Homebrew Theoretical freeShop Replacement (Would directly PM a Moderator, but not enough posts.)

[Vershuk]

I have started work on a 3ds application to replace freeShop, since it is broken.

The concept is:
- There is a main program which cannot download any copyrighted material on its own. This program is everything (User Interface, File Management, Plugin Loader, etc) BUT the actual downloading logic.
- There is an abstract plugin structure, in Python, which allows people to write plugins which will A) Search websites B) Download files from specific websites.
- These plugins would be relied upon to download files the same way freeShop relied upon tickets. Meaning, you'll need to either make a plugin yourself, or find one online somewhere that is not GBATemp to actually download roms. All it takes to install a plugin is to place the plugin file in a specific folder.

This is not specifically a ROM downloader, although that's likely what it will be used for. Plugins can be made for any website that has any files available for download, and some way to search the files.

So, I have a few questions for a moderator:
- Am I allowed to post about this project on GBATemp? Including information about it, link to a download of the main program, source code, etc. (Obviously no plugins that allow downloading from illegal sites will be mentioned, linked, etc.)

Another Question:
I'm going to include an example plugin, so others who know python are able to make their own from a reference point.

My main choice is archive.org (Internet Wayback Machine), however it appears this does actually host some copyrighted material. Am I ok to include a plugin for this website? If not, my choice is FileTrip, since that's standard storage for many of GBATemp's files. Is FileTrip ok?

 

[mileyrock2]

as long as you dont post warez links up here add the plugins to a cloud site

 

[Nemos59]

- Am I allowed to post about this project on GBATemp? Including information about it, link to a download of the main program, source code, etc.

You can share the code and releases via GitHub I believe...

 

[Clydefrosch]

are you talking about porting jdownloader to 3ds with a link transfer/searcher feature to download cias to the sd card?

 

[DinohScene]

As long as it doesn't go against the Terms and Rules, you're free to post it.

Make sure that you somehow provide a POC soonish, otherwise the community can lash out at you and call you a troll/not believe you.

 

[Vershuk]

You can share the code and releases via GitHub I believe...

Yeah, I was wondering if I am allowed to link to the GitHub repository here.

are you talking about porting jdownloader to 3ds with a link transfer/searcher feature to download cias to the sd card?

Hmm, I just did a quick search for "JDownloader", and it looks kinda similar, except I don't see a way to search for files.

Right now, the app can only download one file at once (I need to allow background http requests in python first), but yeah, the base application is a download manager, but also a way to search for links to download.

As long as it doesn't go against the Terms and Rules, you're free to post it.

Make sure that you somehow provide a POC soonish, otherwise the community can lash out at you and call you a troll/not believe you.

Alright. I guess that means I should stick to something like FileTrip.

As for a POC, that's why I wanted to ask in a PM, instead of publicly I don't have the highest amount of time to devote to this, so I don't know when I'll be able to have a POC.
But, I can devote an hour or two per day to it.
Honestly, this entire thing feels like a POC haha, I've never written an actual project in C before, my only experience with it is analyzing a game's C source code in order to make modding tools.
But, I'll definitely in mind that I've publicly posted about it, so I should give updates.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

I'd recommend naming your tool something else than freeShop, going on the assumption that you are serious on this.

And I'll give you this warning straight up and now: do not use cpp3ds. I know it's what freeShop the program itself is written in, but cpp3ds is probably one of the worst experiences I've had in trying to get it to compile (for reference: getting the compiling VM that I had set up for freeShop took me an entire afternoon, and since dkp-pacman means you can't get the versions of ctrulib and citro3d you need anymore, it's only gotten harder).

Use ctrulib and citro2d instead, and don't use any "wrapper" graphics libraries that have been used over the years (sf2dlib, pp2d) as those are all a. broken to hell or b. will be broken to hell when they update the toolchain.

 

[Vershuk]

I'd recommend naming your tool something else than freeShop, going on the assumption that you are serious on this.

And I'll give you this warning straight up and now: do not use cpp3ds. I know it's what freeShop the program itself is written in, but cpp3ds is probably one of the worst experiences I've had in trying to get it to compile (for reference: getting the compiling VM that I had set up for freeShop took me an entire afternoon, and since dkp-pacman means you can't get the versions of ctrulib and citro3d you need anymore, it's only gotten harder).

Use ctrulib and citro2d instead, and don't use any "wrapper" graphics libraries that have been used over the years (sf2dlib, pp2d) as those are all a. broken to hell or b. will be broken to hell when they update the toolchain.

Of course haha, it'd be a mess to copy a name like that. And it wouldn't even really make sense since it doesn't even resemble a shop.
I'm thinking "ScrapeYard" for the name, as officially, the plugins are called "scrapers". (Because they're scraping websites to find what you're looking for.)
It's also a fun play on "Scrapyard", which is fitting because you're taking a whole bunch of pieces, many of which are kinda messy to get the job done.

I've been using ctrulib so far, it seems decent, although I'm also using sf2d with it. (Ancient setup, yeah.)
But, this is not permanent, it's just until I've gotten a fully-functional POC.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

I've been using ctrulib so far, it seems decent, although I'm also using sf2d with it. (Ancient setup, yeah.)

I'd strongly advise switching to citro2d earlier rather than later. Otherwise you'll end up being stuck with various bad practices or the trap of "I know how sf2d works, so why bother learning citro2d". There's a number of existing homebrew projects you can reference as for how it could be used.

It's extremely easy to learn, I figured out how to use it in about a day.