The whole debate about user usability, frontends, updaters, backends
gave me a few ideas, some of which are already in the works. One problem
that is something that is a common issue for new users is the file
management of files that are critical to run the application. Its been a
problem with any of the consoles, how many threads have there been
'where and what files do i need to run quake'
The problem has come up a little bit in the other discussions and the
quick and dirty solution is to have the run script in the pnd check
during runtime and spit out some message.
But this is pretty crude and ugly and i think it can be better.
My current idea is to have a path relative to the appdata folder and a
list of filenames in the PXML. libpnd uses this data and checks for
files in the list. libpnd then on request sends information back to the
clients apps if the game has met the requirements or not. The client
then by some GUI (icons or something) identifies to the user that the
app wont run as installed.
There could also be some mechanism for the client app to explain in detail what is missing and where to put it.
First step would be to define and add support in the pxml and the
checker in libpnd with a simple interface to query pass or fail.
Also posted here in this thread: http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/topic/59485-pnd-file-dependency-checker-ideas/
Thoughts, flames?