On Tuesday 23 January 2001 22:44, you wrote:
> >> There should be only ONE official package version and this meant to be
> >> the best one. More than one version of the package for the same game
> >> will only bring confusion.
> >
> >I'll have to think about that. Is seems a bit too centralized for my
> > taste, but there are some advantages to it.
>
> If we keep the TWO ways we can get the advantages of both methods. We
> have the creator identify/e-mail in a field, used by users that want to use
> alternative packages. But we also have the official database version, which
> is used by emulators to decide if the actual official version is outdated
> or not.
I'm starting to understand what you're saying. Basically, you want a package
manager for .msx files, right? It can inform the user of a more recent
version of a package and help the user download it.
I think we can add support for this in the standard, without actually making
it a requirement of the standard. So we would be allowing a centralized
packaging system without forcing its use upon emulators using .msx files.
The info file would include identification of the packager and the package
version. For example:
GameID=penadv
Packager=mth
PackageID=2001-01-23
But I'm not sure we need to specify an official packager in the standard. On
the net, "official" is something that evolves, rather than being appointed.
For example, when the web just started, Mosaic was the browser nearly
everyone used. Later that became Netscape. And currently IE is used by a vast
majority of people. But there was never an official browser.
In the MSX world, The Ultimate MSX FAQ is referred to as "the MSX FAQ",
because it's the largest and best maintained FAQ today. But it has earned
that reputation, rather than being appointed.
Is this approach acceptable to you?
About the PackageID: I really prefer to use dates rather than a single
number. The difference is 9 bytes per game, so that's 9K for 1000 games. I
think that's an acceptable overhead.
Bye,
Maarten
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