Suggestion for Emily on I7 Extensions Page
Al
1. When you update the I7 extensions page
with new/modiifed extensions, please make a posting to raif letting
us
know that you've done so
and/or
2. Possibly placing a link for a zipped file with ALL the extensions
so that they they can be downloaded and users can update their
extensions folders (Mac/PC) every time new/modified extensions
are placed on the page.
Ron Newcomb
The RSS feed already fulfills #1!
-R
Al
> The RSS feed already fulfills #1!
Thanks that's 1 out of 2 then.
:) :) :)
Emily Short
> 1. When you update the I7 extensions page
> with new/modiifed extensions, please make a posting to raif letting
> us
> know that you've done so
Ron is right: notification is the purpose of the RSS feed. I am not
going to spam RAIF every time there is an update, which (especially
right after a new build is released) can happen multiple times a day.
> 2. Possibly placing a link for a zipped file with ALL the extensions
> so that they they can be downloaded and users can update their
> extensions folders (Mac/PC) every time new/modified extensions
> are placed on the page.
We've also discussed #2 and decided not to do it: it would
considerably increase the effort involved in maintaining the site and
also encourage people to use lots more bandwidth than they actually
need to.
James Jolley
> Al wrote:
>
>> 1. When you update the I7 extensions page
>> with new/modiifed extensions, please make a posting to raif letting
>> us
>> know that you've done so
>
> Ron is right: notification is the purpose of the RSS feed. I am not
> going to spam RAIF every time there is an update, which (especially
> right after a new build is released) can happen multiple times a day.
I see this and the RSS feed is fine with mail on mac or Vienna or some
other reader.
>
>> 2. Possibly placing a link for a zipped file with ALL the extensions
>> so that they they can be downloaded and users can update their
>> extensions folders (Mac/PC) every time new/modified extensions
>> are placed on the page.
>
> We've also discussed #2 and decided not to do it: it would
> considerably increase the effort involved in maintaining the site and
> also encourage people to use lots more bandwidth than they actually
> need to.
I'm not so sure about the bandwidth. To be honest, 3 MB at most and
people will only download the extension zip file if there are many
updates in it. I personally download the files I need when only a
couple are updated.
--
Best
-James-
stealth...@gmail.com
> > We've also discussed #2 and decided not to do it: it would
> > considerably increase the effort involved in maintaining the site and
> > also encourage people to use lots more bandwidth than they actually
> > need to.
>
> I'm not so sure about the bandwidth. To be honest, 3 MB at most and
> people will only download the extension zip file if there are many
> updates in it. I personally download the files I need when only a
> couple are updated.
If people really want a set of *all* the extensions, it might make
more sense to have someone set up a bittorrent containing all of them
than have an actual file on the site...
ChicagoDave
> > 2. Possibly placing a link for a zipped file with ALL the extensions
> > so that they they can be downloaded and users can update their
> > extensions folders (Mac/PC) every time new/modified extensions
> > are placed on the page.
>
> We've also discussed #2 and decided not to do it: it would
> considerably increase the effort involved in maintaining the site and
> also encourage people to use lots more bandwidth than they actually
> need to.
How hard would it be for our friendly ifarchive folks to do a "get" on
all of the extensions, zip/tar them, and place them somewhere tidy and
then the extensions page could link back to that?
Probably could even have some sort of text file that contains the list
of all of the extenion urls to make easy.
Just a thought. Seems like a cool idea to just download everything.
David C.
Andrew Plotkin
> On Oct 15, 12:03 pm, Emily Short <emsh...@mindspring.com> wrote:
> > > 2. Possibly placing a link for a zipped file with ALL the extensions
> > > so that they they can be downloaded and users can update their
> > > extensions folders (Mac/PC) every time new/modified extensions
> > > are placed on the page.
> >
> > We've also discussed #2 and decided not to do it: it would
> > considerably increase the effort involved in maintaining the site and
> > also encourage people to use lots more bandwidth than they actually
> > need to.
>
> How hard would it be for our friendly ifarchive folks to do a "get" on
> all of the extensions, zip/tar them, and place them somewhere tidy and
> then the extensions page could link back to that?
Harder than it would be for Emily.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
Don't you think McCain looks tired?
Emily Short
> Here, ChicagoDave <david.cornel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > How hard would it be for our friendly ifarchive folks to do a "get" on
> > all of the extensions, zip/tar them, and place them somewhere tidy and
> > then the extensions page could link back to that?
>
> Harder than it would be for Emily.
It wouldn't be hard, I imagine, but it would add another five or ten
minutes to a process that, on a busy week, can already consume 30-45
minutes a day. "More stuff for Emily to do" is not open for
negotiation right now.
Now, I'd be more than happy (ecstatic, really!) to hand the job off
entirely. If anyone would like to take on the task, please get in
touch with me.
If you're not sure whether you're interested:
At normal times, the job involves receiving an extension, installing
it on your home system, doing minimal testing to ensure that the
extension works, writing up your own blurb if the author hasn't
submitted one, choosing an appropriate category in which to list the
extension, modifying the extensions roster, running a perl script to
re-generate the main page, uploading the new page and XML for the RSS
feed, uploading the extension to the correct directory, and emailing
the extension author with thanks and to notify him that the process is
complete.
At build times, it involves running a test of all the existing
extensions against the new build, correcting those extensions that
have become incompatible due to minor syntax changes, emailing
extension authors about incompatibilities (just to notify if you've
made the correction yourself, or with details of the error if the
problem is something more major), updating any information about
compatibility on the page, and then rebuilding the page and the XML
and uploading all relevant pieces ASAP after the new build goes live.
You should also expect to have a lot of traffic during the week or so
immediately following a new build, as authors make compatibility
changes, take advantage of new I7 features to improve their
extensions, or simply get reminded about their interest in I7 in the
first place.
None of this is especially hard, and it could probably be done better
than I do it. (In particular, I always have a lot of different tasks
at build time, which means that I tend to be a bit frazzled. More
thorough testing might be possible if that is the only thing I needed
to worry about.)
The person who takes this on should be comfortable running a perl
script and uploading files to a server, and also should probably be
generally familiar with the syntax used to mark up Inform extensions;
sometimes an author will submit something where the documentation is
formatted just slightly wrong, and it's quicker to edit it yourself
than to bounce it back and request a revision.
Adam Thornton
Emily Short <ems...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>Ron is right: notification is the purpose of the RSS feed. I am not
>going to spam RAIF every time there is an update, which (especially
>right after a new build is released) can happen multiple times a day.
Wait, there's an I7 RSS feed?
Adam
James Jolley
Yes but there doesn't seem to e a link on the main extensions page.
--
Best
-James-
Andrew Plotkin
> On 2008-10-15 20:50:55 +0100, ad...@fsf.net (Adam Thornton) said:
>
> > In article <5003d6b5-59cc-448b...@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
> > Emily Short <ems...@mindspring.com> wrote:
> >> Ron is right: notification is the purpose of the RSS feed. I am not
> >> going to spam RAIF every time there is an update, which (especially
> >> right after a new build is released) can happen multiple times a day.
> >
> > Wait, there's an I7 RSS feed?
>
The extensions page has the standard <link rel="alternate"...> thing,
which means that any modern browser will put up an RSS button when you
visit the page.
JDC
> > How hard would it be for our friendly ifarchive folks to do a "get" on
> > all of the extensions, zip/tar them, and place them somewhere tidy and
> > then the extensions page could link back to that?
>
> Harder than it would be for Emily.
The extensions are all stored (in the appropriate author-named
directories) at
http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7Downloads/Extensions/
So presumably an appropriate wget line would grab them all for you (I
mean individual people could do this; no need for the archive to do
so).
(I'm a bit rusty on wget; someone care to fill in the details?)
-JDC
Adam Thornton
Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>The extensions page has the standard <link rel="alternate"...> thing,
>which means that any modern browser will put up an RSS button when you
>visit the page.
I consider Safari pretty modern, and I don't see any such thing.
Adam
Adam Thornton
James Jolley <james....@me.com> wrote:
>On 2008-10-15 20:50:55 +0100, ad...@fsf.net (Adam Thornton) said:
>> Wait, there's an I7 RSS feed?
URL?
Adam
Andrew Plotkin
Go to <http://inform-fiction.org/I7/Download%20-%20Extensions.html> in
Safari (I've got Safari 3.1.2 up) and you should see a blue "RSS"
button on the right side of the address bar. Click that and you go to
the RSS view, which is, not to prolong the agony,
<http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/I7ExtensionsRSS.xml>
In Firefox 3 -- also 2, I guess -- it's a blue (maybe orange) icon
with the usual RSS "radiating testicle" glyph.
Jacek Pudlo, Esq.
news:5e274868-9b55-4b66...@64g2000hsu.googlegroups.com...
On Oct 15, 1:43 pm, Andrew Plotkin <erkyr...@eblong.com> wrote:
> Here, ChicagoDave <david.cornel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > How hard would it be for our friendly ifarchive folks to do a "get" on
> > all of the extensions, zip/tar them, and place them somewhere tidy and
> > then the extensions page could link back to that?
>
> Harder than it would be for Emily.
"It wouldn't be hard, I imagine, but it would add another five or ten
minutes to a process that, on a busy week, can already consume 30-45
minutes a day. "More stuff for Emily to do" is not open for
negotiation right now."
You're *so* dedicated and selfless and, on top of everything, *so* modest!
So modest, in fact, that you only occasionally refer to yourself in the
third person. And you know what I like most about you, Em? How, despite your
extremely busy week, you spend 20 minutes writing seven paragraphs
complaining about what an extremely busy week you're having. What exactly do
you want from us? A handout? A medal? Sympathy?
Isn't it funny how Graham Nelson, who's put in more hours into Inform than
you ever will, has never complained about his busy schedule? You know why?
Because a hobby is about passion, not whining. The moment you start counting
the minutes, the passion is gone.
James Jolley
> Here, James Jolley <james....@me.com> wrote:
>> On 2008-10-15 20:50:55 +0100, ad...@fsf.net (Adam Thornton) said:
>>
>>> In article <5003d6b5-59cc-448b...@t54g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
>>> Emily Short <ems...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>>>> Ron is right: notification is the purpose of the RSS feed. I am not
>>>> going to spam RAIF every time there is an update, which (especially
>>>> right after a new build is released) can happen multiple times a day.
>>>
>>> Wait, there's an I7 RSS feed?
>>
>> Yes but there doesn't seem to e a link on the main extensions page.
>
> The extensions page has the standard <link rel="alternate"...> thing,
> which means that any modern browser will put up an RSS button when you
> visit the page.
>
> --Z
That's probably it then. VoiceOver doesn't see the link so I guessed
that it wasn't there.
--
Best
-James-
James Jolley
Yes, I am also using Safari.
--
Best
-James-
Emily Short
> Now, I'd be more than happy (ecstatic, really!) to hand the job off
> entirely. If anyone would like to take on the task, please get in
> touch with me.
...and now someone has. (It'll probably be a few days, but we'll post
when the new librarian is ready to receive submissions.)
Adam Thornton
Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>> I consider Safari pretty modern, and I don't see any such thing.
>
>Go to <http://inform-fiction.org/I7/Download%20-%20Extensions.html> in
>Safari (I've got Safari 3.1.2 up) and you should see a blue "RSS"
>button on the right side of the address bar. Click that and you go to
>the RSS view, which is, not to prolong the agony,
><http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/I7ExtensionsRSS.xml>
OK, so that works.
But now, I can't get it to autodetect from the page (either the xml page
or the Extensions page) in NewsFire, and if I add the feed manually, it
still doesn't have any items in it. Any ideas?
Adam
Adam Thornton
Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>Go to <http://inform-fiction.org/I7/Download%20-%20Extensions.html> in
>Safari (I've got Safari 3.1.2 up) and you should see a blue "RSS"
>button on the right side of the address bar. Click that and you go to
>the RSS view, which is, not to prolong the agony,
><http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/I7ExtensionsRSS.xml>
OK. So I do that. I get the RSS in my browser....
And then I click on any of the items and I get:
The requested URL /I7/Scope Control by Ron Newcomb (version 1) was not
found on this server.
(Well, the path and name change, but that's the form of the error I get;
shouldn't that be /I7Downloads/Extensions/Ron%20Newcomb/Scope%Control or
some such?)
Adam
ChicagoDave
> On Oct 15, 2:43 pm, Andrew Plotkin <erkyr...@eblong.com> wrote:
>
> > > How hard would it be for our friendly ifarchive folks to do a "get" on
> > > all of the extensions, zip/tar them, and place them somewhere tidy and
> > > then the extensions page could link back to that?
>
> > Harder than it would be for Emily.
>
> The extensions are all stored (in the appropriate author-named
> So presumably an appropriate wget line would grab them all for you (I
> mean individual people could do this; no need for the archive to do
> so).
>
> (I'm a bit rusty on wget; someone care to fill in the details?)
>
> -JDC
Download and install wget (for your OS):
http://wget.addictivecode.org/FrequentlyAskedQuestions?action=show&redirect=Faq
...and use the following line:
wget -r -l2 --no-parent --no-host-directories
http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7Downloads/Extensions/
This will get the entire I7Downloads/Extensions tree to the directory
where you run this command.
David C.
Andrew Plotkin
> Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
> >Go to <http://inform-fiction.org/I7/Download%20-%20Extensions.html> in
> >Safari (I've got Safari 3.1.2 up) and you should see a blue "RSS"
> >button on the right side of the address bar. Click that and you go to
> >the RSS view, which is, not to prolong the agony,
> ><http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/I7ExtensionsRSS.xml>
>
> OK. So I do that. I get the RSS in my browser....
>
> And then I click on any of the items and I get:
>
> The requested URL /I7/Scope Control by Ron Newcomb (version 1) was not
> found on this server.
Hm. You're right. That's totally ass-broken.
I have reached the limits of my usefulness here.
Emily Short
> In article <gd5k7j$3v...@reader1.panix.com>,
Hm.
It used to click through to the main extensions page, and then I think
we changed it to click through to the specific extension. Evidently
there's a problem, though (I get the same result you do). I'll see
what's up.
greg
> The requested URL /I7/Scope Control by Ron Newcomb (version 1) was not
> found on this server.
With Firefox I don't even get that far. I just get a menu
with a single item titled "Live bookmark feed failed to load."
This is using Firefox 1.0.4, which admittedly isn't the
latest thing around, though.
--
Greg
JDC
Emily, it looks like your <guid> elements are duplicating your
description elements and causing the problem. You probably want
something like the following form (if you want the item to be linked
to the actual file, which would be my preference; something different
if you want to go just to the extensions page. Also, I've never been
quite clear on guid exactly, so someone else should probably confirm
this...):
<item>
<title>Questions by Michael Callaghan (version 1)</title>
<guid>http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7Downloads/Extensions/Michael
%20Callaghan/Questions</guid>
<link>http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/Download%20-
%20Extensions.html</link>
<description>Allows us to ask questions and to respond to answers
given by the player outside the normal parser rules. Permits the use
of questions requiring a number answer, selection from a menu, gender
selection, yes / no answers and text answers. Also allows us to
distinguish between closed questions that must be answered and open
questions where the answer can be ignored and treated as normal parsed
input.</description>
<pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:02:01 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
-JDC
JDC
> Download and install wget (for your OS):
>
>
> ...and use the following line:
>
> wget -r -l2 --no-parent --no-host-directories http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7Downloads/Extensions/
>
> This will get the entire I7Downloads/Extensions tree to the directory
> where you run this command.
Thanks; that's what I wanted... (I was forgetting the --no-host-
directories option).
-JDC
Peter Pears
entries in chronological-release-order, making it impossible for me
even to know there *were* new releases. Instead, it sorted the entries
in the order they are in the website.
Nowadays I just check the page regularly and search for keywords like
"oct 2008" and see if there's been any new releases.
Emily Short
What were you using to read the feed? Most readers should be able to
extract the recently-dated entries and sort the new material to the
top.
Peter Pears
Using firefox, I just clicked the orange button and added the feed to
my dynamic markers, or whatever it's called (using a Portuguese
firefox, terms may differ). On other feeds, such as IFDB, it's
properly sorted, but on the extensions I always get, f'rinstance,
Assorted Text Generation first.
Ron Newcomb
Safari's built-in RSS thing is much more sane than Firefox's.
Fortunately, we can just use a different RSS feed plugin for
Firefox.
Peter, try Sage:
http://sage.mozdev.org/styles/
-Ron