[jftuga]

I would like to volunteer my time to the UBCD4Win project. One thing I have done recently is create this web page:
http://www.fcs.uga.e...in/contents.htm

It keeps an up-to-date list of new software versions. But now this small project is completed and is in maintenance-only mode. Is there any more that I can be doing to help out with the project? I am a pretty good programmer and could probably help write plugins or could help with testing.

Please let me know what I can do to help.

Thanks,
-John

[pcuser]

What's your forte?

BTW. Excellent job on that webpage

[jftuga]

I have been a Linux & Windows sys admin for about 12 years and also have done some database, web, & programming work. I am really good at AutoIt, Python, PHP, batch files etc. I can't say that I miss the days when I did C, C++ and Java. programming.

How hard would it be to automate plugin creation -- from realizing there is a new minor software version release going to a complete plugin? That would be pretty sweet. For example, upgrading a plugin for program version x.y.z to version x.y.z+1 should not be too hard to automate. I realize that you probably couldn't do this for a lot of programs, but it would be interesting to see just how many programs that you could actually do this for.

-John

[rdsok]

There are a few programs that can assist with creating a plugin.. but they lack in flexibility in enough areas that doing it by hand is usually about as easy as an automated method. First you monitor the system for registry and file changes while installing the program itself... from that info, change any path info as needed, create an INF that takes the registry changes into account and also says what files are needed and where you want them placed. Then if the program needs read/write access you may have to place the files in the ram drive prior to running the program.. etc.

Plugin updates... taking a version X to v X+1 is usually pretty straight-forward and it just a file replacement issue most of the time ... sometimes there are required registry entries as well... these just need taken on a case by case basis. The ClamWin plugin may be a good easy example of one that usually is just a file replacement issue... but its simple enough to extract the files from the install program, place there where they are needed and in this case recreate the SFX that is used. That could all be automated with a simple CMD script for the most part but its also so easly done by hand.

[jftuga]

So it sounds like automation of plugin creation is not really a time-saver. Well, just let me know if there is anything that I can do to help out with the project.

-John