Should I get a Pandora?

[Soulcast]

I can't program, patch, or port, so should I forget getting a Pandora? p&|a Is there eventually gonna be a site where people upload their programs, and I can just download stuff, put it on my Pandora (if I get one) and use it? Like, plug-and-play style?

 

[Shikaku]

I can't program, patch, or port, so should I forget getting a Pandora? p&|a Is there eventually gonna be a site where people upload their programs, and I can just download stuff, put it on my Pandora (if I get one) and use it? Like, plug-and-play style?

A large number of the 1st batch people probably can't program at all. What made you think you had to be able to program? You don't, and the programs that will hopefully flood in the file archive when people start working on it will allow you to run mostly anything you want, either the exact program or very similar, like PDA programs, internet, etc., but not including games (the only rule: PORTS REQUIRE SOURCE CODE).

So in short:

1. no
2. yes and yes

Also planned is a repository, so you can view and download programs that autoupdate from your Pandora via Wifi. But no wifi is required, you can just put stuff in an SD card and play.

 

[qwerty15]

I can't program, patch, or port, so should I forget getting a Pandora? p&|a Is there eventually gonna be a site where people upload their programs, and I can just download stuff, put it on my Pandora (if I get one) and use it? Like, plug-and-play style?

No, you shouldn't forget the Pandora .

The Pandora was built upon the same concept as the Gp2x. If you can code and contribute, great, but if you can't, well, you don't have to.

There already is a site set up for files to download here:

http://archive.openpandora.org/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi

 

[Soulcast]

Thank you all for the feedback.

I was just making sure, because I don't want to spend $330 on something I can't use (I'm sure you all understand that ). Most things I see that are open source, and have a custom OS, meens you have to be able program to be able to use them.

I also have a few more questions:
1) If I have an unkown file type on a Pandora, can I tell the Pandora to open the file with a certain program? (like to use a notepad-like program to change some coding)

2) I have a program on my Laptop that I use A LOT it's a "windows installer package" (.msi) (it's for XP, it's GTKRadiant I use it to map for my favorite computer game) Would that need porting? Could it even be run on a Pandora? Thats pretty much the selling point for me, if this program works, I'll try to get one next realease. p&|a

 

[Capn_Fish]

1: You can open anything with a text editor under Linux (and probably under Windows, for that matter). Whether or not you'll be able to do anything useful with it remains to be seen (you really can't with a tar archive, for example).

2: Yes, it appears to be open-source, so a port should be fairly easy, anything unforeseen aside (it's GTK, which is standard stuff).

HTH

 

[Soulcast]

1: You can open anything with a text editor under Linux (and probably under Windows, for that matter). Whether or not you'll be able to do anything useful with it remains to be seen (you really can't with a tar archive, for example).

2: Yes, it appears to be open-source, so a port should be fairly easy, anything unforeseen aside (it's GTK, which is standard stuff).

HTH

Sweet but I can't port

 

[Capn_Fish]

When the Pandora ships, find the docs for setting up the build tools. Doing it yourself should be as easy as:

initialize_pandora_cross-compile_env
./configure --with-youroptions
make
make DESTDIR=/temp/place/to/install/the/app
(copy DESTDIR to the pandora)

You can probably even skip the last two steps by just copying the source dir over to your Pandora and running it from there.

It's really quite easy.

 

[Kyosys]

and even if you don't port, I'm sure somebody else will. After all, we're all interested in getting the pandora a good number of tools and programs, and it doesn't seem very hard to port in this case.

 

[mkinzler]

There's quake, there'll be Radiant

 

[sebt3]

I have a program on my Laptop that I use A LOT it's a "windows installer package" (.msi) (it's for XP, it's GTKRadiant I use it to map for my favorite computer game) Would that need porting? Could it even be run on a Pandora? Thats pretty much the selling point for me, if this program works, I'll try to get one next realease. p&|a

I was browsing the GTKRadiant Trac.
So this is open-source (GPLv2), with is a good new, but the compiling documentation spot a "small" problem) :
http://www.qeradiant.com/cgi-bin/trac.c ... /COMPILING

dependencies:
- gtkglext >= 1.0.0 (requires opengl)

You'll need to port gtkglext to gl|es as opengl is not available on the p&|a . doable, sure, but not as easy as spoted by previous post.

 

[Capn_Fish]

I don't think that's entirely true either. If you want it to run decently (unless it's a very low-spec app), you need to port it to OpenGL ES. You should be able to use Mesa/software-rendered OpenGL to run it even without porting it to OpenGL ES, no?

 

[Soulcast]

Will it only screw up if I try to compile? I don't want to compile on the p&|a anyway, never did, just want to work on my map on-the-go and get the .map file on my laptop and build it on the laptop. :wink: I'd rather leave my laptop compiling for 5 hours, than a p&|a .

So, since I don't want to compile, and won't compile on the p&|a , do I still need OpenGL?

 

[sebt3]

I don't think that's entirely true either. If you want it to run decently (unless it's a very low-spec app), you need to port it to OpenGL ES. You should be able to use Mesa/software-rendered OpenGL to run it even without porting it to OpenGL ES, no?

Hum you're right, software openGL should work, but it will be slow as hell. (I have used that for a _long_ time, that's maybe why I didn't think about this).

 

[Capn_Fish]

Will it only screw up if I try to compile? I don't want to compile on the p&|a anyway, never did, just want to work on my map on-the-go and get the .map file on my laptop and build it on the laptop. :wink: I'd rather leave my laptop compiling for 5 hours, than a p&|a .

So, since I don't want to compile, and won't compile on the p&|a , do I still need OpenGL?

It won't be messed up, just very slow (in all likelihood). Also, compiling shouldn't be affected by whether you're using software rendering or not; just the map editing.

 

[Soulcast]

Will it only screw up if I try to compile? I don't want to compile on the p&|a anyway, never did, just want to work on my map on-the-go and get the .map file on my laptop and build it on the laptop. :wink: I'd rather leave my laptop compiling for 5 hours, than a p&|a .

So, since I don't want to compile, and won't compile on the p&|a , do I still need OpenGL?

It won't be messed up, just very slow (in all likelihood). Also, compiling shouldn't be affected by whether you're using software rendering or not; just the map editing.

Ahhhhhh ok. Also, the program needs a certain file path to load the pictures it uses to texture walls (C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy\GameData\base\textures) would that make it so I couldn't use it on the p&|a ? Would someone have to change the file path while porting? Or could that file path be set up on a p&|a ?

 

[Capn_Fish]

It doesn't matter what the path is (unless they hardcoded it), but you WILL need to copy the textures over to the Pandora (which will likely take up a good deal of space).

 

[Soulcast]

It doesn't matter what the path is (unless they hardcoded it), but you WILL need to copy the textures over to the Pandora (which will likely take up a good deal of space).

Thats what I mean, I'm pretty sure it is hardcoded. h34r: But not positive.

 

[Capn_Fish]

I find it hard to believe that GTKRadiant is hardcoded to only load Jedi Academy textures. Have you looked through all of the options/config files?

 

[Soulcast]

I find it hard to believe that GTKRadiant is hardcoded to only load Jedi Academy textures. Have you looked through all of the options/config files?

Your right, I found the option about 5 min. after posting.

Sooo, have we come to the conclusion that it would work, it'd just be slow? How slow, a little slow, or REALLY slow?

 

[Shikaku]

I find it hard to believe that GTKRadiant is hardcoded to only load Jedi Academy textures. Have you looked through all of the options/config files?

Your right, I found the option about 5 min. after posting.

Sooo, have we come to the conclusion that it would work, it'd just be slow? How slow, a little slow, or REALLY slow?

On the pandora it will run so fast that you will see the frames before it even processes it: it goes back in time!

......... Serious answer: we can't know until we get one.