Do You _Need_ A Pnd Documentation Reader For Windows?

[skeezix]

Its a bit of work, and I'm pretty strapped for time, but a few people have mentioned a want for something like this for awhile, so I'm wondering if its useful or not.. before I build it. IF its not needed, I'd rather not waste my time

PND applications can include docoumentation; when found on the Pandora, if the app publishes documentation them xfce/etc will have a menu item for the doc link (and minimenu makes it available via pressing the 'Y' button.) ITs all automatic and awesome (assuming the developer includes it at all, and names it in such a way as you can find it The only real annoyance is its hard to read that documentation on your desktop, out of the pnd file.

(People could post a zip to the dl.openhandhelds repo, with the pnd and the documentation in it, but thats not generally done, and implies the docs are in there twice.. once in the pnd, and once in the zip. Sort of goofy.)

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I could make a tiny little app that is just an empty useless window (maybe drag and drop into it someday), that when prodded brings up a file picker; pick a pnd file, and it'd check if it has documentation, and if so.. extract it to a temp (or user specified perhaps) directory, and open up a browser window to render it. A cheesy little thing, but if you want it, let me know.

ie: So you could see the documentation on your windows desktop, or pull it out for reference.

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jeff

 

[mosschops]

in all honesty, it holds no interest to me currently. At a guess the documentation file can be viewed on the pandora, saved out and then re-opened extracted on the PC if reading in that environment is too tricky, though of course this would alleviate that.

 

[Chaser]

I also think your precious time is better spent elsewhere and I do a mix of downloading PND's direct on Pandora or PC for later transfer/storage.

Unless the app you intended obivates the slow opening of a browser to access the documentation, I cant see it being any faster than the Arora set up in use, or as Mosschops suggests once opened, just copy the contents to a .txt file and store it yourself on Pandora, or PC, for faster reference.

I quite liked DaveC's idea of something added to minimenu via another button press, that would provide the documentation as text that is scrollable within minimenu itself but other than that, save your time. You've enough on your plate that you willing share and leave yourself with the crumbs as it is.

 

[meandu229]

I like the idea, I often use winSCP to transfer things to my pandora,
say i was transferring a emu I would have to transfer the emu then go to the pandora hit up the doc read it on the smaller screen see where the bios etc needs to go then back to pc to make folders and copy files.

Would be useful in my case.

 

[Blue Protoman]

I'd use it.

 

[Critical_Impact]

Assuming developers put in information that I need. Generally, the time I have issues is when I need to get data files from a game and put them on my SD card and not knowing where they go. There's always information on the forums, but sometimes I'm feeling a bit lazy so searching for an answer is a bit annoying. Ideally something that lets you right click on a PND and then view the readme would be great.

 

[Titcher]

I'd use something like this. Doesn't need to be fancy AT ALL. Ideal usage would be something like drag a PND onto the executable(making the PND become a command line argument), then have it write the documentation out into the PNDs directory as pnd-title.txt or something.

 

[Lorkile]

I rarely check the documentation as it is on my Pandora, so I doubt making it available on my desktop will help.

So, I think your time is better spent elsewhere. But thanks for the offer.

 

[skeezix]

Someone has championed the app, so theres a rough-alpha already

http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/1706-do-you-need-a-pnd-documentation-reader-for-windows/page__st__20__gopid__32491#entry32491

jeff