Secure PackMan/RiscPkg

@ Chris

Not sure we need your ‘module’ It just seems to duplicate existing things that do the job already.

If you do not need it, then don’t use it ;)

Grahame is correct, especially on later releases of !Organizer. It’s a commercial product, not everyone have it etc. Plus a Module may offer a API that could be used (in the future) by Organizer, Alarm and others so that a user always have a consistent list of background tasks they have configured on all those apps. That could be convenient.

Also, a module doesn’t limit the “functionality” to the Desktop environment only. What about all the people that want/need a “RISC OS Pico-like” system? For instance, they’ll still need to update certs if they want to use REST APIs and or pull things via cURL and wget using HTTPS protocol.

Just my 0.5c

I think what Paolo is after is to have the lightweight scheduling backend running invisibly, and have a GUI front end (take your pick) interact with it to set/modify scheduled tasks only when the user wants to. I would go with this.

correct, that is my goal, thanks :)

It’s particularly the newbies you don’t want to have to prod to install yet more other stuff to keep their systems updated beyond what the default image is set up with; old hands can use whatever system they’re accustomed to.

… have to install yet more other stuff…

Even I accept that not everyone will have Organizer (!) but everyone has Alarm. I am unsure what advantages another method will bring?

Even I accept that not everyone will have Organizer (!) but everyone has Alarm. I am unsure what advantages another method will bring?

I’m also unsure what mechanism the “not in the desktop” version will use for running tasks? Presumably they can’t be standard Wimp tasks?

Alarm already has an API for other tasks to add alarms and detect alarms going off, so isn’t the simplest solution here to give Alarm the option to run “headless” without an iconbar presence? Alarm’s already in ROM, so there’s no problem about people needing to install it.

I presume that Organizer already implements the Alarm_ user messages, so that there’s a consistent API available when users have chosen it over the standard option?

I presume that Organizer already implements the Alarm_ user messages

I am afraid you presume wrong. No-one has asked for them! I was not aware of the &500 & &501 messages – indeed the only docs I can find are in the Wimp StrongHelp manual. It might be sensible to add them, so I will investigate.
[Edit: also found docs in PRM in Window Manager section!]

Though it does seem rather nasty that Alarm can prompt the user to start an app … with a non-multi-tasking error box! Perhaps it could/should start the app itself, if it has been booted?

I wonder if any current apps use the facility?

indeed the only docs I can find are in the Wimp StrongHelp manual … [Edit: also found docs in PRM in Window Manager section!]

And in Alarm’s sources