Tempel
Active Member
Dear everyone,
I present to you PNDstore, a Pandora application for managing PNDs from remote repositories!
The recent open beta of milkshake's repository prompted me to get in gear and finish up this client for interacting with it. PNDstore can manage all PND files on your system, including installing and updating them from any site that implements version 2 of the PND repository specification (of which milkshake's site is the only current example). Source is available under the LGPL.
The current version 1.0 mostly includes extra backend stability. The biggest change was updating to version 3.0 of the repository spec, allowing for more efficient list updating. Bug reports on this are the best help you could give!
But there's another way you can help, even without a Pandora. Though the backend is mostly complete, the GUI frontend is rather weak. I intend to continue improving it with PyGTK and Glade, but I know nothing about good GUI design! Show me how you think the interface should look and behave. Be aware that all information in the repo spec and PXML spec are available to the client and can be displayed to the user. Also consider that it should be able to work with any number of repositories (maybe ED or Craig will add support to the file archive or app store, or maybe someone will resurrect the Box). Consider what kind of options should be available and how they should be presented to the user. Finally, consider how to handle errors like checksum mismatches, or repositories and PXMLs that don't match the spec. Oh, and keep screen size in mind! Photoshop mockups would be absolutely great, Glade mockups would be even better since I could integrate them directly, and working code would be amazing (but I don't expect that level of effort from you yet).
And another! The current icon is ripped from the GNOME icon set. Make something cool that can be used instead!
One last note: there's also a command-line frontend, though it's not usable from the PND. But to use it you'll have to download the source and work around the ctypes bug yourself. Once you've extracted the source, you can run "python pndst" from the source directory, or you can install it to NAND with "sudo python setup.py install", then use it as "pndst". But that won't install it through the package manager, so it won't be easy to remove if you do that.
Thanks in advance for feedback
Old content:
I present to you PNDstore, a Pandora application for managing PNDs from remote repositories!
The recent open beta of milkshake's repository prompted me to get in gear and finish up this client for interacting with it. PNDstore can manage all PND files on your system, including installing and updating them from any site that implements version 2 of the PND repository specification (of which milkshake's site is the only current example). Source is available under the LGPL.
The current version 1.0 mostly includes extra backend stability. The biggest change was updating to version 3.0 of the repository spec, allowing for more efficient list updating. Bug reports on this are the best help you could give!
But there's another way you can help, even without a Pandora. Though the backend is mostly complete, the GUI frontend is rather weak. I intend to continue improving it with PyGTK and Glade, but I know nothing about good GUI design! Show me how you think the interface should look and behave. Be aware that all information in the repo spec and PXML spec are available to the client and can be displayed to the user. Also consider that it should be able to work with any number of repositories (maybe ED or Craig will add support to the file archive or app store, or maybe someone will resurrect the Box). Consider what kind of options should be available and how they should be presented to the user. Finally, consider how to handle errors like checksum mismatches, or repositories and PXMLs that don't match the spec. Oh, and keep screen size in mind! Photoshop mockups would be absolutely great, Glade mockups would be even better since I could integrate them directly, and working code would be amazing (but I don't expect that level of effort from you yet).
And another! The current icon is ripped from the GNOME icon set. Make something cool that can be used instead!
One last note: there's also a command-line frontend, though it's not usable from the PND. But to use it you'll have to download the source and work around the ctypes bug yourself. Once you've extracted the source, you can run "python pndst" from the source directory, or you can install it to NAND with "sudo python setup.py install", then use it as "pndst". But that won't install it through the package manager, so it won't be easy to remove if you do that.
Thanks in advance for feedback
Old content:
The current version 0.3 adds threading to the GUI, so it will let you know what's happening as it downloads applications. It also allows package upgrades to be selected individually. It's a small improvement, but they'll keep coming. As always, if it works well, let me know; if it doesn't work well, let me know and also post the contents of /tmp/pndrun_pndstore.out.
Version 1.0 has been released, though it's not all that different to the end-user.
The current version 0.2 includes a real GUI with the ability to install and remove apps in addition to updating them. The GUI is not yet threaded, meaning that long-running operations like installation and updating will appear to make it lock up; once the download or whatever finishes, it'll be usable again. Also, it isn't yet able to remove appdata directories, but that will come in later versions. So try it out! If it works well, let me know; if it doesn't work well, let me know and also post the contents of /tmp/pndrun_pndstore.out.
Version 0.3 is out, so try that instead!
Or rather, that's what I think it'll do. Though I've tested it here, it's never been tested on a real Pandora. In particular, I have no idea if my workaround for the missing ctypes bug will actually work. But that's where you come in, my intrepid beta testers! Please run the program, click "Okay" through all the windows (be patient, it can take some time for each window to pop up), and if it crashes (or doesn't run at all!), post the contents of /tmp/pndrun_pndstore.out in spoiler tags here.
Thanks to some tireless testers, particularly IsSuE and mindlord, all the show-stopping bugs have been ironed out.
Version 1.0 has been released, though it's not all that different to the end-user.
The current version 0.2 includes a real GUI with the ability to install and remove apps in addition to updating them. The GUI is not yet threaded, meaning that long-running operations like installation and updating will appear to make it lock up; once the download or whatever finishes, it'll be usable again. Also, it isn't yet able to remove appdata directories, but that will come in later versions. So try it out! If it works well, let me know; if it doesn't work well, let me know and also post the contents of /tmp/pndrun_pndstore.out.
Version 0.3 is out, so try that instead!
Or rather, that's what I think it'll do. Though I've tested it here, it's never been tested on a real Pandora. In particular, I have no idea if my workaround for the missing ctypes bug will actually work. But that's where you come in, my intrepid beta testers! Please run the program, click "Okay" through all the windows (be patient, it can take some time for each window to pop up), and if it crashes (or doesn't run at all!), post the contents of /tmp/pndrun_pndstore.out in spoiler tags here.
Thanks to some tireless testers, particularly IsSuE and mindlord, all the show-stopping bugs have been ironed out.
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