Coders, Good Work So Far But One Tiny Request..

[torpor]

Why make it more complicated than it already is? Apps should just pop-up the README.TXT, themselves, on first-boot. There should be a simple and easy way to do this. Its a good idea to make people read the documentation before they get into the app, so I think a system-wide method of doing this is definitely needed .. first_boot_readme_popup("/path/to/my/readme.txt") .. and its done!

 

[gahndalf]

I'll apologize for being one of those dev's atm... I didn't get a full fledged release of RACE! out, just a .pnd that needs some more work and I wrote information about it in a thread here, now I see it's in the app store...

I think the reason for a lack of a readme with most is that it is included in the .pnd itself, but I guess a bit of a pain if you want to install roms/data files without having to look at it on the pandora.

I am just concerned that if i get readme files lumped together in a directory, they are not all called "readme"! that would suck.

 

[xpansive]

Right click->View Readme

 

[SomeGuy99]

I'll apologize for being one of those dev's atm... I didn't get a full fledged release of RACE! out, just a .pnd that needs some more work and I wrote information about it in a thread here, now I see it's in the app store...

I think the reason for a lack of a readme with most is that it is included in the .pnd itself, but I guess a bit of a pain if you want to install roms/data files without having to look at it on the pandora.

I am just concerned that if i get readme files lumped together in a directory, they are not all called "readme"! that would suck.

Your're supposed to give it an application specific name, but (for example Notaz) has just called it 'Readme'. Wow! Very informative!

It's really quite easy. I'm a complete noob and I managed to create a PND from Skeezix's wiki guide.

If I'm not even a proper developer and I can do it... TUT TUT

 

[Exophase]

Why make it more complicated than it already is? Apps should just pop-up the README.TXT, themselves, on first-boot. There should be a simple and easy way to do this. Its a good idea to make people read the documentation before they get into the app, so I think a system-wide method of doing this is definitely needed .. first_boot_readme_popup("/path/to/my/readme.txt") .. and its done!

I like the current system fine. Popping up the documentation isn't going to make anyone read it, if they didn't want to they'll just immediately exit. No point in wasting time and frustrating people with this. People will usually read the documentation when something doesn't work as they expect - for a lot of apps they'll never need to. So this means a quick method to read it later is preferable. Or they'll never read the documentation and just complain here, but nothing we can do will change that.

For people who want to read the documentation before they download I recommend adding a view documentation feature to the package manager websites. For most people that should be nicer than downloading and running a readme from a zip file, and it lets them view it beforehand without even downloading anything at all. Actually, I think this would be a really nice feature, everyone please implement it ;D

EDIT: If you really think something like this should be system wide and mandatory then you're better off trying to get the launchers to have an option to do it themselves, rather than try to force it on every app.

 

[Trip]

Providing proper tools for management later on is easy - changing the format would most likely break things.

I'm not saying change the format at all. I'm just saying to add a couple more fields to the pxml spec for things like the web address of the source code etc. That way you wouldn't have to bother with making a dedicated PND manager at all. It could all be done with a Python script and the libpnd software that's already there. All the PND that already exist would still work exactly like they do now.
You wont need to write to the PND for any reason, just read from the pxml file inside it using libpnd.

Your way needs..
The on-line app store to get the software from.
The PND manager to update and move the PND's to desktop/menu/both, location of the config file etc.
The file system to do everything else in various different ways.

My way needs..
The on-line app store to get the software from + to update the software (the store should do both).
The file system to do everything else with a simple right click menu. The right click menu could also show up in the launcher by pressing Y to offer all the same functions.

Why write a completely new program to do simple things to the PND files when you can add that ability to the file manager that is already there?

 

[EvilDragon]

Providing proper tools for management later on is easy - changing the format would most likely break things.

I'm not saying change the format at all. I'm just saying to add a couple more fields to the pxml spec for things like the web address of the source code etc. That way you wouldn't have to bother with making a dedicated PND manager at all. It could all be done with a Python script and the libpnd software that's already there. All the PND that already exist would still work exactly like they do now.
You wont need to write to the PND for any reason, just read from the pxml file inside it using libpnd.

Your way needs..
The on-line app store to get the software from.
The PND manager to update and move the PND's to desktop/menu/both, location of the config file etc.
The file system to do everything else in various different ways.

My way needs..
The on-line app store to get the software from + to update the software (the store should do both).
The file system to do everything else with a simple right click menu. The right click menu could also show up in the launcher by pressing Y to offer all the same functions.

Why write a completely new program to do simple things to the PND files when you can add that ability to the file manager that is already there?

Because it is more convenient for the user.
The appstore is browserbased - it can't test your stuff for updates or move things around. That's why a PND Manager would rock.

Also, there is a field for website and author already within PXML... you want another one just for the sourcecode?

 

[Exophase]

Also, there is a field for website and author already within PXML... you want another one just for the sourcecode?

Wouldn't really hurt, would it? Let's just agree on a standard field name and if people want to put it there they can, and if the browsers ever decide to do anything with it, great. If not, it won't damage PNDs.

 

[Trip]

Why write a completely new program to do simple things to the PND files when you can add that ability to the file manager that is already there?

Because it is more convenient for the user.
The appstore is browserbased - it can't test your stuff for updates or move things around. That's why a PND Manager would rock.

Also, there is a field for website and author already within PXML... you want another one just for the sourcecode?

More convenient how? They will have to start another program to do what they want.
Wouldn't it be easier to right click a programs folder on the sd card and click on what you want to do with it?
Your choice at the end of the day but it would look a lot more professional added on to the file manager IMO.

Of course it should have a dedicated field for the source code.
The Pandora runs open source software and you want to attract more developers. I'm currently learning Python and would love an easier way to download a programs source code to learn from. I know that there will be a lot of people on the forum that would like it too.
One of the good points about the one laptop per child project was that the laptop had a dedicated button to view the source code of the program that you were currently using. The reviewers and developers loved that feature

 

[WizardStan]

I wonder if there's a way perl can open ISO or squashFS files. Or if the host the app store is on can temporarily mount them. If so, a simple CGI script is all it would take for everyone to be happy. Put a link on the webpage which says "open readme" which then calls to a perl script to mount the PND, load the readme file from inside it, and dump it back to the user.

 

[Aninhumer]

I wonder if there's a way perl can open ISO or squashFS files. Or if the host the app store is on can temporarily mount them. If so, a simple CGI script is all it would take for everyone to be happy. Put a link on the webpage which says "open readme" which then calls to a perl script to mount the PND, load the readme file from inside it, and dump it back to the user.

iirc you can put any command line into a perl script with `` although I don't know how well that works on servers.
But yeah it would be easy enough to have the appstore open PNDs instead of requiring separate uploads.
(I think it would make more sense to do that for each upload and store it, instead of dynamically)

 

[Alex777]

It would be nice if the thread title said what the request was...

 

[Drack]

I wonder if there's a way perl can open ISO or squashFS files. Or if the host the app store is on can temporarily mount them. If so, a simple CGI script is all it would take for everyone to be happy. Put a link on the webpage which says "open readme" which then calls to a perl script to mount the PND, load the readme file from inside it, and dump it back to the user.

iirc you can put any command line into a perl script with `` although I don't know how well that works on servers.
But yeah it would be easy enough to have the appstore open PNDs instead of requiring separate uploads.
(I think it would make more sense to do that for each upload and store it, instead of dynamically)

Perl? you can use system() or exec() to do shell commands.

 

[Tinnus]

I'm pretty sure it would make tons more sense for the Appstore to mount the PND, read said documentation values and cache them at the moment of upload, rather than doing it every time someone views the app page

 

[WizardStan]

Perl? you can use system() or exec() to do shell commands.

Just because the functionality exists doesn't mean you can use it. It requires the right permissions to mount a filesystem, permissions a web server isn't likely to have.

 

[Aninhumer]

Perl? you can use system() or exec() to do shell commands.

Pfft, what's the point of perl if you're not going to use arcane characters.
(I suppose backquotes aren't that arcane)

Just because the functionality exists doesn't mean you can use it. It requires the right permissions to mount a filesystem, permissions a web server isn't likely to have.

It's possible it could be done with fuse, but I don't really know how you'd go about it.

 

[multiplex]

I wonder if there's a way perl can open ISO or squashFS files. Or if the host the app store is on can temporarily mount them. If so, a simple CGI script is all it would take for everyone to be happy. Put a link on the webpage which says "open readme" which then calls to a perl script to mount the PND, load the readme file from inside it, and dump it back to the user.

If you don't want to mount, e.g. 7zip supports ISO images, and you can use unsquashfs to list and get files from SquashFS images.

 

[papersreen]

Just for the record.
Because i have seen about 3 topics about that. I do not have a Pandora at the moment but i really like how it is working at the moment.
So really. Linux-based operating system users are probably mostly quite fine with the current behaviour and are just fine with it. Please don't change this because of someone who is keen on changing the whole file architecture because he is used to it because of win95. This is not a reason to annoy everybody.
And really. At least one topic (having multiple appdata folders) was just about a simple bug and it got about 7 pages so i probably won't read anything coming after this.
Cya.

 

[WizardStan]

0
If you don't want to mount, e.g. 7zip supports ISO images, and you can use unsquashfs to list and get files from SquashFS images.

Yeah, this is definitely a feature request I'm going to put in for the appstore: being able to get the readme out of a PND. As a bonus, maybe it can be used to download individual files for those that know why they'd want to do that.