Hobbes (Files) Reoganization

[Ian B Manners]

Hi Lars,

Was that the problem with the incorrect signature of USBU instead of USBS in the status block?
I have a USB filter driver (it's rather the driver from EXIGEN to show the filter concept) that fixes that on the fly. Without any need to change USBMSD.ADD. That filter driver is in my USB repo. I never released it but I could.

Not sure, I assumed (probably wrongly) that Olympus did what Canon did and that required a special driver to access the cameras storage. Looking at the patch, which I cant remember if I did back then, looks like its was an incorrect signature though I think Olympus did that on purpose. I had an Oly camera back then that required that patch but as soon as the E series came out, upgraded to get rid of both the camera, and the patched USB driver.

[Ian B Manners]

Hi Martin,

Keep in mind that NMSU probably do not want to change to much, it is for student's to do a final test of code on, it needs to be a stable server for at least that semester, a server that has known variables that have been documented for the students to use in writing code to test for their semester marks, radically changing it would very likely mean rewriting course manuals, and that can involve the exams department, legal, and other University departments. It can be a right royal pain for whoever is charged with looking after the archive, like Curtis, who also has other duties.

Ian, how easy or hard to use is the script you use at OS2Site (FilePage?) ? Is it something that you created customized for your use? or it is something public?

Filepage is written in C, I have the code but as parts are written by someone else, and other parts are written by persons unknown, I can only release the code I have written and changed which looks a bit weird without the rest...

Latest version of Filepage is available at http://www.os2site.com/sw/internet/util/ and is currently filepage401.zip.
All the file descriptions are simply listed in a text file called descriptions, and the entire site is setup using one config file, the archive file contains an example.

After this month is finished at my University, I will be happy to go over how it works, and even change the code and recompile if that is needed to create something that you are after but it has been designed to be highly configurable, down to colors, column names etc. I don't think it would be hard to add the description for a file in a listing from a file with the same name but a different extension such as .xml, I simply find it easier to put all the descriptions into one text file. The page headers/banners and footers are located in separate files. Filepage is simple, and very fast at creating index.html files, the exe is currently OS/2 only but it should also be easy enough to port to anything that uses C.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Ian

Keep in mind that NMSU probably do not want to change to much, it is for student's to do a final test of code on, it needs to be a stable server for at least that semester, a server that has known variables that have been documented for the students to use in writing code to test for their semester marks, radically changing it would very likely mean rewriting course manuals, and that can involve the exams department, legal, and other University departments. It can be a right royal pain for whoever is charged with looking after the archive, like Curtis, who also has other duties.

I don't know about it, maybe you have more information. Is the hobbes server also used for student practice? I haven't see any change in hobbes for some time. I don't know if the server is supposed to provide any service to the students while it also offer hobbes (OS/2 files) to the world.

I had sent again an email to Curtis and see if I can get more privileges to work to improve hobbes, like processing incoming directory, relocating files, improving file names, short and long descriptions, and possible removing old versions releases of software.

As an idea, maybe we can work on OS2Site, to create an alternative file path location on the ftp when we can reorganize "ALL PUBLIC" OS/2 related files and turn it into the  "FULL Repository" with all versions of the software we can get.  Maybe I can work on the "/MARTIN/" to start drafting the idea, if you agreed to give me full access to it. ftp?

Regards

Note: I had corrected the "ALL" to "ALL PUBLIC" trying to find out what freaked some people for something that does not even exist yet.

[Martin Iturbide]

Note: I removed Doug, Lars and my rant since I'm the OS2World moderator and I didn't want to fall into the game.

I will discuss how to reorganize and preserve OS/2 files in hobbes or any other site. It is a non-profit effort for the community and it will fall under the US Copyright Law 107 (Fair Use).

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

I'm trying to understand the difference between:
- /pub/os2/apps/wps - Workplace Shell related applications
and
- /pub/os2/util/wps - WorkPlace Shell/Presentation Manager utilities.

I'm not sure where should "desktop enhancement" software should be located, under "util" or "apps" ?

Regards

[Lars]

Under UTILS. An APP is something standalone, serving a main purpose. A util is something that supports the user in interfacing with his computer.
But of course, that will always be arguable.

[Martin Iturbide]

Under UTILS. An APP is something standalone, serving a main purpose. A util is something that supports the user in interfacing with his computer.
But of course, that will always be arguable.

Yes, it is arguable, and I agree "desktop enhancements" should be under UTILS.
..but if
- XWP and XFolder should be consider WPS Utilities (under /pub/os2/util/wps).
- And there is already a structure for each kind of app.  For example, a WPS Calendar is a wps app (/apps/wps)  but there is also "/apps/calendar" which seems the correct place.
It will make "/pub/os2/apps/wps" empty.

Regards

[Ian B Manners]

Hi Martin,

I don't know about it, maybe you have more information. Is the hobbes server also used for student practice? I haven't see any change in hobbes for some time. I don't know if the server is supposed to provide any service to the students while it also offer hobbes (OS/2 files) to the world.

Going on what I know about Computer Science at University of Western Australia, the files are likely to be archived and moved from incoming at or towards the end of a semester as students present their finished code to be tested on the server. If it does not work as planned, then I would hope its restored from backup. I have not asked Curtis about any of this, its simply an assumption going on what I know of university group and individual assignments at several universities I've been acquainted with over the years.

[Lars]

Under UTILS. An APP is something standalone, serving a main purpose. A util is something that supports the user in interfacing with his computer.
But of course, that will always be arguable.

Yes, it is arguable, and I agree "desktop enhancements" should be under UTILS.
..but if
- XWP and XFolder should be consider WPS Utilities (under /pub/os2/util/wps).
- And there is already a structure for each kind of app.  For example, a WPS Calendar is a wps app (/apps/wps)  but there is also "/apps/calendar" which seems the correct place.
It will make "/pub/os2/apps/wps" empty.

Regards

That goes beyond what you have been asking for.
I would refrain from moving things that already exist at their final place. Someone might have a link on some of that.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

Here goes another one.

I want to upload Uniaud-20210320.exe to hobbes. Should I replace all other older Uniaud versions available there. (like 22 versions of Uniaud) ??

It will not mean that all other older Uniaud version will be gone from earth, we have backups on netlabs, os2site and Internet Archive. It will be towards the idea that Hobbes should only have the latest version of software.

Regards

[Dave Yeo]

Seems to me that the ideal would be to leave the major releases, if that can be figured out.
Trimming down to the latest, while often a good idea, sometimes leads to replacing a good version with a not so good version. In the case of Uniaud, I've often heard of systems that need an older version.

[Andreas Schnellbacher]

Yes, I agree with Dave.

Plus: The programmer is the one who knows best which version should be kept.

The question seems to be a bit theoretical since more and more ancient drivers are uploaded. Even when someone prefers the original SPEA-V7 driver, I don't guess what's the benefit of keeping the older 2.02 release.

If they would be moved to a separate dir, I won't complain. But how about an older Uniaud driver then?

[Lars]

It's not zero or one. You can keep say the last 3 driver versions or so. But it would be helpful to clearly separate the very latest from the rest. The intention is: make a new user take the latest version. Only if that fails, should he delve into it more deeply and try an older version.

Maybe an archive directory with the very same sublayout as the existing main dir would help. Whenever something is superseded by newer stuff, then move the existing stuff to the same subdir in that archive directory.

I myself keep older versions of my USB drivers only for a limited time. But since I properly tagged my source files, I would be able to recreate exactly one specific version (for example, to recreate an error case).

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

These are the Uniaud version on hobbes.

Uniaud-20181126.exe   Uniaud Installer 2018-11-26
Uniaud-Installer-195-213.zip   UniAud Audio Driver Beta Installer (2010-04-20)
UniAud-Installer_1-0-9_20060325.zip   UniAud 1.0.9 Installer (2006-03-25)
UniAud-Installer_1-0-9_20060829.zip   UniAud 1.0.9 Installer (2006-08-29)
UniAud-Installer_1-0-9_20060830.zip   UniAud 1.0.9 Installer (2006-08-30)
Uniaud-Update-195-213.zip   UniAud Audio Driver Beta Update (2010-04-20)
Uniaud32_1-9-5_2008-07-16.zip   Uniaud32 v1.9.5 based on ALSA level 1.0.17 - 2008-07-16 - SVN revision 358
UniAud32_Resync_1-0-1.zip   UniAud32 Resync Driver 1.0.1 (2008/01/26)
UniAud_1-0-4b_20030425.zip   UniAud 1.0.4b Driver (2003-04-25)
UniAud_1-0-4_20021009.zip   UniAud 1.0.4 Driver (2002-10-09)
UniAud_1-0-4_20021031.zip   UniAud 1.0.4 Driver (2002-10-31)
UniAud_1-0-9_20050802.zip   UniAud 1.0.9 Driver (2005-08-02)
UniAud_1-1-2_2004-12-29.zip   Uniaud 1.1.2 (2004-12-29)
UniAud_1-1-4-RC4.zip   UniAud 1.1.4 RC4 Driver (2007/11/20)
UniAud_1-1-4-RC5_20080218.zip   UniAud 1.1.4 RC5 Driver (2008-02-18)
UniAud_1-1-4-RC6.zip   UniAud 1.1.4 RC6 Driver (2008/04/02)
UniAud_1-1-4-RC7.ZIP   UniAud 1.1.4 RC7 Driver (2008/11/22)
Uniaud_2-2-6_2020-05-06.exe   
UniAud_debug_1-1-4-RC4.zip   UniAud 1.1.4 RC4 Driver Debug Version (2007/11/20)
UniAud_debug_1-1-4-RC5.zip   UniAud 1.1.4 RC5 Driver Debug Version (2008/02/22)
UniAud_debug_1-1-4-RC6.zip   UniAud 1.1.4 RC6 Driver Debug Version (2008/04/04)
UniAud_debug_1-1-4-RC7.zip

Which ones should we keep in addition of the latest " Uniaud-20210320.exe" ?

My bet would be.

- Uniaud-20210320.exe                               Uniaud 3.01.01
- Uniaud_2-2-6_2020-05-06.exe   
- UniAud_1-1-2_2004-12-29.zip               Uniaud 1.1.2 (2004-12-29)
- UniAud-Installer_1-0-9_20060830.zip       UniAud 1.0.9 Installer (2006-08-30)
- UniAud_1-0-4_20021031.zip               UniAud 1.0.4 Driver (2002-10-31)

Trying to be the latest of each version, but I would also have to check the Netlabs ftp to be sure about it.
Any other bets?

Regards

[Dave Yeo]

That looks like a pretty good compromise as long as they're also archived somewhere else.