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Hobbes directory structure re-organization

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Martin Iturbide:
Hi.

I'm proposing a file structure reorganization at hobbes. I will like to have some discussion on the forum of what can be improved on the hobbes directory structure to store files.

I currently made a draft on Freemind about the structure based on the current one that hobbes use. I'm sharing this files for you to comment.  Fell free to modify it and present any option, or give any comments.

Regards
Martín

Doug Bissett:

--- Quote from: Martin Iturbide on May 30, 2013, 11:22:11 pm ---Hi.

I'm proposing a file structure reorganization at hobbes. I will like to have some discussion on the forum of what can be improved on the hobbes directory structure to store files.

I currently made a draft on Freemind about the structure based on the current one that hobbes use. I'm sharing this files for you to comment.  Fell free to modify it and present any option, or give any comments.

Regards
Martín

--- End quote ---

I doubt if your effort will be rewarded. You must remember that HOBBES is managed by a student, who is learning how to do such things. They rarely have enough time to manage what exists, never mind try changing it in more than the most minor ways. It appears that nobody else does much, if anything, with HOBBES, and a student isn't likely to learn enough, in 4 months, to be able to make large changes, without major disruptions. Plus, they need time to go to classes.

Then, there is the problem where there are thousands of posts, all over the internet, that link to files where they exist today. Changing HOBBES would likely break a lot of those links.

FWIW, I think that HOBBES is not well organized, but most of the problem is caused by those who upload things to inappropriate places. Reorganizing things, isn't going to fix that problem. It is, after all, a user operated service, with a little help from somebody at NMSU. It is usually pretty easy to do a search to find what you are looking for (as long as it has been properly described by the uploader), so there doesn't seem to be a pressing need for changes to HOBBES itself. However, if you want to encourage users to make more logical decisions about where to put things, and how to properly package (and describe) what they upload, the problem may be fixed, eventually. The other thing that could help, is to document all of the obsolete software that is at HOBBES, and see about getting rid of some of the overhead. Of course, as soon as something is removed, somebody will be looking for it.

Overall, I am very impressed with the way that HOBBES works, today. It is certainly not perfect, but it is better than most file repositories.

Dave Yeo:
I have to agree with Doug, and will add that the Hobbes today is much better then in the past. Some examples,
Here is an example from 1992, http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/project/os2/ftp/. Today it would probably be the develop subdirectory, all programs are archived with zoo, newest GCC is 2.2.2, much won't even run without recompiling or LIBPATHSTRICT along with the ancient EMX dll. In many ways a mess but interesting.
A couple of years later and it had changed quite a bit and the old stuff was gone, http://cd.textfiles.com/hobbesos2/. Everything there has been lost due to a re-organization and that is another problem with suggesting re-organization, be horrible if some student wiped it to start over.
More interesting CDs including a few more Hobbes archives at http://cd.textfiles.com/directory.html. Shame they don't have a LEO archive as that was the other large OS/2 repository before they lost everything in a crash  :-[

Martin Iturbide:
Hi

I understand your points, but I was offered an opportunity to improve hobbes and I think I must try at least to take the opportunity.
 
I take notice of the points:

1) What about the sites linking hobbes files?
2) We must encourage the file contributors to upload the files in the right places.
3) We need more active administration/moderation of the site. (to organize files)
4) Search is a very important service of the site.
5) If a migration/update happens, don't lost any files.

Doug, do you know the skills of the people involved at hobbes today? or you are just telling about your experience some time ago. I don't think we must disqualify nobody, specially when it is a community effort and nobody is paying hobbes to be online. 

My general question remains open for everyone. Do you want to help (or at least try) to reorganize hobbes directory structure to have a more modern site? Please check the structure I created and give me feedback about the structure.

Regards

Pete:
Hi Guys

Probably the most useful change would be getting hobbes internal linking to work.

The classic example is the link Return to homepage at the bottom of each webpage which does *not* return to homepage - http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/ - but instead reloads whatever page you are currently viewing. Some example urls that have this problem (it is the same problem on every page on the website I've visited):-

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-browse.php?dir=/pub/os2
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-browse.php?dir=/pub/os2/games
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-browse.php?dir=/pub/incoming&sort=date


Martins structure looks OK to me - but I claim no expertise in these matters.


Regards

Pete

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