Recently, besides developing PAL (I might get PAL 2.1 Beta 1 out today or tomorrow), I've been trying to make testing the major thing I do, rather than producing new apps. At the moment I'm also preparing for exams over the next few weeks, so my progress is slower than I'd like. But then, I also don't get any Uni assignments, which helps.
Here is my current list of existing apps I'm planning on testing and heading towards release if they're ready:
- Fyre (done)
- Speccy
- Maxima
- Scribus (not sure what's happening with 1.3.8?)
- wxDev-C++ (also I'll be finishing off my own Code::Blocks Portable 10.05, and checking MinGW Portable which is related and should be released together with either of these. Code::Blocks seems more popular by Google page count than wxDev-C++ and Dev-C++ together, incidentally.)
- SuperTuxKart
- Game Booster
If you have any suggestions of other apps that you would like tested and released (your own or someone else's), please comment. It's hard choosing the apps which should be released - I don't think we intended the table at development/test to have as many rows as it currently has (234) when we designed it - even how many we had at the time two years ago (108 at the first revision on record) was more than we liked.
I should also add that apps using PAL will receive preference; it's a lot more efficient testing them than hard-coded launchers. I'm unlikely to really test properly any non-PAL apps before I've cleared the list of ones using PAL.
- Chris Morgan's blog
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Comments
RE: Scribus
I have a more or less fully working copy of 1.3.8 ready, with one major exception: the app is not recognizing the HOME=%PAL:DataDir%/settings instruction. I'll post the full ini as soon as I am able to do so.
Discussing with them
I'm actually discussing with the Scribus team just now what's happening with Scribus Portable, with the view of getting them to adopt it as an official build, as e.g. Inkscape did. I'll give you more info as things come up.
My Christmas Wish List ;)
There's a lot here but well hopefully be a good reference when looking for test candidates. What's worse is knowing there are a lot of other gems still hidden in the fora.
Good luck
Ant Renamer (Development discontinued but still great working app)
Avidemux
Battle For Wesnoth
BleachBit
Bos Wars
Calibre (Issue with dependency which you have previously commented on)
CCleaner
D-Fend Reloaded (Not on this website however the dev has been releasing PAF builds)
Data Crow
Defraggler
Disk Cleaner
GZDoom
EZQuake
FreeCiv
FreeCol
FreeRapidDownloader
Gantt Project
Google Earth
Hedge Wars
ImgBurn (Development discontinued but still great working app)
IOBit Toolbox (Other IOBit apps included as I commented in the thread would be awesome)
Money Manager EX
MP3Tag
PDF-XChange Viewer
PicPick (Very recent discontinued development but still a great app)
Pingus
Pool Rebel (Application developer created this PAF build)
Red Eclipse
RegShot
Revo Uninstaller
Sauerbraten
Spybot S&D
Sweet Home 3D
System Explorer
Universal Explorer
Widelands
WinAmp
Windows Error Lookup Tool
Wormux
wxDownloadFast
XMedia Recode
Ahh...
Now *that* is the sort of thing I was hoping for. It's a fairly hefty list, though; would you care to change it to a priority queue rather than lexicographically sorted list? If we have a nice top-to-bottom list to go through it would be good. I think we should give priority to instances where the app developer has made the portable version of their own app.
As an aside, it looks like I may be discontinuing Sweet Home 3D Portable (because of this).
(Long list of links... looks just like some of our spammers do...)
Sweet Home 3D
That's a bummer about Sweet Home 3D... so basically the developer of that app wants the portable version to have the same name (i.e. no "portable") and refuses to let PortableApps use their own directory structure for the app (in a broad sense)?
Being ostracized for trying to follow standards... I know that feeling.
That's a pity, I think the developer would have gotten a lot of exposure to his app through PortableApps.
SH3D
Ouch. Is it just my imagination or is the developer reacting stand-offish in his responses? I can't help but think he's just come off or is in the middle of some sort of license dispute.
Just to clarify, the actions he wants taken are:
My thoughts are:
Personally I don't think any of the actions are show stoppers. I don't see a benefit from any of them however I'm not a dev so there's obviously a lot here I don't pick up on. I would hope though that if the application was released and the dev saw the pick up in popularity that he received as a result he might see the wisdom in relaxing this conditions for trademark usage.
My 17 cents.
Yes, Strange Attitude
What confused me, and perhaps I didn't read the thread clearly is that the developer is going on about free software, and freedom, and the spirit of freely giving, but then he has all these little caveats and restrictions. I guess it is his prerogative but it seems a little contradictory.
As you say, none of them are show-stoppers per se but the whole point is that PortbleApps are meant to adhere to a standard that has been carefully defined and refined over the past couple of years. If you ignore that standard for one app, you might as well not bother having any standards at all.
SuperTuxKart
There is a bug related to resolution switching/full screen which is reported to be gone once 0.7 is released. Besides that, 0.7 will have all tracks and such redone so I think they are doing a major overhaul Maybe we wait till then to go official?
Vote?
What about a vote thread where people can suggest things?
I don't think there is a drupal module for that but maybe...?
+1
Drupal Voting Systems Group
Have run before
We have run polls before - about Audacity. The problem with this is that we really need support for write-ins and either approval voting or Borda count voting... surprise surprise!
John: I'd suggest we install the Advanced Poll module which does all of this, then I can play around with setting that up for the Release Team as a whole, to get an idea of the apps that people want released. Edit: 6.x version is dev, so you probably don't want to do that.
Decisions is marked as stable, and has all the functionality, except write-ins. Still looking to see if I can find a better one - one which integrates with CCK so that you could have the node type and select any node in Beta Testing would be best, then you don't need to worry about people typing in the slightly different things (only using older threads), and you get a link to it immediately, too.
My two cents
There's been some talk of cleaning things up with regards to apps in development. I'm wondering if there are firm plans to introduce a dynamic database that users can query, to see what apps are being development and what the status of their development is. The most logical thing to do in my mind is to have some mechanism in place that allows users to vote on apps currently being developed, such that the most popular apps bubble to the top first. As much as we might like to see Rick's Automated Nonsense Doohickey Options Manager* Portable, if only 2 users are going to download it then it probably shouldn't be very high on the priority list. Apparently Google Chrome Development Beta 12 slated for 2014 release should be high on the list though, since everybody is using it as their day-to-day browser it would seem. You get the point.
As a general note, I don't think it would do any harm to flesh out the games section with a few more quality open source titles. That will attract a more general audience. I'd be inclined to release the apps with the broadest appeal first.
From Horus's list, FreeCol or FreeCiv, Battle for Wesnoth and EZQuake are probably games titles that stand out as being very popular. Among the apps, I love Disk Cleaner, and I've used Money Manager Ex (one of the better Finance Managers and a lot smaller than GNUCash). Spybot is also a hugely requested app for portabilization.
*No offense intended if their is such an app.
[Post title changed from "MyTwoCents.com" to "My two cents" as the former is an ad-infested parked domain - mod Chris]
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I think Battle for Wesnoth is good, first app I have done without any known bugs.