Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

f-droid.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 146 posts

Re: New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

#31

Post by mananaysiempre »

Waterluvian wrote: post #10
mattashii wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and therefore the value is null That depends on the interpreter: A good implementation of json distinguishes between defined and undefined keys in the object. Think hasattr(obj, "key") in python, or undefined != obj["key"] in js.

Gosh. If “undefined” was part of JSON and it was always 100% semantically identical to “this key doesn’t exist on this object” then I could see myself not hating “undefined”. Unfortunately “undefined” in javascript isn’t even the same as “key doesn’t exist.” It’s just another null type.

Which in turn led V8 to invent TheHole[1], a true unset value, as an implementation detail (unavailable to the user).

Honestly, it seems to me that pre-strict-mode JavaScript actually made a fair attempt at making "undefined" a genuine missing value, except that then implied semantics people disliked, like an undefined variable reference having the value of "undefined" instead of being an error. Lua seems mostly OK having an actual nil, though. (There is admittedly some gnarliness, like a vararg function f being able to distinguish f(1,2,nil) from f(1,2).)

[1] https://stackoverflow.com/q/61420580

Re: New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

#32

Post by Hasnep »

orra wrote: post #23
Hasnep wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend NeoStore [1], which is an alternative frontend for F-droid. I can't say it never crashes, but I prefer it to the F-droid app. [1] https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/com.machiav3lli.fdroid/

From what I was reading recently, NeoStore is also the F-Droid client which supports automatic upgrades on Android 12, without root.

Yes, but it has the limitation that it can only automatically update apps that it installed. So if you've already installed an app through the F-droid app, you can either uninstall and reinstall an app using NeoStore or manually do the first update through NeoStore and then all subsequent updates will be automatic.

This is the reason I use NeoStore to install apps like NewPipe on my family members' phones. Before, when Newpipe broke they wouldn't know how to update it, now it just stays updated all the time.

Re: New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

#33

Post by david_allison »

pserwylo wrote: post #17

Congratulations team. I was involved in the project for quite some time years ago. Indeed I ported the original “Read the full index.xml into Java memory using a giant DB class” with the first “Stream entries from XML into the database, and make use of ContentProviders” because they seemed like the “Android way to do things” at the time. I also worked on the migration from XML to JSON metadata. At the time this was d…

Thank you for everything that you've done! The Android ecosystem is uniquely hostile, and it's hard for an outsider to understand the public and private battles that you've inevitably faced over the years.

Re: New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

#34

Post by stefan_ »

eointierney wrote: post #6

Thank you! F-Droid is one of those projects that adds so much peace of mind and usability to my computational life. It is a must-have.

Just used it again today when some service asked me to use one of these generic 2FA OTP token apps. It first recommended the Microsoft one but that one literally wouldn't work unless you accept transmitting usage data, for a kind of app that is both calculator-levels of complexity and uniquely ill suited to transmitting any data. Found something simple and perfectly good working on FDroid.

Re: New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

#36

Post by Weirdfuture »

geokon wrote: post #8

I didn't realize the app was still being worked on. It's been years since the UI update and it's always been amazingly buggy (across 3 different phone). I'm always impressed by how broken it is - especially if you have a slow connection. Downloads will randomly go into a weird frozen state where they can't be stopped. The download status will change when you change tabs/sections. Sometimes download will go past 100%…

[flagged]

Re: New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

#37

Post by dugite-code »

geokon wrote: post #8

I didn't realize the app was still being worked on. It's been years since the UI update and it's always been amazingly buggy (across 3 different phone). I'm always impressed by how broken it is - especially if you have a slow connection. Downloads will randomly go into a weird frozen state where they can't be stopped. The download status will change when you change tabs/sections. Sometimes download will go past 100%…

My understanding is that a lot of the bugs you'll encounter are because of androids aggressive power management features killing off background tasks with F-droid being particularly susceptible due to it being designed to work without the google play services.

Re: New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

#38

Post by WeylandYutani »

david_allison wrote: post #33
pserwylo wrote: post #17

Congratulations team. I was involved in the project for quite some time years ago. Indeed I ported the original “Read the full index.xml into Java memory using a giant DB class” with the first “Stream entries from XML into the database, and make use of ContentProviders” because they seemed like the “Android way to do things” at the time. I also worked on the migration from XML to JSON metadata. At the time this was d…

Thank you for everything that you've done! The Android ecosystem is uniquely hostile, and it's hard for an outsider to understand the public and private battles that you've inevitably faced over the years.

Less hostile than iOS? How does F-droid work over there?

Re: New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

#39

Post by hilbert42 »

geokon wrote: post #8

I didn't realize the app was still being worked on. It's been years since the UI update and it's always been amazingly buggy (across 3 different phone). I'm always impressed by how broken it is - especially if you have a slow connection. Downloads will randomly go into a weird frozen state where they can't be stopped. The download status will change when you change tabs/sections. Sometimes download will go past 100%…

"...It's been years since the UI update and it's always been amazingly buggy"

Being buggy is only one aspect, the other was the annoying change of UI that presents apps in rows of large, gawky icons instead of the previous efficient rows of title text each headed by a small icon (as say in Windows 'List' mode).

Unfortunately, this leaves me stuck on ancient version F-Droid 0.102.3.

When looking for an app this new large-icons mode is much less efficient, especially so if one's in a hurry and doesn't know what the icon represents (as one would expect with a new program).

I'd have thought the large-icon disease would have remained quarantined within the Microsoft and Apple worlds but unfortunately the contagion's now spread to Linux and even infected the F-Droid app on Android. It ought to be resisted on the grounds that there are so many new icons about that their once great benefit has been deprecated (text again conveying a deeper understanding).

I've no objection to those who find large icons an acceptable work framework but developers shouldn't change UIs just on a whim. If they so desire a change let them provide it as an option—i.e. a UI revamp should allow users to select the old one as an option (we've all seen this UI nonsense before with MS Windows, the F-Droid app is about the last place I'd have expected to get infected).

Re: New F-Droid repository format for faster and smaller updates

#40

Post by NovaDudely »

pserwylo wrote: post #17

Congratulations team. I was involved in the project for quite some time years ago. Indeed I ported the original “Read the full index.xml into Java memory using a giant DB class” with the first “Stream entries from XML into the database, and make use of ContentProviders” because they seemed like the “Android way to do things” at the time. I also worked on the migration from XML to JSON metadata. At the time this was d…

Geez, time does fly. The last time I briefly spoke to you (FSM event) you were still working on Fdroid.
Post reply on HN