Pandora Pandora Sync Suite

[sindbad]

There's no point in making a windows-only app for this. A Qt frontend to apt or some other package manager would work on all operating systems, including the pandora itself.

 

[MilanC]

(sorry, didn't read through everything)
All I'll ever want is an apt repository

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Those two alternatives seem interesting to me:

* Web interface. But a web server (even lightweight) might use up a bit of precious memory on Pandora. The nice part is, you wouldn't need anything else than a web browser anymore.

* A front-end that issues commands to Pandora through SSH/telnet/whatever. File transfer through netcat. (or samba server on pandora, but keeping it alive all the time might not be the best way to save memory.).
This option would save a bit of memory, and implementing new front ends wouldn't be such a pain.

 

[Arialia]

something like HBM for Wii make by nice Reppa ?
http://reppa.dev-fr.org/

access by wifi, usb ( Pandora as reader card usb ? ), reader card

 

[sindbad]

* Web interface. But a web server (even lightweight) might use up a bit of precious memory on Pandora. The nice part is, you wouldn't need anything else than a web browser anymore.
lighttpd eats about 1mb of ram, so it's not an issue.

 

[ish420]

I suggest you begin work on this project and have it ready for porting, when OpenPandora releases. Pandora Sync Suite sound like an ideal launch application. This thread should have been titled "Pandora Sync Suite Application, taking suggestions."

 

[majamee]

I think the best way to realize such a programm would be to create it directly as a pandora application. Then there is no trouble with different OSs and everyone who ones a pandora can actually use it.
It would be great to have something like a package management tool like synaptic for the pandora. This would make installing, removing and keeping up2date your software easy for everyone.

Just an idea I wish to come to life!

 

[Squidge]

I think the best way to realize such a programm would be to create it directly as a pandora application. Then there is no trouble with different OSs and everyone who ones a pandora can actually use it.

Battery life and small screen are the main reasons why people want to create a PC application. There will of course also be a Pandora app.

 

[sindbad]

There's no point in making a windows-only app for this. A Qt frontend to apt or some other package manager would work on all operating systems, including the pandora itself.

I think the best way to realize such a programm would be to create it directly as a pandora application. Then there is no trouble with different OSs and everyone who ones a pandora can actually use it.
It's easy to make it work natively on all platforms by using Qt.

 

[Squidge]

It's easy to make it work natively on all platforms by using Qt.

There would still be platform dependant features, Qt would help, but it certainly wouldn't instantly give you an app that worked on all platforms.

To make a user interface that is consistant with other apps on that platform, it's normally easier to just rebuild the user interface for that platform.

 

[sindbad]

There would still be platform dependant features, Qt would help, but it certainly wouldn't instantly give you an app that worked on all platforms.

To make a user interface that is consistant with other apps on that platform, it's normally easier to just rebuild the user interface for that platform.

Qt does make things instantly work on all platforms for the frontend. It's much harder to make a different interface and it's mostly pointless since the few consistency problems that Qt doesn't automate can be taken care of easily. Qt is not GTK.

There may have to be two backends though, one for the pandora and one for desktop computers.

 

[GernotFrisch]

Might help beginners and noobs.

 

[azmodean]

I've never understood the love xml gets from so many people, most of the features people list for it are actually supplied by the library used to access it, and most of those features are available with CSV parsing libraries also (or whatever text-based file format you wish to use). The only benefit I can actually think of that is attributable to xml is that many people have been exposed to similar syntax by learning html already.

But back on topic, an application repository cache that runs on the host computer (whether the host computer is linux, windows, mac, whatever) sounds like a great idea, one nice feature such a thing could also have is it could act as a staging area for your Pandora applications, where you keep all the apps you like on your PC, and can add/remove them to/from the Pandora at will (primarily for space constraint reasons, but also for backup and system cloning). Might even be workable to extend it to be a media repository as well so managing the contents of the Pandora from your PC has a single interface.

 

[Squidge]

I've never understood the love xml gets from so many people, most of the features people list for it are actually supplied by the library used to access it, and most of those features are available with CSV parsing libraries also (or whatever text-based file format you wish to use). The only benefit I can actually think of that is attributable to xml is that many people have been exposed to similar syntax by learning html already.

Simplicity, Minimal effort to implement, Openness, Extensibility, Self-description, Human readable?

But back on topic, an application repository cache that runs on the host computer (whether the host computer is linux, windows, mac, whatever) sounds like a great idea, one nice feature such a thing could also have is it could act as a staging area for your Pandora applications, where you keep all the apps you like on your PC, and can add/remove them to/from the Pandora at will (primarily for space constraint reasons, but also for backup and system cloning). Might even be workable to extend it to be a media repository as well so managing the contents of the Pandora from your PC has a single interface.

I suggested this a while ago - if you use a PC program to install apps to your Pandora, that same program could backup your SD Card(s) to prevent data loss, and know exactly what is on your Pandora. You can then easily maintain those cards, even without the Pandora plugged in ('Sync-later' feature).

 

[MilanC]

Just a thought: it would be nice to have an easy way to configure which apps/servers/etc. are launched on startup. For example, I will probably disable sync server and all 'usb client' functions (except networking).

QUOTE
Simplicity, Minimal effort to implement, Openness, Extensibility, Self-description, Human readable?

Erm... I prefer simple text files quite a lot. xml isn't really what I'd call human readable. It's ok if your text editor uses different colors for different functions ( < > symbols, values, comments, etc. ), but not with nano.

 

[icurafu]

Extensibility i agree. And a standard, so anyone who is used to tags can pick it up quickly. To me, it's a lot more readable than text configs after a couple of branches.

 

[Squidge]

Just a thought: it would be nice to have an easy way to configure which apps/servers/etc. are launched on startup. For example, I will probably disable sync server and all 'usb client' functions (except networking).

Don't we already have that via the runlevel configuration editor? It states what is started up in each run level.

Also, I don't think there will be a sync server? Remote installation of apps will just use the Pandora as a removable drive.

QUOTE
Simplicity, Minimal effort to implement, Openness, Extensibility, Self-description, Human readable?

Erm... I prefer simple text files quite a lot. xml isn't really what I'd call human readable. It's ok if your text editor uses different colors for different functions ( < > symbols, values, comments, etc. ), but not with nano.

It's a lot more readable than a csv file where you have to guess what the fields are from the contents. Eg. Every element is given a descriptive name, and you can easily see the levels. To give it a bit of color, you can even just throw the xml file at your web browser (and get it to parse it with an appropriate DTD).

 

[MilanC]

QUOTE
Don't we already have that via the runlevel configuration editor? It states what is started up in each run level.

I don't know. On my debian install, I either use update-rc.d or just add/remove symlinks to scripts manually. I can live with it, but I meant something

QUOTE
Also, I don't think there will be a sync server? Remote installation of apps will just use the Pandora as a removable drive.

Stupid me.
Removable drive mode would allow using (almost?) exactly the same code on pandora and on some larger computer, if there's some true package manager.
And if apps are just packaged into tgz/tbz2/zip/whatever, then it's even simpler. Uninstalling's less fun, though...

QUOTE
It's a lot more readable than a csv file where you have to guess what the fields are from the contents. Eg. Every element is given a descriptive name, and you can easily see the levels. To give it a bit of color, you can even just throw the xml file at your web browser (and get it to parse it with an appropriate DTD).

Erm... I wasn't comparing xml to csv... I had once to deal with an Outlook Express contacts list exported as CSV. Never messed with it again.

 

[streak]

Hiya

The final build will be look like this.

Pandora Sync Suite Alpha Build 001

New design... i think it'll be final...

probably Pandora sync suite will use xml with this syntax in XML file:

CODE


<_info>
<_name>Simple Dev Studio for Pandora</_name>
<_type>Development</_type>
<_info>Development Kit for creating games/apps for openpandora</_info>
<_arch>www.openpandora.pl/download/simpledevstudio.zip</_arch>
<_date>20.10.2008</_date>
<_imge>www.openpandora.pl/download/image/simpledevstudio.gif</_imge>
</_info>




Any comments welcome.

 

[Yamara]

New design... i think it'll be final...
Any comments welcome.

While I'm not a fan of the default GUI of Windows, I still think for applications it's important to remain consistent with the look of the platform. I would recommend ditching the shaded black button look and just going with the standard MS look. Ideally it automagically look XP-skinned or like Vista if run with those GUIs. I think this will make it look more professional.

Also, I like the style of the icons used on the buttons for sync and download, but I think a text label would be helpful. Or like web browsers, where you have the option to use icon+label, icon only, or label only.

I also like the sort by release date. Maybe set it up something like a Windows detailed file view, where you can click on description at the top and sort in order or reverse like this. Then you could sort by game type, title, date, etc. It'd be cool to have two dates, one for the original release date, and one for last update. Then you could see just new software, versus software which has only been updated.

To nitpick, 'firmware' is the plural of 'firmware'. Like 'software' and 'hardware', there is no need for the added 's' to make plural.

 

[Squidge]

Hopefully the tabs will not be hardcoded?

Why is there preceding underscores in your xml? (And was does it seem limited to 4 text characters?)