[new] Compress your apps with Stacker for 9210!!!

Hehe! I was wondering is anyone would release this kind of app for the 9210.

All I can say is [Bill & Ted] Excellent! [Air Guitar] Diddle! Diddle! Diddle! [/Air guitar][/Bill & Ted]

I installed the trial version of Stacker on my 9210i last night and played with it. Initial comments are:

After 30 mins playing with it, I had saved 4.8Mb, 950K of that on the C\ drive. This result was most welcome and I haven't finished yet.

It does take longer to open archived apps, particularly the larger ones. The converse is that these are the ones that yield the greatest disk savings. Less of a problem for large apps

I have a lot of apps installed. I followed the rules for the 9210 and installed most of them on MMC. On the 9210i, this left about 8 Mb free on C\. However, I routinely interchange several MMC cards now and it has become apparent that I should move the apps back to C\ where possible to make use of the space, avoid having to install them on several cards or have them unavailable went the wrong MMC is in. Stacker will help this enormously. I'll have to leave 2-5 Mb free to allow enough space for epansion of apps in use.

I archived Ximplify Mylist Pro. When I activated it by selecting the icon in Desk, it went through the restore routine, but then I got "Note, Invalid". When I restored it and then opened it the same way, it worked fine. Clock6 also had problems. Most others worked OK, although some return you to Extras / Desk once the app has opened instead of going straight into the app.

It works so well that it begs the question why doesn't it have a utility to compress large regular files such as nim, tomTom maps, etc, etc.

Bottom line is that I shall buy it shortly - I like it a lot. For me, it's below AppMan, but close to Active Desk. It won't get as much conscious use on a day to day basis but, by running in the background, it allows you to get more out of the device. Incorporate a tool to compress regular files and it would rise further.

I think the problem for regular files is that you can't create (or at least it's harder) a auto restore launch feature...

They could but that would mean they should zip the file, make the 9210 call their app to restore the file, than they will have to search which app can open that file and launch the app with that file ...

I don't see any way to do this when using the open command in some apps.
For example, zipping a nim and starting it from filemanager could be done automaticly, but opening this file from videoplayer wouldn't work.

also I don't know if nim files can be compressed any further ...

Hmmm, thanks, Dazler - it seems its more difficult than it appears at 1st sight. What started me thinking about it was the way Stacker has all the applications listed down a single page you can simply scroll down. I like that feature - it doesn't appear anywhere else on the 9210 and I can't always immediately remember where all the start-up icons for my apps are located (we currently have desk, office, control panel and extras as potential locations) - maybe it's something that could be built into the next release of AppMan?

For non-app files, I'd happily settle in the interim for something like a single directory to store all the zipped files in that would be called up by Stacker on demand, listing the files like it does for Apps and then manually selecting zipping / unzipping before / after use. Perhaps the folder could have sub-folders which could be zipped with their contents in one action.

This would be most useful for larger files that aren't used that often - there's little benefit mucking about zipping small files anyway. I suppose a significant increase in MMC capacity might negate the need, but the pace of development seems to have slowed off some.

[quote="Tomahawk"]
I archived Ximplify Mylist Pro. When I activated it by selecting the icon in Desk, it went through the restore routine, but then I got "Note, Invalid".
[/quote]

[quote="Tomahawk"]
Clock6 also had problems
[/quote]

Thanks, i'll check it out.

[quote="Tomahawk"]
It works so well that it begs the question why doesn't it have a utility to compress large regular files such as nim, tomTom maps, etc, etc.
[/quote]

Try favourites view...

[quote="Dazler"]
I think the problem for regular files is that you can't create (or at least it's harder) a auto restore launch feature...
[/quote]

Yes, you're right.

[quote="Tomahawk"]
For non-app files, I'd happily settle in the interim for something like a single directory to store all the zipped files in that would be called up by Stacker on demand, listing the files like it does for Apps and then manually selecting zipping / unzipping before / after use. Perhaps the folder could have sub-folders which could be zipped with their contents in one action.
[/quote]

We thought about it before when making Stacker for Nokia series 60.
Take a look on Favourites view. Here you can define a group of such
regular files and even whole folders.

E.g. you can make a group containing of all your nims, images. Or make
a group for each nim, etc.

Then these groups can be compressed/decompressed in one key press.
Concept as in zip, but simpler, i.e. you have all such groups listed
in one view. As for automatizing groups, there is a possibility to make
dependences, e.g. when you start Imaging application Stacker could decompress the defined group, that includes your images. It sounds good,
but you'll have to pay for that:

- Stacker will have always in memory module that run always, => waste valuable
memory, slow down the whole system (by scanning applications starts/exits),
and provoke batteries to discharge faster. Now Stacker's compressor is
loaded only when it is needed (to compress or decompress app)
and unloaded immediately after the work is done. It doesn't work in
background now.

- Of course in some situations this behaviour could be useful, but in
many situations it's not. Just imagine when you want to see one of
your nims, starting Video, and waiting and waiting when ALL your nims
are decompressed, and after Video is being closed, it will compress
all your nims. As for me it's simpler to start Stacker select the group
with needed nim and unpack when i need it.

So we decided to refuse dependences options.

Zeus,

Thanks, I'll check out the favourites view. Sounds like you have already built in the features I thought were missing. As you will have gathered, I like the app. BTW, I agree with your analysis / conclusions about dependencies.

Since you seem interested, I'll post here any other difficulties I pick up on other apps using Stacker.

I have found problems using mobireader, putty and vexed (due to OPL in that last case)

Mobireader crashes, putty opens and closes and at the second time it sometimes runs..... but is compressed while still running!

And Vexed marks an OPL error

Other than that, I am considering registration today stikll have to play with it a bit more.

Thanks!

>And Vexed marks an OPL error

Vexed, Clock6 and other OPL programs. Cool, looks like I learned a lot these days about how is OPL runtimes are operated inside 😉)

Current version of Stacker doesn't work with OPL programs. First I decided to exclude OPL programs from the list of applications available to compress. But then I understood that Ewan probaly will kill me for such behaviour 😉 😃 ) and started thinking... Done! Next version of Stacker will support all OPL programs as well as the native ones. I'll release it soon.

>putty opens and closes and at the second time it sometimes runs..... but is compressed while still running!

That's correct, this is how putty works. It loads itself to memory and then one of the modules is unloaded, so it becomes compressed because it's not needed anymore (but putty itself sometimes behaves very curiously 😊 )

[quote="aurbina"]Mobireader crashes,[/quote]

For me Mobireader is working perfectly - I am using 9210i with Mobipocket Reader Pro v4.5, build 393. It's installed on c\, with books on d\. However, I think it also worked with the previous version of the app installed on d\ - I only just made the change.

Maybe there's something different about your install.

I get:

Aplication closed:

Apication Mobi Reader
Motive: KERN-EXEC
Num motive: 3

I have it on D: with library on D:

Weird, I will try reinstalling it or something

Got it! It is only when I start Mobi Reader from inside Stacker with the "Start App" option

I get the same problem as you when I try to open Mobipocket from Stacker. So, it looks like a software conflict issue rater than a problem with your 9210.

I can see that the authors of stacker may have something of a challenge here. There are a lot of apps for the 9210 and new ones still coming out. There are obviously conflicts with some other apps and keeping up with the testing could be a headache.