What Determines Whether Something Gets Added To Pandora Apps?

[WizardStan]

Personally I like HTML because it can work on anything these days.

What I would like to know is when do the commercial and donation-ware options become available?

When some software appears which needs the feature

I'd guess we might start seeing some paid-for software towards christmas?

I'm going to write an app and upload it. It will cost $1. It will play the vuvuzela noise everytime you press a key. I WILL MAKE A FORTUNE!

 

[tsh]

If its a bad idea, I'll let it go. It just seems to me that it would be easier for the average joe to add to a thread than to the wiki.

A thread for 'please wiki this' might work, but still risks that there is no way to tick off things as they are done. It may be best to direct people to the talk pages of the wiki (where stuff need not be well-formatted) - and that can be tidied by anyone who processes the edits.

 

[sebt3]

A thread for 'please wiki this' might work

I'm looking forward to it

 

[MonkeyChops]

I made one geared towards apps, we'll see how it goes, it'll probably flop hard. oh well, I think its a good idea and I'll at least use it.

topic creator: MonkeyChops
90% topic contributor: MonkeyChops

 

[Asiyura]

I prefer farting apps…

 

[Cheese]

I've also updated the wiki's emulator list:
http://pandorawiki.org/Emulator_list
(big props go to Cheese, who did a great job of starting it)

There is definitely a downside to being split up. Right now, Pandora Apps has significantly more emulators available, while the File Archive has significantly more games. This is what I've noticed from trying to make the wiki complete.

Next up on the list is making a similar wiki list for utilities - I'll get on that a bit later.

Craig, I think that people just want one place where they can see everything that can be downloaded. Other features are nice, but that's the main one.

Right now, I think that the wiki has the potential to be the closest to such a place - provided, of course, that people keep it up to date.

I like the improvements. It shouldn't be too difficult to keep up to date as long as a few of us on here train ourselves to add a game/emulator to the list and update the list every time a game/emulator is released or updated.

As for the utilities page, that page sort of confuses me. It seems like it would be better off labeled "Applications" since not every application is going to be a utility. Of course then since we can't edit the main page you'd click "Utilities" and end up at "Applications" which could be a bit awkward.

The ideal way I could see this situation with 3 sources ending is if "The Box" replaced the file archive. Then you would have Pandora Apps for some paid apps and whatever else found it's way on there (let's say something like only the better stuff, no beta software, etc) and then "The Box" for everything excluding paid apps (if there ever are any), with everyone being able to add PNDs to it, regardless of how well it runs or if it's a beta. So anyone who wanted to be sure what they are downloading works fairly well goes to Pandora Apps while people who want to see everything go to The Box.

 

[Esn]

As for the utilities page, that page sort of confuses me. It seems like it would be better off labeled "Applications" since not every application is going to be a utility. Of course then since we can't edit the main page you'd click "Utilities" and end up at "Applications" which could be a bit awkward.

What's the difference between "application" and "utility", really?

One thing that I'm not sure of right now is under which category to put the calculator emulators. On the file archive, there are two of them (TI-92 and X-48) and they're classed as office applications:
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/pandora.cgi?0,0,0,0,113

While on Pandora Apps, TI-92 is put under the "emulator" category (and there is no X-48):
http://apps.open-pandora.org/cgi-bin/viewarea.pl?Emulators

 

[Cheese]

What's the difference between "application" and "utility", really?

One thing that I'm not sure of right now is under which category to put the calculator emulators. On the file archive, there are two of them (TI-92 and X-48) and they're classed as office applications:
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/pandora.cgi?0,0,0,0,113

While on Pandora Apps, TI-92 is put under the "emulator" category (and there is no X-48):
http://apps.open-pandora.org/cgi-bin/viewarea.pl?Emulators

Well Firefox is an application, but I don't know if i'd call it a utility. I guess it works though.

I'd put the calculators under emulators, since that is what they are even if they're used as a utility or office application.

 

[vadsamoht]

What's the difference between "application" and "utility", really?

Not exactly a technical definition, but i'd define a 'utility' as something directly related to the system (volume, screen brightness, OC'ing, etc.), whereas an 'application' would be anything else (browsers, word processors, media players, etc.)

One thing that I'm not sure of right now is under which category to put the calculator emulators. On the file archive, there are two of them (TI-92 and X-48) and they're classed as office applications:
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/pandora.cgi?0,0,0,0,113

While on Pandora Apps, TI-92 is put under the "emulator" category (and there is no X-48):
http://apps.open-pandora.org/cgi-bin/viewarea.pl?Emulators

Again, just my opinion, but if it actually implements the programming functionality (never had one of these as I'm a casio man, just guessing), I'd class them as emulators, as they emulate the system in question. If they prove to be little more than scientific calculators with a fancy layout/display, then apps>office seems about right.

 

[Pleng]

Do apps have to be tied to one category? Seems a bit 2000s! Would be nice if they appeared in all the categories that are relevant. Somebody looking for a scientific calculator is more likely to look in office apps, where somebody looking for an emulator of a TI-92 calculator would be looking under emulators.

Both are equally valid search paths and a TI-92 emulator would generally suit both users needs, so it should be shown in both categories.

 

[Aninhumer]

Do apps have to be tied to one category? Seems a bit 2000s! Would be nice if they appeared in all the categories that are relevant. Somebody looking for a scientific calculator is more likely to look in office apps, where somebody looking for an emulator of a TI-92 calculator would be looking under emulators.

Both are equally valid search paths and a TI-92 emulator would generally suit both users needs, so it should be shown in both categories.

Tags FTW.

 

[craigix]

Do apps have to be tied to one category? Seems a bit 2000s! Would be nice if they appeared in all the categories that are relevant. Somebody looking for a scientific calculator is more likely to look in office apps, where somebody looking for an emulator of a TI-92 calculator would be looking under emulators.

Both are equally valid search paths and a TI-92 emulator would generally suit both users needs, so it should be shown in both categories.

Yes, it can support that, but I'd rather people used the search box (something which will be a lot more clever in 2.0).

 

[Pleng]

Yes, it can support that, but I'd rather people used the search box

Nice. First rule of HCI according to Craig: F*$$ how the user wants to browse, try and impose your way of working at all costs.

Do you seriously expect users to type 'emulator' in the search box, rather than click on the 'emulators' tab? Like, for real? I know the keyboard is one of the Pandora's uber cool features, but still...

 

[Rockthesmurf]

The default browser my Pandora shipped with couldn't display the app store page - was I alone with this problem? Seemed very odd to me.

Steve

 

[Prometheus]

You weren't alone with that. If memory serves, the gist of it was that the default browser was meant to be Arora, but that the units shipped with Midori set as the default instead. Do bear in mind that I'm going on memory alone here, though, so I may very well be mistaken!

 

[craigix]

Yes, it can support that, but I'd rather people used the search box

Nice. First rule of HCI according to Craig: F*$$ how the user wants to browse, try and impose your way of working at all costs.

Do you seriously expect users to type 'emulator' in the search box, rather than click on the 'emulators' tab? Like, for real? I know the keyboard is one of the Pandora's uber cool features, but still...

Well no, I just meant instead of using dual categories, such as the way you described, as I think the Calculator emulators should stay in the Emulators section. If you break the rule with those you are going to end up with a mess in the long run.

 

[hobbyman II]

why not just stick the calculators in both folders?, it's not like servers lack storage capacity :rolleyes:

(Hobbyman...utilising gash brute force computing solutions since 1974 :lol: )

 

[Pleng]

Well no, I just meant instead of using dual categories, such as the way you described, as I think the Calculator emulators should stay in the Emulators section. If you break the rule with those you are going to end up with a mess in the long run.

It doesn't just apply to the calculator emulators, I as just making an example of them. Remember you're looking at thing from an (old school) coder's perspective, not the user's perspective. What might seem a mess to you is what the average joe would consider intuitive. If I'm looking for a tracker program, for instance, I would consider looking at 'audio', or 'music', however if If I was the author of a tracker, I'd want people who were just causally browsing 'multimedia' to be able to stumble across my app as they a) might remember trackers from the 'old' days and hadn't realized they were still going, or B) have never heard of a tracker before and may (or may not) be curious about what they are.

So to satisfy users and developers, a tracker should appear in all three (theoretical, at the moment) sections: audio, music, and multimedia.

 

[Trickyhero]

What's the difference between "application" and "utility", really?

Not exactly a technical definition, but i'd define a 'utility' as something directly related to the system (volume, screen brightness, OC'ing, etc.), whereas an 'application' would be anything else (browsers, word processors, media players, etc.)

One thing that I'm not sure of right now is under which category to put the calculator emulators. On the file archive, there are two of them (TI-92 and X-48) and they're classed as office applications:
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/pandora.cgi?0,0,0,0,113

While on Pandora Apps, TI-92 is put under the "emulator" category (and there is no X-48):
http://apps.open-pandora.org/cgi-bin/viewarea.pl?Emulators

Again, just my opinion, but if it actually implements the programming functionality (never had one of these as I'm a casio man, just guessing), I'd class them as emulators, as they emulate the system in question. If they prove to be little more than scientific calculators with a fancy layout/display, then apps>office seems about right.

The reason they are on there is because there are games for them :/

 

[may88]

AFAICT the reason there is more in ED's archive is that anyone can upload to it, and the app gets approved by ED. In Craig's appstore, people must apply to become approved uploaders. For whatever reason, not everyone seems to be doing this. Or perhaps some people just prefer to use the file archive.

Soon we'll be seeing the launch of dflemstr's "The Box". It has an insanely good backend (PXML validation etc) which risks going to waste if everyone can just upload their broken / non-compliant PNDs elsewhere. Meanwhile, Craig's store is very well designed with the average end user in mind, and ED's is the old faithful that many older GP32Xers prefer to use.

Some people will call this "choice", "options", "freedom". But I'm seeing it as fragmentation. Who wants to search 3 apptores to make sure they're not missing anything? Almost no one. But each of the three stores has very good reasons to exist. There needs to be some kind of synchronisation effort, or it's going to get Dingoo ugly.

Note that my thoughts above only apply to the three file archives. There will always be devs who choose not to use those facilities (zx-81 uses his own site, DJWillis uses his site for betas, etc etc), for the purposes of this discussion they get a free pass.

Good post!

I have given upload rights to a lot of people now, but several people just don't use it, they use the old archive.

I don't have the time to ask why.

Maybe I could recruit someone from here to make sure everything is uploaded.

However, currently I don't put beta software on there if I can help it, I'd rather at least have something which is a PND and works for the average user.

It will get there, it's coming along nicely now, we're adding a lot of requested features right now.

Keep up the good work.