AmiGet - Aptitude like app for aminet

[nyteschayde]

It's in the early stages but I'm working on doing an aptitude, a Debian package manager for the CLI, for animet. It should be able to read from and search the INDEX file at the root of aminet.net, or a locally cached copy, for files and download them. It will be CLI based so you won't need the massive overhead of IBrowse, AWeb or Netsurf.

I haven't decided where, but it should also be able to eventually read a dependencies file from someplace that will reach out and grab dependencies for a given archive.

First steps

• Read and search INDEX
• Download archive by name

Early extras

• Unpack archive (requires lots of extras to be able to do this on the Amiga. LhA, LZX, UnRar, UnZip, XPK, etc). Might start a little at a time.
• Look for an Installer file in the first few extracted directory levels. Show a lister if there's more than one.
• Download installer 43.3, installer ng, or other if not in path.

Stretch

• Download and search full .readme files for potential matches.
• Provide optional GUI
• More?

Thoughts? Anybody wanna help? This is a project to help refresh my C skills and Amiga skills simultaneously. I've already started.

[nyteschayde]

The Amiga community is not going to be benefited much by closed source. It'll be open. I'm considering the least obtrusive would be to have at least a two fold service.

1. It there is a .aminet.deps file in the archive, use it.
2. Otherwise look someplace else; if it's allowed and accepted, we can have a deps path in aminet that mirrors the same root structure but only hosts .deps text files that serve the same purpose

Benefits from this approach are twofold.

1. New archives can be specific.
2. We can add support for old files without touching them

Format is TBD but should likely support dependencies, dev dependencies, and optional dependencies

[nyteschayde]

The more features you support in regards to searching, the better. I had some notion of allowing the users to download the INDEX and update it every once in a while on the local machine. But if you're offering an API endpoint on the aminet servers that handle searching, all the better. I'll happily consume it. Less work for me.

The ADT download tool, if it is the one I am thinking of, does not support search. It only allows you to download if you know the actual path. That's part of the problem. And it doesn't handle dependencies either. All the FTP clients are the same to my knowledge.

I'd disagree that there isn't any interest on 68k machines but I could be wrong. From my perspective, and I own a A1200/PPC that runs 4.1, there are far more classic owners running 68k setups that need 68k archives than there are 4.1 owners and users.

I like your ideas for a GUI approach (mostly) but I still think that a decent CLI tool should accompany it. I'll look into XAD but I am pretty sure there are LZX and at least ZIP files on aminet.

[nyteschayde]

I don't doubt it would be an undertaking and you're right, even with the version field, exact file names would need to be referenced on Aminet to even have a chance. It'll likely have to support getting files from other places eventually too. So that'll have to be built in to expectations early on.

Path/Category: text/edit (forexample)
Filename: blahblah.lha
CPU: 68000/68010/68020/68030/68040/68060/PPC/x86/x64
OS: {plat:AmigaOS/AROS/MorphOS, ver:3.1}
MMU: true/false
RAM: {type:CHIP, min:1MB}

PPC could possibly be broken out to include more specifics. There might be a need to have an optional script for each dependency.

Script: (DOS)
Cd ""
Copy Libs/somelibrary020.library :somelibrary.library

Script: (INSTALLER)
...INSTALLER script commands...

Script: (INSTALLER_PATH_RELATIVE_TO_ARCHIVE)
"somelib/Some Library Install"

There's a lot that can be added. One step at time, however, would be ideal.

[nyteschayde]

Basically: get rid of the Browser (+MUI/Classact) requirement, do not rely on other computers in the household - but still offload all the resource heavy tasks to an external machine (i.e. the Aminet server).

I think we'd have to at least use gadtools.library if we wanted any chance of a decent looking OS2.x+ based GUI. I am not even sure when gadtools.library made its debut offhand. I think it was 2.x but it might have been 3.x

cgutjahr, are there any existing search APIs? PM me and we can exchange emails for putting on together if there isn't one. I'd really like to make some subtle refinements on the advanced search that exists today in Aminet. Sounds like you already have some ideas. I could help.

[nyteschayde]

Gadtools was part of 2.x. Not sure you need Gadtools. A menu bar, plus simple text and file requesters should cover most of our needs, IMHO.

Heh, I am a senior UI engineer and have been for several major companies. I don't think I'd be able to stop there.

I mentioned that this is going to be a refresher for me in regards to C, but I've worked for Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Google, and now PayPal as well as plenty of other companies. I do native mobile (iOS/ObjC), native MacOS (ObjC), all manner of web (HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript, NodeJS, PHP, Python, Java and more) plus all the in between and data storage solutions (SQL and NoSQL).  

So, when I said if you need help with the API side of things, I  meant it.

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[nyteschayde]

Any updates regarding this?

Sorry for the slow response to this. I have been sidetracked by life but plan to get back on it. I have done some of the plumbing work I needed but I'd say this is at the, roughly, 20% mark. Once I have gotten back to this and made some more progress, I'll post a GitHub link with some updated and pushed content.

Thanks for checking back in and reminding me.

[nyteschayde]

Would be happy to work with you on it. My available time for programming other things has basically completely stalled for the moment.