I am all new on skinning but before that I was my self (from back in
Atlantis days) also
an average user. I've follow all the discussion on this and I like to point
some facts
from skinner and user perspective (I hope ?).
1. First of all, this is an open and free project which exists and
maintained in some
people's free time. This is very important and we should not forget and that
goes
especially to the users.
2. The important thing is to keep the average users happy but always with in
mind
point 1 as a rule. IMO the order by importance is...
a)Team XBMC b) Addon's authors c) Users.
3. Team members should control and push skins to the official repo in the
possible easiest
way. They have already enough things to work and worry about from keeping
official repo
become a playground.
4. Skinners should not limit the skins to a guidelines, they will all end up
looking the same.
Authors should have the freedom to do anything they want. Limiting skinners
in the creative
process to provide a better and easier to use skin is wrong.
5. Skins are a personal thing and more to the end user. Like Jonathan said
we need to ensure
that the user has more control on them in all stages.
So... my opinion on how to do this, is like this...
1. First, i think is time the addons to have a Settings Dialog. After all
the add on system it became
a very important part of the XBMC. With that dialog we could give users the
ability to full control how
the addons installs, updates and backup. Possible options :
- Notify for any updates (marked by the author with a flag as minor or
major update)
- Download and Install Updates automatically
- Download but ask user before installation
- Do not Download any Updates
- Backup skin and skin settings before update.
- Backup all skins settings now.
- Clear package folder. ("No version rollback after this" message appears)
(Note : These applies only in skins but in the future may apply to all
addons with different settings):
Keep in mind that the important thing is to keep the above settings for
every skin maybe in "addonsettings.xml" file similar to "guisettings.xml".
So... everything stays as they are and the only thing that we have to do is
add flag in addon.xml that indicates
major or normal updates. The control by the Team is the same, the authors
are free to do as they feel is
best for they skins and the users can control everything.
My native language is not English. I did my best to explain it how I have it
in my mind. If something sounds non understandable you know why.
Cheers
Nessus
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