code. If I have a pxml file in the svn trunk, it gets recognized as an executable directory? So basically to use the svn version I'd just need to checkout the repository to an sd card? It shows up in the menu just like any pnd? Of course the makefile would have something like "make pnd", but this sounds great for development. Yes I know cross-compiling is the way to go most of the time. Think something like python development.

I'm really liking this.

(sorry for the incoherent post, I'm a bit tired )

 

[verm71]

This is excellent design. Apps as plug-ins! Who'd-a-thunkit? My personal favorite part is:

FAQ: IF you want to make files visible to the apps, do you have to modify the pnd?
No. When apps write back to themselves, the writes go to their /pandora/appdata on the SD that houses them. The next time the app reads a file in its directory, the OS will ensure they get the newer file, which is the one in the appdata.

Likewise, you can just drop a file into the appdata and the app will see it.

The app doesn't know about appdata and its pnd file.. the OS and libpnd take care of all the magic.. the app sees one directory, but the reality is there is magic merging going on behind the scenes.

 

[Yoyobuae]

FAQ: IF you want to make files visible to the apps, do you have to modify the pnd?
No. When apps write back to themselves, the writes go to their /pandora/appdata on the SD that houses them. The next time the app reads a file in its directory, the OS will ensure they get the newer file, which is the one in the appdata.

Likewise, you can just drop a file into the appdata and the app will see it.

The app doesn't know about appdata and its pnd file.. the OS and libpnd take care of all the magic.. the app sees one directory, but the reality is there is magic merging going on behind the scenes.

Interesting... May I ask if the "magic" is done using FUSE or something similar?

 

[borgqueenx]

how many preasure did you put your thumb on while pressing the screen?
in the video it seemed like its really easy to press.

 

[Aninhumer]

how deeply is it integrated in xfce? will pnd'd apps also show up in the proper xfce-menu (or a replacement plugin) categories?

Would be cool to have something like a "desktop"-tag that specifies if an app should be displayed on the desktop or just in the menu.

As far as I know the libraries are set up to create standard .desktop files, so I think it would be pretty easy to write something to integrate them into the system menu too.

 

[Vimacs]

FAQ: IF you want to make files visible to the apps, do you have to modify the pnd?
No. When apps write back to themselves, the writes go to their /pandora/appdata on the SD that houses them. The next time the app reads a file in its directory, the OS will ensure they get the newer file, which is the one in the appdata.

Likewise, you can just drop a file into the appdata and the app will see it.

The app doesn't know about appdata and its pnd file.. the OS and libpnd take care of all the magic.. the app sees one directory, but the reality is there is magic merging going on behind the scenes.

Interesting... May I ask if the "magic" is done using FUSE or something similar?

part of the "magic" is aufs http://aufs.sourceforge.net/

how many preasure did you put your thumb on while pressing the screen?
in the video it seemed like its really easy to press.

You barely need to touch it actually.