Unified ROM Project, Phase II: The Kitchen Application
 

Now that we've seen the light at the end of the tunnel, it's probably time to start discussing the kitchen application that will bring this ROM to the world.

Understanding that a lot of folks on the team are fatigued due to the effort in developing the Unified ROM, we still need to begin looking for the folks that will develop the kitchen application.

Knowing that application development requires a completely different skillset than ROM development, I imagine will have a much different set of players.

To that end, I am going to start another "help wanted thread" that will be used to recruit the team for the next phase.

Obviously, if you participated in the first phase, your input and experience are valuable to phase 2. Of course, participation is voluntary, and there will be no hard feelings torwards anyone who chooses not to participate in phase 2.

Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, in several of our discussions at the beginning of the project, we debated the type of tool that would be used to create the custom ROMs from the kitchen. We have gone back and forth between a web-based tool and a stand-alone application. A decision was never made.

I'd like to re-open that debate, as the answer will dictate the kind of skillsets we will need proceed with phase 2.

All opinions are welcome.

Which ever way the group decides, I would be willing to QA test again as well as be the "PR" guy again!

i would like to be a QA tester too.

asfar as application based or web based i think it should be application based, like the one found on the Tytn WM6 Kitchen, tried it out when i was build a Tytn rom for my dad, it was very user friendly and esay to work with, even worked on windows vista. here is a link to it

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=298636

Might the skillset dictated the answer of how it will proceed?

I would vote that the most enthusiastic person be nominated to accomplish this task. Otherwise I suppose a resume' swap and background check would be in order. lol

If there are 3 people that will work on the web based idea, and only 1 nonenthusiastic person that would work with the application based idea, then perhaps that should be the determining factor.


As an applications programmer for 10 years I would still whole heartedly vote for the web based idea, but only if there are people willing to make it happen.

I think application based would probably be easiest, but not necessarily best. If we go app. based, then the user must download not only the kitchen, but also a library of all OEMs. Then, check off which items they want in THEIR ROM. Their ROM would be built, and they downloaded those extra OEMs for no reason.

Web based may be harder to implement initially, but if the ROM build can be accomplished server side, then the user would just check off what they want from the available online library of OEMs. The server would create the ROM file, then the user just downloads and installs the one file. (Ideally, of course.)

A couple things to remember here: If you put it in a web based system, you cut off almost all customization for the user. Not only would it be very difficult for them to add their own OEMs, but any editing of the OS or LOC would also be difficult. I realize that this editing may not happen all the time, but personally, I am in those files a lot. Remember, anytime someone wants to change any of the graphics, sounds, themes, etc., they will either have to have a patch or do manual editing.

Also, we are gonna need some real testing and control over OEMs to "certify" them as functional. There are a lot of OEMs on the ftp and most of them are fine. But a lot of them have had corners cut (Help Files and such) and some of the OEMs are almost laughable.

Let us also remember that while it would be a great feat to have a kitchen that any "idiot noob" could use, we are still dealing with a certain level of necessary knowledge. Honestly, if someone cannot follow some detailed instructions on how to use the existing kitchens now, should they be messing with this type of thing? I am not saying that access should be restricted, but there should be a necessary level of knowledge for the users. Otherwise we will be setting ourselves up for thousands of questions about faulty roms and other noobish user errors.

I think the paragraph above pretty much describes the original vision of this project.

RagingIdiot has a great point, too.

I think we should schedule an IRC chat as an open forum to debate the technical requirements of the application, then we may have a better idea about how to implement it.

Sound good?

The other thing this would lead to would be the required ongoing support: Adding and updating OEMs over the life of the application. That's in addition to Colonel's points above.

Colonel, what kind of format do you see for a standalone application, i.e., how would it work from a user standpoint?

Wouldn't it make sense to combine this thread with the other
 

thread in the dicussion area and just leave a link in one place or the other?

Wouldn't it make sense to combine this thread with the other
 

thread in the dicussion area and just leave a link in one place or the other?