Merge repo, appstore and OpenHandhelds archive?


hmc

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Hi all,


the repo is the central place, whcih is connected to the PNDstore application now.


From the user's point of view, wouldn't it be ideal to merge the three PND archives, which currently exist, so all PNDs are available from the repo?


Would this be possible?


Daniel
 
I do know the PXML standard has changed since the apps.* and openhandholds have been up, so it's not as simple as uploading the files over at apps.* and the like. Plus then there are issues with the rights of the porter and the like, kind of a sticky situation.
 
The point of the repo is that only the maintainer of the application uploads there, because only the uploader and the ones it marks as maintainers can update the PNDs. The appstore was craigix attempt to collect all PNDs in a single place, this resulted in that most PNDs in some version made it there, but updates became sporadic.


The OpenHandhelds archive is mostly legacy now, very few PNDs are uploaded there anymore. However, it is the only pandora-connected site that allows non-PNDs to be uploaded.


So: It it up to the package maintainers to make sure everything is on the repo. I guess a second, "legacy archive" could be made from all maintainerless PNDs that are left on the OpenHandhelds site, the appstore and various other sites.
 
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Would this be possible?
The Repo was started as a response to difficulties devs were having getting permission to maintain their stuff on Craig's AppStore. It is entirely counter to the ideals the repo was built on to simply upload everything to it. If a developer wants it on the repo it is the developers responsibility to put it on the repo. It then also becomes that developers responsibility to maintain it, as it should be.


It might seem confusing for the user but that should be the developers responsibility to update it, not some third party who is taking it upon themself to upload what may be outdated or incomplete, as was the case for a lot of applications on the a.op.org.


edit: I should clarify that this was my understanding of the origin of the repo. I shouldn't attribute intentions to Milkshake's work that may or may not be true.
 
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Except that the most concise point of call for ALL apps, is via the Software/Games/Emulator Wikipedia pages that Esn (I believe) kindly maintains, as up to date as possible in spare time.


There you'll find all apps listed and links to their download sites across the 3 app sites and individual dev's pages aswell, along with links to their discussion threads on the various forums, which is very useful in finding the troubleshooting steps, or set up tips etc, prior to making new threads about software.
 
would still be nice if we got most of the apps that arent on repo, and get them on there by contacting authors, stuff like panplayer, vlc, zelda homebrew games, streaks facebook apps of course....
 
panplayer dev is nowhere to be seen anymore, I tried. I've asked sebt about his apps, and we all know streaks story
 
So you knew from the start, that your suggestion won't work? ;)
 
I'm also for bringing more of the already available Apps to the Repo. There are some left overs in the Archive that are not in the Repo, same for the (abandoned?) App Store and afaik even some stuff that is only linked in the Wiki.


I know that we can not put every app in the Repo for various reasons. But I'm sure some of the stuff can be integrated in the Repo without much trouble (contacting authors etc...). Operation "Bring them Home" or something like this. :D
 
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Is there some kind of competition between the maintainers of the archives, so that it needs to be taken into account that a maintainer wants to avoid that "his" PNDs are migrated to another archive?


Daniel
 
I think only the developer (or maintainer) should upload applications to the Repo. The non-PND content on OpenHandhelds is an issue, though you could PND it and have it open the content in the Thunar or a shell on launch instead.

Is there some kind of competition between the maintainers of the archives, so that it needs to be taken into account that a maintainer wants to avoid that "his" PNDs are migrated to another archive?


Daniel
There are some strong opinions about this. We have had several fierce arguments in the past. Craig appointed someone to upload applications to apps.openpandora.org without consent of the authors which prevented authors from updating it. At the same time the community was developing the Repo which was being put down by Craig as over-engineered and supposedly had poor-usability. Dig around a bit, there should still be threads about this.


[edit]So yes, there is competition between the archives and some developers hate apps.openpandora.org because of control, ownership and usability issues.


Here are some quick links:


What can we do to get you to work with the community?


Do you care about copyright?


licences again


licences on apps.openpandora.org


Can you please remove my app from the app-store


pandora app-store package ownership


There were some others. I think the main one is still missing, but I can't find the link quickly.


[/edit]
 
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So you knew from the start, that your suggestion won't work?

Knowing it won't work and really wanting it to work are two perspectives that can acknowledge each other, yet do not necessarily exist in the same universe... While being entirely possible that they exist within the same person.


A part of you knows that what you are about to do is unwise / illogical / impossible... Yet you do it anyway because 'wouldn't it be soooo awesome if it actually *does* work!


Amazingly, sometimes it does! :)


Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk
 
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okay, I think it's a quite simple measure:


Which ones of the archives have a direct connection to a maintaining application on the Pandora itself?


I only know if the Repo with PNDstore. And it works almost flawlessly.


Correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is the main argument for the Repo to be the archive, which should contain as much of the PNDs as possible.


If authors / PND maintainers prefer other archives to upload their PNDs, why not? But I think they should make sure that the PNDs are ALSO uploaded onto the Repo.


Daniel
 
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That would be logic, and if you read some of the linked threads, you will see, that it isn't always applicable. :(
 
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ehm... maybe modularize the Appstore application to get data from different sites ? it can use a configuration file for every single site to manage... so it can be even possible to add more stores


like the system jdownloader use to connect to VERY different from one to another kind of pages...


naturally some sites can have limitations about the pnd update if there's a lack of information on the site... but at least you can see and download the pnd directly


I can help to make/maintain updated those configuration files in case of changes on some site
 
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ehm... maybe modularize the Appstore application to get data from different sites ? it can use a configuration file for every single site to manage... so it can be even possible to add more stores
It is and it can, just not from either apps or the old archives. Neither of these have any simple interface for an application to access the data from, they would have to resort to a screen scraping in order to get the information which is a challenge to do and can be fragile: if even one part of the page changes, it can throw off the entire scrape so the data comes up bad.


The repo implements an interface that was designed and agreed upon by the developers that would be using it. Any other website can also implement this interface and PNDStore will be able to just pick up everything in that repo as well, no problem.


If the archive and the app store had their own interfaces (it doesn't necessarily have to match the repo interface, just something that will work and won't break things) then I'm sure that format could also be added to PNDStore, but the archive is quite old and probably not worth updating, and Craig has often spoken poorly of such interfaces, so neither is very likely to change.
 
I imagine this would be an impressive and ground breaking feat... But I propose the creation of the Pandora Wiki downloader Bot.


Not only should it mine links to find the pnds/software, but it should also scan the linked threads and download as pdf (or equivalent doc. format). Initial scans will obviosly not be optimized, but the documents should be made editable, and the config of such edits (once approved by the maintainer) be added to the pnd of the Wiki downloader Bot.


Specific configs for the unique requirements of downloading certain pnds could be added to the Wiki downloader pnd on a trial an error basis.


I only suggest this as as of yet, no alternative solution has been forthcoming. I welcome and challenge anyone else to come up with a more efficient automated alternative.


EDIT: Clearly I have no idea what I'm talking about.
 
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if even one part of the page changes, it can throw off the entire scrape so the data comes up bad.

but this is the same problem of jdownloader, and it works, there's only the need of a maintainer


anyway tomorrow i have time lo loose to study the structure of those sites, and maybe i'll make some script to list all the pnds just for fun
 
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