[PD] package system for Pd WAS: Plugin auto install feature to Pure data

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

While I agree with all this, we don't need a full design spec to start coding.
 I think the next step is for someone to put together a rough prototype to
start with, rather than get bogged down in the details of something that has
been talked about for years, but never implemented :-)

Then it can be implemented bit by bit as people have time and interest.  So
the first question to ask before starting it:  which language?  Is Tcl
workable for people?

.hc

On 02/05/2013 10:36 AM, Charles Z Henry wrote:
> I think that it's a great idea--but the devil's in the details.  I think
> you need to have a good guiding vision to help you make the decisions about
> the implementation--a top-down design
> 
> On the client side, you have to have information about what packages are
> installed, where they're installed, what flavor of pd they are installed
> for, version information, more?
> Dependencies:  within Pd, you could be distributing patches that require
> some externals--I think it's best for a Pd package system to only reference
> dependencies that include other abstractions or externals, not system
> libraries.
> Maintenance:  a system like this needs to be *easy* to maintain---only a
> few binary targets can be supported.  The rest will need to compile from
> source.
> 
> I would start out like this.... make a list and argue point-by-point until
> you have a clear plan.
> Not that I'm much one to *complete* my projects... but I have a lot of
> insight on failing :)
> 
> 
> On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 3:10 AM, colet.patrice <colet.patrice at free.fr> wrote:
> 
>> Hello, that's a quite interesting subject I've been thinking about for pdx
>> since a time, thank you for the contribution... like you said it might be
>> complicated to resolve all dependences required by an external, so I think
>> that adding other dependences like php sql or json would make it even more
>> complicated... Why not just using the native client interpreted langage,
>> TCL-TK? With the help of a command line like wget included with the tcl
>> script and a bunch of pkg files that should be enough, wouldn't it?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -------- Message d'origine --------
>> De : fls at rendera.com.br
>> Date : 03/02/2013 20:22 (GMT+00:00)
>> A : pd-list at iem.at
>> Objet : [PD] Plugin auto install feature to Pure data
>>
>>
>> Hi list
>>
>> I would like to write before but unfortunately I couldn't. Some weeks ago
>> people started to talk about the development of some auto install
>> mechanism to Pure Data, like the apt-get. It is an amazing idea. I
>> researched and developed some thing like it to my master degree and I
>> would like to contrib with my 3 cents.
>>
>> I studied the plugin structure of Netbeans, Eclipse, Fire Fox, deb and rpm
>> and my contribution is about it. Sorry if I am a little bit prolix.
>>
>> The first thing is to create a plugin package. A a single file to group a
>> lot of files. It can be a zip package, tar, gzip or anything that already
>> has some C open source API to pack / unpack. This way we can upload /
>> download a single file and extract it localy. I will call it the package.
>>
>> Inside the package is necessary to have a package descriptor. It can be a
>> XML file, CSV, txt, JSON or any kind of structured file to describe the
>> content of the package. This file should have the information about the
>> plugin like the author, version, website, license, OS, dependencies,
>> compatibility with PD "flavors" (vanilla, extended, Lork ....),
>> pre-installation script, post-installation script, uninstall script, key
>> words, ...
>>
>> Pre and post installation script are used to create SQL tables, files or
>> other things. Maybe it is not useful in PD. Uninstall script should clean
>> the mess if you want to remove a plugin. Dependencies is a complex problem
>> because it should care about libraries and circular dependencies. Maybe it
>> is the hardest problem to solve.
>>
>> These two things will define the PD plugin: The package file and the
>> plugin descriptor inside the package. The package structure should be
>> defined as a standard. So we should agree, for example, about the name of
>> the descriptor, the folder where the plugin will be and the name of the
>> package file. Probably a package file can be the name of the
>> external.version.something.pd_pkg.
>>
>> In PD we should have a list of installed plugins. It can be a directory
>> with all the plugin descriptors. The user might be able to install new
>> plugins manually. It means a local file in my machine that I choose. PD
>> will open the package, copy the content to the correct folders and copy
>> the descriptor the the correct folder. The uninstall option will do the
>> oposite, delete the plugin descriptor and delete the plugin files.
>>
>> To update from the web, a plugin repository need to be defined. The client
>> should have a list of repositories address. (It is good because different
>> flavors can have their own plugin repositories and the users can choose
>> which one they want to use.)
>>
>> The plugin server can be implemented with a HTTP server. It will publish
>> the list of available plugins on the server. This list can be the list of
>> package descriptors in a tar / zip file. Locally, PD will keep these
>> lists, one for each server, and it will be used to look for new plugins.
>> Add a new server means add the server to the repositories list and
>> download the plugin list of the new server.
>>
>> Since PD has a list of local installed plugins, if you want to check for
>> updates PD compares the servers plugin lists with your local list. Easy
>> task. Different versions should can be shown and the user would be able to
>> choose what to update. These descriptors can be useful also to search for
>> plugins by author, version, key words, versions, ...
>>
>> Update a plugin means to create a list of update, download the packages to
>> a temp directory and install them locally.
>>
>> Just to step foward, the server can have a web interface with some PHP
>> programming, for instance, that automatically update a package, extract
>> the descriptor, put it in the correct folder and put the plugins in the
>> correct folder. Just to be easier to maintenance.
>>
>> Another tool can help developers to pack. Since I did a new plugin I can
>> select the folder, fill a form with the meta-data and the tool will create
>> the package automatically.
>>
>> That's it. Sorry if I wrote too much.
>>
>> cheers
>>
>> f schiavoni
>>
>>
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