Are 1000 programs enough to promote SPS as a new standard?

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UGMFree
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Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:02 am

Are 1000 programs enough to promote SPS as a new standard?

#1 Post by UGMFree »

Hello to everyone.

In my previous post published at http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 18&t=21891 I suggested to consider SyMenu as the definitive launcher for all the portable programs.
This ambitious idea comes from my belief in the power of the SPS, which is the documentation format that SyMenu adopts to include in its suites any third party portable program.

Now the three SyMenu suites (NirSoft, Sysinternals and its own one) have reached the incredible number of 1000 programs (http://www.ugmfree.it). They are all freeware and portable programs available from hundreds of different web sites.
It's a terrific goal and the demonstration of the SPS power.
These are the details:

SyMenu suite: 652 programs
NirSoft suite: 291 programs
Sysinternals suite: 57 programs

Grand total: 1000 programs

For the complete and detailed list, please download SyMenu and give it a try. It's free.

SPS is not a closed format, it is a simple xml format that anyone can build, read and use so SPS is here to stay even beyond the control of its creator (me).

Thus the question is: can SPS be considered as a new de facto standard?
If it was, it'll be great if the portablefreeware reviewers could produce SPS to review the new/updated programs. In this way they create a documentation that can be used by the portablefreeware web site, by SyMenu and by any other program that wants to use it.

What do you think about that? Is it too ambitious again? :D

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webfork
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Re: Are 1000 programs enough to promote SPS as a new standar

#2 Post by webfork »

I appreciate that this is an important milestone and I acknowledge that you put a lot of work into SyMenu and the tools around it. It looks like you've addressed concerns around the program's "critical mass". Amazing work.
UGMFree wrote:SPS is not a closed format, it is a simple xml format that anyone can build, read and use so SPS is here to stay even beyond the control of its creator (me).
Yes but you're not really addressing the two other threads where I've gone over some concerns about the format ...
... and, as a result, I feel like you're just sticking with what you know and avoiding concerns around standardization and openness.

A lot of times when I'm on a project and run into issues I have no background on, I double-down on what I know and hope that my energy drives the whole thing forward. Heck, I've been doing that for a long time on PortableFreeware.com where I know there's a lot more that could boost the site. Instead, I focus really hard on updating site entries, testing software, and posting various vaguely interesting things to the forums. I know I could do something bigger if I wasn't so wrapped up in the day-to-day.

Anyway, sometimes that raw effort works and sometimes it doesn't. I'd suggest here that you dig into something a little alien if you really want to be ambitious.

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Note: This is not site policy. What I mentioned above is just what I think. I am not the admin so if for example Andrew and other site members wanted to take PFW in a direction that embraces SPS and SyMenu, that's fine.

Edit: related article: "Avoiding abandon-ware: getting to grips with the open development method"

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