Re: The Archive and 4.0
- Posted by ChrisB (moderator) Mar 19, 2009
- 895 views
Hi
[ ] 3.0 [X] 3.1 [X] 4.0 [ ] 4.1 [ ] 4.2
The problem there is what happens when we get to 5.0, 6.0, etc... That would begin to take up quite a lot of room?
Would that really take up a lot of room? You probably know about DB design than me.
Also columns are needed for OS (DOS, WIN, Linux, BSD), and categories (as already defined). Can most databases not just add columns as required, so that you can add on additional version numbers?
Should there not be some additional to adding and categorising libraries - ie if you are 4.0 compatible, you must be all 4.x compatible. I can see where difficulties may arise because of contributions of applications, ie an application written with 4.4 may not work with 4.2 as it uses some feature of 4.4, but this could be accommodated by stating in the freeform description that eu 4.4 is required.
File ownership - as I said, if the owner cannot be contacted, or can and wishes to release the library / application to abandoned or free status, then it should be free for anyone to pick up. Personally I think sourceforge is too top heavy for this (though I know many others disagree), but I have picked up a couple of libraries from Ray Smith (much lamented loss to Euphoria) (sqlite and allegro), and while I don't exactly maintain them, I do keep separate repositories on wikispaces, occasionally change one or two lines, and happily accept modifications and additions (credited to the author of course), and update the files myself. I don't if this would be an acceptable model or not. There should also be an authorised person permitted to release the file ownership to the new adoptive parent.
About maintaining versions for 3.x, 4.x, 5.x... Maybe instead of including a 3.x and 4.x directory in your .zip file, when you upload a new copy, if it's version attributes do not overlap previous ones, then it is considered a new file for that project. For instance, say there is a abc.e that does something really cool. It has a version for 2.5. You adopt it, update it to work in 2.5, 3.0 and 3.1. However, when it get's to 4.0, you make some really cool additions to it that was made possible by the standard library, or because of enums in 4.0, or some other feature. Now you upload a new script that the version flag is set to 4.0 only. Well, there is no overlap, thus, the system says this is the same package, but it should be a new file. The page may now look like:
Library: abc.e Description: Does something really cool. Files: 2.5 - 3.1.1 abc_25_311.zip Updated: 03/20/2008 [ Download ] 4.0 - 4.0.1 abc_400_401.zip Updated: 02/12/2009 [ Download ]
Yes, I like that idea.
Chris
