If you look back at the last few months of app releases, it's obvious that a large number of them are taken up by a small number of apps that have a rapid release cycle. Several apps have been updated 6 times, while other significant apps have been sitting in the queue since early December.
I know we have limited resources here, and I respect the huge amount of work done by the devs, which is why I worry that rapid release apps are taking up more than their fair share of their energies.
I don't have an answer; we are dedicated to Mozilla's apps especially, and they are the worst offenders. I personally would love it if Moz would take over the responsibility of releasing .paf.exe's, but I don't expect that to happen.
Please don't take this as a criticism of the work done here, it's all been excellent. We are at the mercy of the release schedules of the original devs, and they have WAY more employees than PA.c.
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Are rapid release apps overtaking the release schedule?
February 11, 2012 - 10:51am
#1
Are rapid release apps overtaking the release schedule?
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No you're not. You're at the mercy of whoever made the decision to try and keep up with the companies with "WAY more employees". Those companies didn't make that your requirement.
Ed
PA needs to "create" a "special team" to handle just the Zilla updates, with another one to handle the rest?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
But I think John is really probably the only one familiar enough with Mozilla's apps to be able to efficiently handle the updates soon after their original counterparts are released.
But perhaps these "other," also popular apps--AkelPad, Audacity, Blender, Gimp, and others--could have their own team with tons of free time to work on it.
I may be getting a brand new Ultrabook next week, and possibly broadband later this month, if all goes well. I'll might even be able to triple my time in front of the monitor and online, and can get some work off the pile if we need to.
About John and ZIlla seems like Zilla and Chrome are on this rapid update which is a killer for other apps IMHO not sure was just a thought
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
uTorrent has had as many updates, and it seems like the last few it's not even changing version numbers, just builds - plus I haven't found the release notes for those builds, so it's hard to say why these updates are even necessary...
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
I understand about the "Flagship" programs and am a proponent of always running the most up to date software. My concern is that IMHO things are getting spread to thin
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Exactly, I would absolutely love to take over releases for AkelPad, but I don't have authoring on SourceForge.net.
I need people to build and confirm packages and then upload them somewhere for me to grab and release as well as either link to the source for that version, or if it's under Git/Hg/VCS, pull it out and zip it up. And I mean a fully compiled launcher (latest PAL and NSISu) and fully compiled PAF.exe. "Releasing" them on SF is easy. Packaging them and gathering the source (if necessary) is the actual grunt work. But devs seem to be bowing out of actually building the apps their names are on.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I didnt realise you needed to search for the source.I know its required by the GPL but I never fully thought it through. I hope that from now on I think about including it into my release-notice-emails.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Of creating a page with the apps developers and status so if a dev seems to have disappeared we know what to do as far as picking up the slack?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
I've always thought zip was better than paf.exe when sending them over to you...
And, specifically, what about Notepad2-mod's source code? I thought about zipping everything here but it doesn't look like everything was the source code? In the next update would I send the bin, distrib, res, or everything when I'm bringing in an update?
I prefer a PAF because I've had too many developers sending me ZIPs which don't properly compile into an installer or which include extra things like thumbnail database for images (ala old-school Windows XP). If you're sending me a PAF, then I know you've ensured that it actually compiles into a package and (hopefully) checked that it will install and upgrade an existing install.
As for sources, if you can scout out a download link to the source as a tar.gz or bz file, that's great. Just include that information on where to find it in the email. If the project keeps their source in a source management system (Git, Hg, SVN, etc), please pull down the associated source and then 7z it up and stick it somewhere I can get it. If you don't do this, then I have to take the time to do it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I think John should allow some members to do official updates/releases. Chris is already an admin, and I think Zach should be; though, it'd have to be up to them regarding time and whatnot if they were able to do it. The release team now is nice, and they're doing a decent job as far as new apps goes and moving some apps to PAL, but it still inevitably ends up relying on when John has the time to do the updates and releases. (e.g. Pingus has been ready to go for awhile and the release team has 'signed off' on it, but it's still up to John to post it.)
The main issue is that so many devs don't update their apps. We don't need more admins, we just need devs to update their apps in a timely way. As well as devs to take over for devs that have dropped off the map (computerfreaker, OliverK, etc). A huge percentage of the apps I've been updating have been apps from other devs that they are no longer maintaining or that they aren't updating soon after new versions are released.
The reason we're not yet doing a flood of new apps is because we're still waiting on the Drupal upgrade so the actual release process is less labor intensive and the updater INI can be entirely database driven.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Understandable (on both parts). I've been somewhat active in getting my own apps updated, but I suspect I'll have much more free time next quarter so I'm willing to take over a few more apps if desired.
As far as the latter, I wasn't aware that was causing the wait. That'll be nice having some of the process automated.
Do you have a list of the apps you'd like people to take off your hands? I have noticed that at the bottom of each app page is listed the Publisher: and all too often it just says "PortableApps.com" or "PortableApps.com (John T. Haller)".
Perhaps you could even indicate on the app page or the release post that you are actively looking for a new dev for that app?
In reading your comment about devs that have dropped off the map, it made me think that the flip side of the rapid-release problem is the blue moon release. Apps such as Audacity only release a new version every 9 to 12 months or so, so unless a dev is here for the long term, they may only be around for 1 or 2 releases, which makes it hard to dedicate yourself to that app, I guess.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
Kids grow up, students graduate, retirees develop new interests. We're not talking about employees. Accept the apps for what they are, temporary hobbies.
Ed
1. People could at least say, "Hey! I'm not interested on maintaining apps anymore!" instead of just going silent.
2. # of new devs
Previously known as kAlug.
Perhaps someone should go through the entire Beta Testing forum, redo the Development Test list and create an orphan section on it or something? To me that seems like the logical way, although you'd need a couple of people to do it. Who's up for the A-Team? (A is for both adoption and awesome)
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
I've been meaning to do that (maybe not add an orphan list, but at least update the dev test page), I just never have the time as that's a LOT to go through for one person. I'm certainly willing to help though.
Along with that, I think outdated (either released, taken over by someone else, link doesn't work, etc.) threads to be locked and removed from the dev test page to keep the beta testing forum clean.
A little while back, I went through the dev test page and moved a bunch of apps to the outdated list. Still a bunch to go through, though.
RE: locking threads - I agree.
I just sent a (partial, though rather large) list of outdated threads (released, taken over, dropped, etc.) to Chris and Zach asking if they'd be willing to help out.
Editing the list is a good start, but there's also the actual side of trying to get them out of the list and into the official apps. I'm going to try getting at least some of that done, although with a horrible net connection it's going to be slightly difficult.
I call dibs on UnrealIRCD and Rainlendar2!
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
Rainmeter needs an update.
Haha yeah, all the addons were really hard to manage in the portable sense as all the addon devs had their own two cents about how it should be done. I'll get the 2.3 beta going, then when 2.3 final is released I'll drop it over the top and give it some testing.
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
Any chance that there will be releasing more new apps?
If you had read the thread, you would have found your answer.
Look:
https://portableapps.com/news
Hint: Today is February 13.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
I think (s)he meant *new* apps, not updates.
I really appreciate that people have taken my post in the positive spirit in which it was meant, and it's great to see such a constructive discussion about the subject.
While I am not a dev, I think I could help out on at least one orphan app. Or in any way that might help relieve the workload to help expedite app releases - I'm open to suggestions
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
It appears Gord has been taking some of the apps that have been listed in the outdated apps thread for awhile and doing them himself. I don't know the extent of your knowledge on updating an app, but you could start there (perhaps another time though, as John seems to be pushing out the whole list by the end of tonight).
I'd be happy to take on an app or two as well.
While my skills with language switching still need (a lot of) work, in most other respects I can handle the process of making and testing portability.
On a slightly different note, would it be worth in some cases splitting up the jobs of packaging and gathering source for an app, so those with the wish to assist but without the skills in making apps portable could still help out? I know it isn't a huge deal, but there may be some who would like to assist with gathering source (me personally, I'd rather do the packaging).
If not, would it be worth adding a "link to source" line to the Dev Test template in the beta testing forum? This might save a couple of minutes searching for source when elevating an app from dev test to official.