I accepted the ezPM bounty today.

The bounty describtion fits the basic needs.
Let's discuss ideas or features, any feedback is welcome. Maybe someone miss
a feature or other things...

Personally, I would like to see a "level" of checking. Just system stuff, common third party stuff, and maybe a few application specific items. I would love a simple "reporting" option as well as the option to fetch missing, corrupted, or old versions of libraries, mcc's, etc.

I have no idea ATM, just wanted to underline the fact that naTmeg did extremely good job with his former apps, so he should be encouraged ;)

cdfr and me dicussed last night: A good idea from him was to make a kinda "fingerprint" of the current system state at a given time of the day or manualy by the user. Every time the user connects to his selected servers, the possible new index will be downloaded and compared to the 'fingerprint'. So its not needed to scan the hd for every index-download :)

MOS-CD's come with md5-checksums for every file.
A similiar approach should give a somewhat fast result.

So is this a sort of app that will look at all the libs and classes to see if you have the most up to date and current files? That would be a great feature!

@Acill

Yessir, that is exactly what this is for. Anything that can help everyone (re: ME!) keep their (re: MY!) libraries and classes under control is verry appreciated

P.S.: I have moved ezPM from "Open" to "Assigned" and a big thank you to Todi for really putting the exclaimation on this bounty!

wow, thanks to the anonymous donator.
im working on the generator now. soon i will release a detailed project description of it...

naTmeg,

I think a good guide would be the QNX Package Manager system- some of it's features has been mentioned in the Bounty.
It has cdfr's fingerprint system, so you can get a listree overview of all apps installed on your system, and all the system files and resources, and what versions and requirements etc they have.
Also, it incorporates Targhen's idea of checking for all resources an app needed, and auto-downloading and installing them first if required.

Another nice idea it has, is after you have chosen your apps etc to download, and pushed the download button, it comes up with a page, with a list of apps that all have the same license (say GPL), and a `I Agree/Disagree' buttons, and then does this for each different license in your downloads. For commercial apps, it also allowed you to type in keyfiles/passwords in it's license screen. Once all this has been done, then the PM starts downloading everything and installing it for you, so you can then just go away and leave it, and do other things. :)
In Phoenix we also talked about, maybe adding the possibility of buying apps online as part of the PM system. I also had the thought of adding in a file sharing network, so apps could be downloaded off several people/sites at once.

The beauty of a PM sytem like this, is that as well as providing simple system/app management, if you have to re-install a system from scratch, with a PM you can just simply select what you want, and it does it all itself, as apposed to the Windows way- in which every app has to be installed by hand, and takes hours, to days of your time to do! IMO, computers should be heading in the PM direction anyway- empowering in the background, rather creating more work for people!

For this system to work better- app configs should be in ENV/ENVARC rather than in an apps home dir, which allows you to easily back up your system- ie: you just reinstall all your apps with the PM, and then copy back your backup of ENVARC. If ENVARC holds cdfr's fingerprint config, then the PM can have an option of reinstating the computer to last known configuration, at the press of a single button (or menu option)!
One more thing is needed too, and that is for user data (from apps- pics, documents etc) needs to be in one place (again for easy backup)-I'd use the Linux/Windows system, ie: have a home dir for each user, and a dir off that for each app, or type of data maybe- as the PM/OS would then be set up for multi-users, which IMO is where Amiga systems should be heading. (All the OS would probably then need to be multi-user, would be to have an ENVARC for each user).

I've also put together a complete user-friendly dir tree for categorisation of apps if you want it (it's used on the MDC under Labs- but the games section got cut back :/ )

I'll post more if I remember anything- and you're welcome to email me if you have any questions! :)

Cyas- Ants

[ Edited by Ants on 2005/8/15 10:33 ]

Hmm, this is some kind of "Windows Update" tool, but for third party software only and not for OS components?

I think it's a cool idea! Who knows, if this becomes something good, maybe the MorphOS team will adapt it in the future too?

Quote:

Wow, I have asked for something like this for ages. Will it require someone to maintaine a database of all the libs and classes? If so that will suck when the person gets tired of doing it. Could a way for it to search known sites for downloads of the files be added so we can just get a new file, run the app to check it against the ones installed and if its newer have it replace the files? That would be a nice system.

ezPM has a new name, MorphUp. The current donation system will still work with this new name, but the name is changing to be more Morphable!

Okay, I'm off to test out a new SSHCon beta

Quote:

MorphUP, that's a great name! "Updater", "up to date" and "PowerUP" reference ...

@takemehomegrandma

Yes, it would be used for OS components- it could be used to install anything- it'd just be up to the developer to create a package.

@Acill
Yes someone will have to maintain a repository of all apps, libs etc, but hopefully, as you say, it shouldn't be too much work, as the whole thing could be automated. Ie: each app (package) would have a descriptor file (I assume in XML), describing what dependancies it needs (libs, classes, versions etc), and those files will also contain a version number of their app, lib etc, so the PM server can automatically keep track on what it has stored.
Then as you mentioned, the PM client can then ask the PM Server if it has a certain version of a lib etc (package), and give the user a fail message, or go to the next Server in it's list to see if it has the package.
Note: this could be sort of be done with Aminet at present, as most files (or many), have a version field in the readme.

I think the best way would be to have the package descriptor file as a file in the package, rather than as a seperate file, as it makes things much tidier. Although it is a bit more annoying, as you have to unpack the package to get to it, but if it has a standard name, you can just extract that one file from the package when needed.

Also, I completely agree with ya, about having an ADT like interface on Aminet, which shows all new files that have been uploaded since you last checked! (This was something the QNX PM didn't have, and was really annoying :/ !)
You can just look through the list, and tick off the apps/etc you want, then press the install button, and it does the rest- cool (especially wehn combined with a the version auto-updater system! :)

For archiving packages, I'd suggest LHA2, as it has the best compression of any archiver (for general data), and doesn't require files to be TARed first to get better compression like BZIP2- and it's open source.

If a file-sharing network was built-in, it would be good to support a file being sourced from several sources at once, to provide more efficient bandwidth use (load balancing).

Also, we could still have the Amiga system of allowing more experienced users to customise the install more (Novice User, Experienced User, Expert User)- you could have a preference setting in the PM- on Novice (or Beginner) setting it would just install automatically. On higher settings, it could ask for all the preferences of all the apps to be installed first, then go away and install everything.

Another thing to consider, would be some space in the PM window for advertising- ie: as hosting Servers costs money- this could be an option for Servers to pay for themselves by hosting advertising. And the same window, could be used for graphics/symbol of app too- say when it's double-clicked on for more info.

PS: Good luck naTmeg- it's a major project- whoah! :)

Cyas- Ants


[ Edited by Ants on 2005/8/16 15:29 ]

Quote:
ojk my soudn funny but new name made me understand the bounty lol. I love the new name its alot better.

Oh, and just thought, it'll need to automatically run a Virus Checker over all packages before install- I know there are none for MOS at the moment, but there are some 68k ones that work.

Also, you may want to think about making this a project that runs on AROS, Amiga OS3.x, and Amiga OS4, so we all use the same universal system. And you may get more money and support for the project too, from maybe an AROS bounty and/or support from OS4 people! :)

- Ants

support from OS4 people!

Not with "MorphUp" name however .

Quote:


Why not doing that database in some wiki style - so every developer or someone else who finds a new version may track that in.

> Krashan on 2005/8/18 20:17:28

>> support from OS4 people!


> Not with "MorphUp" name however!

Hee, hee yeah that would be diplomatic!

>Acill

> Why not doing that database in some wiki style - so every developer or someone else who finds a new version may track that in.

Yeah, I suppose we could have a system like Aminet, so only the person that originally wrote a program etc, can update it; unless they tell the maintainer they're giving control to someone else. A Wiki like sytem would have passwords, which would make things easier.

- Ants

A first status report is avail, as well as some screenshoots...
http://member.ycn.com/~hausrup/downloads/morphup/

Quote:



I could not check ADT as I can not get to www.aminet.net.
However the point of MorphUP is that the client will check for updates several different packages servers and show you what is new (no need to browse on a dozen of sites every day to check if anything is new like so;e users do now).





[ Edited by cdfr on 2005/8/19 14:33 ]

@cdfr
>I could not check ADT as I can not get to www.aminet.net.

Try http://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/aminet/ although ADT uses FTP obviously.

> However the point of MorphUP is that the client will check for updates several different packages servers and show you what is new (no need to browse on a dozen of sites every day to check if anything is new like so;e users do now).

Yes, but the bounty is a little unclear, on the subject of showing new packages :/


@naTmeg
> A: Advertisements are surely not put into the application :)

Oh, I wasn't meaning them to be put into the PM- the QNX PM, allowed to the Server to have a picture file (or anim), which the Client could load and display on connection (for promotion)- and when the details of a package were looked at, the Client could load in a pic (or anim) for each package too. :)

Ps: Screenshots look great! :)

- Ants

@Ants: > Oh, I wasn't meaning them to be put into the PM- the QNX PM, allowed to the Server to have a picture file (or anim), which the Client could load and display on connection (for promotion)- and when the details of a package were looked at, the Client could load in a pic (or anim) for each package too. :)

Ok, thats an option :)

> See the hidden backup feature?

Ahh, so will it end up being a backup utility too- that would be very very nice, as it would give full system management of files from one program? :))

- Ants

Suggestion:

.Add a description string of the package and (optionnal) screenshot. (This doesn't seem to be present in the current Generator)

Leo.