"in fact most agree that a choice of sites is good"


Really, it can't be more simple than Craig's version of the archive. You press "install" and automatically it downloads the file to your preferred location. Plus: large fonts, screenshots, ratings and reviews. Yah, same stuff other sites seem to offer...
That must not necessarily be the imaginary optimum, especially because that something doesn't seem to be imaginable does not mean that it's not possible. Does the current apps.openpandora.org make you want to interact with it? Does it let you "play around"? Is it fluid, snappy, intelligent and confident of itself? In other words, is it /fun/ to use? (Pardon the bullsh*t bingo-infused talking.)

Anyways, you need to spend your time with the PND itself, not the website that offers it.
...which is what makes the abilities to easily discover interesting PNDs and manage them with as little effort as possible all the more important.

All this nonsense about "being streamlined" [...]
I don't think that's nonsense.
 
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I also like the design of Craigs site, but what I've been missing from the very beginning was PXML interpretation.


I also created some PNDs. All I need to do on the new site is upload them. No need to search for a screenshot, enter a description, a category, a title, a version number or anything else. It just grabs everything from the PND file, so as a dev, I don't have to do this twice.


It's very comfortable :)


I have to try the Updater on the Pandora, that also sounds pretty neat.
Please do...it's a game changer.


Literally hit the PndStore app....then it'll go "x has a newer version, y has a newer version" click ok.


It's beautiful because I would never bother to search for updates of xarchiver etc.


blam.


software updated.
 
Err so the repo with the all of the available software with most upto date apps/emu is now milkshakes?
 
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I think it's fine and great to have lots of different app stores - and the best one win! or many endure - so long as they are all indexed nicely in the wiki or somewhere! :)


I really like milkshake's interface, looks and feels very good, and the functionality is good too.
 
I think its simpler than this ..


On device -- a sensible default shoudl be set on each browser (ideally the same default, to avoid newbie confusion.)


- apps.openpandora - simple and sized for pandora, so is a candidate


- milshakes - more features and scales for pandora nicely, so also a candidate


Question; more features or simple?


On desktop --


- apps.openpandora -- not really suitable due to small display and lack of features


- milkshakes -- very suitable


- dl.open -- the only site that _can_ be comprehensive -- ie: it can have zips, pdfs, etc; everyone seems to forget about documentation, guides, themes, dungeon levels, mods, etc etc. This is _vital_. milkshake has it penned inn for 'down the road'


- wiki -- very suitable


- etc (sebt3s, pickles, and so on)


On repo-use --


- apps.open -- not suitable at this time (craig coudl add the package JSON dump pretty easily and be half way there)


- milkshakes -- pretty suitable as he's been there while we work on the specs :)


- wiki - n/a


On commercial-use --


- apps.open -- may be suitable (don't know, I don't think there is a comprehensive feature list or hard workflow/process docs up)


- no one else is suitable yet


So we could use leave midori/etc to point to apps.openpandora or milkshakes as a default.


Desktop -- people will use whatever they like.


Choice _is_ good:


- 'competition' is good to drive projects


- one-place is otherwise known as 'single point of failure' .. usualyl you want 2 or 3 at least -- 2 for backup sake, and 3 is better .. so one can go down, and you still have a backup and primary


Lets try to keep to logic and feature comparisons, and not put names or the like in this; we don't need egos here :)


jeff


PS: Craig, you owe sebt3 $500 for Spotify client, fess up :) (and you owe me something for GBAX2007 so send me an iCP okay? ;)
 
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I don't mind multiple sites, as long as we have an hierarchal system, somewhat like dns, but easy to add to, like the AUR.
 
EDIT:


I took the time to finish reading the entire thread, and as everything I said in this post was only rehashing the same shit everyone else is saying, I've removed the original huge wall of text, and added an idea of my own.


In short, I agree that the front-end websites become irrelevant the moment a true package manager (hopefully with a smart command-line utility) is written for the Pandora. I use Angstrom from SD for two reasons: Dev Environment, and opkg. If I need a piece of software, I check opkg FIRST. Because it's far less time-consuming to type opkg install whatever-I-need on the pandora, rather then popping open a browser and searching a fuckload of websites and forums and the wiki to find the newest version that isn't broken.


I do have a somewhat original idea though, I would love to see an automatic package compiler added to the Pandora. Something like Portage for Gentoo, where I could 'emerge vlc-player' and it would find the source (lets say from gentoo repos if no better idea comes) download it, and attempt a straight compile on the pandora for the pandora, then package it into a PND (or not, no big deal either way if you run OS from SD), and stick it in the menu. If the compile succeeds and works with no modifications needed (as is the case surprisingly often!!) then kick ass! If the compile fails, or running the application fails, which will probably happen a lot as well, at least adding a post to the port request section of the forums will be a lot more helpful! Instead of "I dont know if its possible but i want xmms2 (or whatever) on my pandora!", the post could be "I want xmm2 so I tried emerging it but it says error: cannot find sdl_mixer!". So instead of a dev spending time on each package people request, some mildly smart linux user could simply reply "emerge (or opkg install) libsdl-mixer-dev; then try again" and potentially fix the problem.


Maybe that idea is shit, but I think it could bring a ton of new software to the Pandora, and make port requests much easier and less time consuming to fulfill. Assuming the requested software is open source and linux-friendly, of course.


- trix
 
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This whole subject was soo tl that I dr, but maybe we can just have a centralized app store and customizable UI?
 
EDIT: Sorry, I read your post wrong, Alerino. Ignore this!


Yes, things are looking bright for the future! :)


- trix
 
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I do have a somewhat original idea though, I would love to see an automatic package compiler added to the Pandora. Something like Portage for Gentoo, where I could 'emerge vlc-player' and it would find the source (lets say from gentoo repos if no better idea comes) download it, and attempt a straight compile on the pandora for the pandora, then package it into a PND (or not, no big deal either way if you run OS from SD), and stick it in the menu.
Well, the OpenEmbedded build system, bitbake, is already used to create Angstrom packages. Bitbake is very similar to portage, but is designed with cross-compiling for embedded systems in mind. It should be possible to get it running on a Pandora to build packages natively. Of course, it creates ipks that have to be installed through opkg, not PNDs. But its software collection is limited (basically all of it is already compiled in the Angstrom repo).


Of course, if you want to use emerge, you could just install Gentoo, or Arch which has a similar build system.
 
@skeezix


I think the best candidate for the homepage of Pandora's browser is Middo's Pandora Bookmark site.

If this happens, I will register a new domain, www.thepandorabookmark.org or something. Make it even easier to remember and more formal etc.


Cheers.

I would keep the money for the domain and go with bookmarks.openpandora.org. ;)

or maybe just bookmark.openpandora.org? (no 's')


If Craig is happy to set me up for FTP access to that directory etc that would be fine or else he could set-up a forward to my site easy if he likes. I will then change the colours arround a little to make it look a little more like openpandora.org theme. All good.


Craig if you reading this, PM me if you are interested.


Cheers. Middo
 
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or maybe just bookmark.openpandora.org? (no 's')


If Craig is happy to set me up for FTP access to that directory etc that would be fine or else he could set-up a forward to my site easy if he likes. I will then change the colours arround a little to make it look a little more like openpandora.org theme. All good.


Craig if you reading this, PM me if you are interested.


Cheers. Middo

that would be EvilDragon (its his server) not craig :p
 
or maybe just bookmark.openpandora.org? (no 's')


If Craig is happy to set me up for FTP access to that directory etc that would be fine or else he could set-up a forward to my site easy if he likes. I will then change the colours arround a little to make it look a little more like openpandora.org theme. All good.


Craig if you reading this, PM me if you are interested.


Cheers. Middo

that would be EvilDragon (its his server) not craig :p

Cool. Thanks Milkshake. Have updated the theme anyway in advance to match this forum. A darker background looks better anyway. Waiting for Evildragon's approval / comments etc. ............
 
in regards to the screenshots of the webpage itself, does it take a screenshotin realtime or are the screenshots what you have provided?


because there is prob a php (or other server side) script u can get which grabs a screenshot for you when the user visits the page so its more up to date.


or maybe just a cron job that runs once a week or once a day or somthing.
 
in regards to the screenshots of the webpage itself, does it take a screenshotin realtime or are the screenshots what you have provided?


because there is prob a php (or other server side) script u can get which grabs a screenshot for you when the user visits the page so its more up to date.


or maybe just a cron job that runs once a week or once a day or somthing.

Hey Milkshak, thanks for the suggestions etc.


At present the screen shots are static. I did use a program called Websitesnapshot 2.0 to take care of the bulk user youtube screens but this is still a manual process.


I will look into this in the future, prob no real rush for this now, but if anyone wish's to help with this, feel free!


Cheers!


Edit: Using siteshoter now and captures Flash better. Have updated all screenshots with this software and can 'click a button' once a week to keep them updated now.
 
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