Coordinate with PortableApps.com to use this fork

[Gitoffthelawn]

I think PortableApps.com still uses this old version from 2012: https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/Source/Sqliteman/

Would it be possible to coordinate with the PortableApps.com people to investigate the possibility of them switching to your fork?

[rparkins999]

There are lots of versions of sqliteman out there, almost all Petr's old version (pvanek/sqliteman) which isn't being maintained any more, and from which I forked mine long ago. Most Linux distributions have an installable version. I have been unable to persuade people to replace Petr's version with mine, mainly because I can't find out whom to contact. I think that the only viable way to do it is to persuade Petr to replace his version with mine, which so far he hasn't been willing to do. Then the automatic updating processes will kick in. Once of the weaknesses of github is that there is no way to take over a no longer maintained repo without the owner explicitly giving it to you, and sometimes the owner can't be found or just doesn't have time or wants users to switch to their new closed-source version and doesn't want an upgraded open source version to compete with it. Also if there are several forks of a project, there is no way to find out which is the best one. I don't know that my version of sqliteman is the best one, although I think that it is. I can look at other forks and see if they have been updated recently, but I don't have time to do that very regularly. I do monitor the issues on Petr's version, and if someone raises an issue which has been fixed in mine, i point them to mine. github doesn't have a concept of a preferred version, and who would decide which version to prefer anyway? Judging by its name, portableapps wants things which build on multiple operating systems. I haven't tried building rparkins999/sqliteman on anything other than Linux. However I doubt if Petr's version will build on MS-Windows now. Operating system upgrades tend over time to cause software rot by providing new and incompatible versions of libraries or system calls. On Saturday, 13 January 2024 at 14:02:29 GMT, Gitoffthelawn ***@***.***> wrote: I think PortableApps.com still uses this old version from 2012: https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/Source/Sqliteman/ Would it be possible to coordinate with the PortableApps.com people to investigate the possibility of them switching to your fork? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Gitoffthelawn]

Thanks for you reply.

Yes, I agree that one of the weaknesses of GitHub is that it provides no clear path for unmaintained code, especially when there are one or more maintained forks.

For all/most of its history, PortableApps.com (and the PortableApps.com platform), only provided Windows software. It looks like they may now be creating the foundation to support other operating systems, but at this moment, I'm unclear if that is only support of Windows emulators, or if their plans are more grand.

In Windows parlance "portable" means to not make changes to the Windows registry or to write any files outside of an application's executable folder. The PortableApps.com platform excels at taking care of situations where its apps do not natively abide by those criteria.

From what I researched, the version of sqliteman that is used by PortableApps.com is currently compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, 11. See: https://portableapps.com/apps/development/sqliteman-portable

According to that same page, the upstream code is Petr's version from 2012.

If your code runs on Windows, I think the people at PortableApps.com will be happy to have a newer version of sqliteman. If you're not sure, they may be able to test it for you, given that they already have an old version of sqliteman included in their repository.

Their contact page is here:
https://portableapps.com/about/contact
Their forums are located here:
https://portableapps.com/forums

Their project is primary managed by John T. Haller. He is very dedicated to the project, and founded it in 2004. He's an intelligent and competent individual.