So, a lot of new players have a problem installing plugins. PC/MAC and mobile ones. One thing some of them seem to fail on is unzipping the plugin and then putting it in the folder as-is. Like most new GUI extraction programs extract a new folder with the archive name as the base folder so they end up with something like this:

/brets.a.zip/bret_plugin/main.lua + files n stuff

when they need to have

/bret_plugin/main.lua + files n stuff

And then they need to put them in a folder.

Make VO plugin authors use a standard for plugin compression and then build that compression into VO. So all someone has to do is drop 1 file into the correct folder.

AFAIK most plugins write to the already writeable folders anyway.

You could even use your own compression stuffs and release a compressor. What it's only like LHA or something anyway.

But then it would be as simple as telling someone "put this file here" instead of "blah" you get the point.

I'm totally fine with letting people drop in properly formatted zips instead of expanded directories.

However, I would want that as an augment to the existing system, not as a replacement -- it's a lot more convenient for plugin developers if we can continue working on our plugins right there in expanded form without having to update a zip before every test of some minor change. Then once we're done we could zip it up and distribute it to users who could just drop in the zip without hassle.

You can quite easily write a little script (even in DOS :)) that runs before vo proper, has a look at the plugins folder, and inspects any zip file. If it contains a main.lua if it is new or newer than an existing one, unpack it so that the main.lua is exactly one folder deep (ie add/remove a layer of folder as needed).

Get outta here vanatteveldt! You can't write scripts in DOS!

Agree with yoda that the varied unzipping process does make things difficult....trying to explain to a newb when they are too young to have dealt with folders and file managers is pretty frustrating...especially when they have to log off...try it ...and then relog

Not sure what a simple answer would be but anything would help

Any script should be written in java, so that it will work on all platforms.

The script should look at the plugin folder to find any zip files.

The zip file should be in a specific format anyname.zip/folderName/files

The script should check the date of the main.lua in the zip, and any existing main.lua in the named folder, and only update the plugin folder if the zipped main.lua is newer.

The script should do the updates, and then launch vo autopatch, so that the script is used to launch vo, all the time. any time you add a plugin to vo, you should exit vo, and restart it, so that the script will do all the updates, and then launch vo.

The script should be free and open source, and pear reviewed.

edit: the script should not implement a zip application. each user should have a zip application, and the script should use the existing zip application to do extraction.