CommonGBPVRUtilities

[HenkH]

I've downloaded a documentation file of the CommonGBPVRUtilities library on the Wiki site. It looks like this library contains some useful classes. I've managed to find the actual CommonGBPVRUtilities.DLL in the VideoLibrary plugin and I'm thinking of using it in my Plugin development.

However I doe have some questions on it's usage:
* is it actually meant to be a shared resource?
* how is it to be distributed? If it is is shared by many plugins it might be a part of the basic GBPVR distribution, in the mean time a seperate listing on the Wiki site might be useful.
* is it officially maintained, i.e. who is responsible for bug fixes (if needed) and enhancements?

If it is supposed to be a true shared resource (which I'm hoping for) it would be nice to have the sources somewhere in a CVS and to have the binary DLL in the official GBPVR distribution.

[Jeff]

I wrote the utilities originally as part of the Video Archiver plug-in and later pulled them out into a seperate DLL. The idea was to make it easier for others to create plug-ins and also to provide a common database for video plug-ins to share information. I am going to post an updated video archive plug-in in a few days that uses an update to the library. I will post an updated help file for the library after that as well as an example plug-in that uses the library. As to sharing the source, I am open for ideas as to the best way to do that. One thing I don;t want to see however is N variants of the DLL produced since that would destory my main goal of providing a standrad set of utilities toi help plug-in developers. Maybe someone like JasonF who has experience with sourceforge projects could help.

Jeff

[jasonf]

We could roll it into the widget library, since I guess by definition, it kind of fits (my original idea for the library was to have both graphical controls and useful functions--the common utilities certainly appears to be the latter).

The benefit of this is that it could be added to the CVS immediately without needing to create another project.

[sjwaste]

These are just my two cents, and by no means am I trying to impose my own ideas. Just my thoughts here:

I think keeping the graphic widgets and common functions in separate libraries is probably the best idea, for two reasons:

1. As of now, these are being maintained by two different people, and it seems the useful functions is developed alongside an existing plugin. I would suggest putting the common functions library into CVS or SF so that it can be maintained independently of the plugin for which it was originally developed (im not saying different authors, per se, just as a separate project so that nothing gets too specialized).

2. Graphical widgets and backend functions are pretty different from one another, and therefore will probably evolve at different rates. I would imagine the graphical components would eventually plateau sooner, whereas the common backend functions would evolve in a more steady pace as the GB-PVR feature set increases.

Sourceforge would be a good place for both, I think, just separately. Yeah, opening up your code does lend itself forking, but this is probably not likely to happen as long as the project is actively maintained. It's just easier for me or anyone else to submit our code additions/changes to the project keeper than it is to fork the entire codebase just to incorporate a few additions. As long as you're up on maintaining the codebase and releasing updates on a regular schedule, I doubt anyone would take the time to fork the code. Of course, if you don't have the time to maintain it, you could also take a volunteer that does to maintain and release updates.

Right now it seems like the developer community is (relatively) small, which can be an advantage. Getting this stuff organized now avoids headaches later, where a thousand developers are doing things a thousand different ways because nothing was implemented in the early stages.

Anyway, like I said, this isnt criticism at all. Just my suggestions.

[HenkH]

Quote[/b] (Jeff @ Mar. 18 2005,02:09)]One thing I don't want to see however is N variants of the DLL produced since that would destory my main goal of providing a standrad set of utilities to help plug-in developers.

This brings me to my other point: how is the library to be distributed? Or even more in general: how are plugins and skins to be deployed. I seems currently everybody is posting it as a ZIP file (with varying base directories ).

Ideally everything would be distributed as installer packages (e.g. the .MSI format), but I know (from past experiences) that you can't expect everyone to use the Windows installer...

As a start you could put version numbers (both .NET and DLL ones) in CommonGBPVRUtilities.dll, making it possible to distinguish between various versions.

[jasonf]

In the latest Solitaire plugin, you'll find a simple proof-of-concept installer (which also has it's own detailed page on the wiki under Plugin/Deployment).

I didn't want to continue distributing zip files that were extracted to some directory (and to your point, would that be to "devnz" or to "gbpvr"?), mainly because it required the user to manually copy files and folders after the zip had already been extracted (i.e., for skins). With the installer in Solitaire, all you have to do is run Setup.

[HenkH]

This setup program looks promising, but I think it needs some expansion to make it really usefull (sorry I'm not saying you didn't do good a good job), but you probably know that

[superdad]

An easy to use install maker (it's free of course) is Innosetup. It's a script based intall tool,like a light weight install shield.

There's another utility that makes innosetup really easy to make, and it's called ISTools. It's basically a GUI to Inno setup, writes your scripts for you.

I made one for my IM program, took about 5-10 minutes.

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php <--- Inno Setup
http://www.istool.org/ <--- ISTools

[Jeff]

I've used these before and they are good for basic setup. I don;t know how easy it would be, however, to use them to setup subdirectories under the GBPVR directory (and to locate the GBPVR directory itself). I will try to take a look at them again some time.

Jeff

[KingArgyle]

One other one to toss into the mix, and it will create MSI files, even with the freeware version.

http://www.advancedinstaller.com/