So I was looking at the iPhone stuff and they actually have something that's really cool. It's an application that will automatically download and install 3rd party apps. I think that something like this on the Iliad would be great. This would make things very easy for users to automatically download and install programs and viewers.
This is what I think it would need to do/have.
- Make the initial installation easy. Perhaps a self extracting shell script, or a windows installer. This way the user can put it anywhere and run it on their iLiad. They shouldn't have to unzip it.
- You should have the option to configure where you want your programs to be stored. This should be able to be changed whenever is necessary. This should be able to be accomplished with symbolic links with /usr/local/ pointing to the configured location.
- Configuration and package lists should be done with XML files. This way updates to the available packages can be made without recompiling the program.
- The program should use the default connection manager so the user does not need to create new profiles for internet connectivity.
I see the program as using the same interface as the contentlister and/or the settings application. Perhaps we can convince iRex to release part of their source so that we can use it as a basis for this model.
Any other ideas/thoughts/suggestions? I don't think that I have the coding ability to create this, so if someone wants to step up, it would be great.
Then again, maybe it's time for me to dig further into GTK and give it a try.
