[UPDATE] The Tiger App Shop!

[AphoticD]

I had a quick play with the RapidWeaver 3.5.0 demo on my mini running Panther and it is super easy to use. You could setup a website with download links for all of your files within a few minutes. You would just need to host it all somewhere.

Check it out...

Here's the Theme Browser view and site setup inspector.

Here's the default theme which is like the old school Apple.com (circa 2000-ish)

And the file editor for adding and removing entries.. It's all easy enough.

I think you'd get more cred for building it on a Mac running Panther too

 

[AmazingHenry]

I had a quick play with the RapidWeaver 3.5.0 demo on my mini running Panther and it is super easy to use. You could setup a website with download links for all of your files within a few minutes. You would just need to host it all somewhere.

Check it out...

View attachment 784338

Here's the Theme Browser view and site setup inspector.
View attachment 784339

Here's the default theme which is like the old school Apple.com (circa 2000-ish)

View attachment 784340

And the file editor for adding and removing entries.. It's all easy enough.

I think you'd get more cred for building it on a Mac running Panther too

Nice! Will it run on a newer OS, say Lion (my MacBook) or Leopard (iMac)? Or do I need to downgrade to Panther?

Also, how customizable is the theme? I wanted to take this have a Mac App Store interface, looking just like the real deal on the newest Macs. I'll make some compromises, obviously, but if it has to be a list, this is a no-go as the main app. What I'll probably end up doing is something with this app and a website.

 

[AphoticD]

Nice! Will it run on a newer OS, say Lion (my MacBook) or Leopard (iMac)? Or do I need to downgrade to Panther?

Also, how customizable is the theme? I wanted to take this have a Mac App Store interface, looking just like the real deal on the newest Macs. I'll make some compromises, obviously, but if it has to be a list, this is a no-go as the main app. What I'll probably end up doing is something with this app and a website.

Sure. I bought a license back at version 4.x and have used it on Leopard quite a bit. They are up to version 8, which can be downloaded from the Realmac website.

The themes are all customizable. There are downloadable themes from other users too.

 

[z970]

I wanted to take this have a Mac App Store interface, looking just like the real deal on the newest Macs.

I'd second Aphotic's suggestion of modeling it after the old Apple website instead. The Leopard Rebirth App Store models after the new App Store, the new App Store's design isn't even that good, modeling your repository after the old Apple website will help yours stand out and be more unique from the rest of the PPC App Stores, and I'd like to know if it really needs a modern, fresh design if it's supposed to be hosting applications from 15+ years ago.

I'm not trying to contradict everything you do, it's just that all the project directions you're putting up have already been done before by others in the same community. If it's going to be a website centered around something from quite some while ago, then it would probably make sense to model it after a website once active quite some while ago, and not an application from 2017, 2018. It really would make it cooler and more interesting to use / navigate instead of templating off of the same old tired design milked by everybody else.

 

[AmazingHenry]

I'd second Aphotic's suggestion of modeling it after the old Apple website instead. The Leopard Rebirth App Store models after the new App Store, the new App Store's design isn't even that good, modeling your repository after the old Apple website will help yours stand out and be more unique from the rest of the PPC App Stores, and I'd like to know if it really needs a modern, fresh design if it's supposed to be hosting applications from 15+ years ago.

I'm not trying to contradict everything you do, it's just that all the project directions you're putting up have already been done before by others in the same community. If it's going to be a website centered around something from quite some while ago, then it would probably make sense to model it after a website once active quite some while ago, and not an application from 2017, 2018. It really would make it cooler and more interesting to use / navigate instead of templating off of the same old tired design milked by everybody else.

Sounds good. I of course haven't been following the forum lately and I appreciate you're advice! An old interface does make sense the more I think about it, after all it is an old Mac with an old OS and old apps.

I'll play around with Aphotic's app. Any more suggestions appreciated!

 

[XaPHER]

I do not have a great appreciation of app stores. That said I feel something could be done here to obtain a 'native' .app store.

Personally I would choose an offline appstore approach:

- Panther is more or less relevant on the web. Not mentioning web features, there's still multiple issues remaining that makes me reluctant to have a panther computer rely on web resources. Given the circumstances of this thread, let's not focus on this point.

- Except to the site itself, I'd expect to be few updates to the app catalog. There's next to no app that still gets updates while targeting panther. The main changes to the catalog would be newly added/discovered apps, no?

- In an attempt to take advantage of the last point, you could store your app catalog in something like an xml property list inside the application support folder. It would contain http urls to where each respective app package is being hosted + digests for integrity. There would be few updates i.e. when a new app is added to the list. Updates to the app store itself could also bundle a catalog update.

If and how should updates only to the catalog happen is something to be determined.

I'm trying to be constructive, and it's "an idea" so I'm perfectly okay with it not necessarily being welcome. Though I have a rough idea of how to put this up in a (mostly)simple way that involves writing very few things from scratch.

EDIT: Why the heck am I writing in a way that implies a "native app store" would preclude a 'web version" ? I just wanted to say a .app that works with panther would look like a really nice addition.

 

[AmazingHenry]

I do not have a great appreciation of app stores. That said I feel something could be done here to obtain a 'native' .app store.

Personally I would choose an offline appstore approach:

- Panther is more or less relevant on the web. Not mentioning web features, there's still multiple issues remaining that makes me reluctant to have a panther computer rely on web resources. Given the circumstances of this thread, let's not focus on this point.

- Except to the site itself, I'd expect to be few updates to the app catalog. There's next to no app that still gets updates while targeting panther. The main changes to the catalog would be newly added/discovered apps, no?

- In an attempt to take advantage of the last point, you could store your app catalog in something like an xml property list inside the application support folder. It would contain http urls to where each respective app package is being hosted + digests for integrity. There would be few updates i.e. when a new app is added to the list. Updates to the app store itself could also bundle a catalog update.

If and how should updates only to the catalog happen is something to be determined.

I'm trying to be constructive, and it's "an idea" so I'm perfectly okay with it not necessarily being welcome. Though I have a rough idea of how to put this up in a (mostly)simple way that involves writing very few things from scratch.

EDIT: Why the heck am I writing in a way that implies a "native app store" would preclude a 'web version" ? I just wanted to say a .app that works with panther would look like a really nice addition.

So the plan is to go with an app, not a website, yes. I still want to make the app web based tho, because then we can do stuff like ratings and reviews, and update on-the-fly without making you download an update and transfer to your Panther Mac via flash drive. We'll see, I'm still figuring it out. Thanks for your suggestion!

 

[AphoticD]

So the plan is to go with an app, not a website, yes. I still want to make the app web based tho, because then we can do stuff like ratings and reviews, and update on-the-fly without making you download an update and transfer to your Panther Mac via flash drive. We'll see, I'm still figuring it out. Thanks for your suggestion!

I am excited for you @AmazingHenry ! Go to your local library or second hand bookshop and find yourself some books on the C language (for Mac), Objective-C programming and Cocoa / AppKit from the pre-Leopard days (2009 and earlier will likely be written for pre-Objective-C v2.0 and manual memory management).

Ideally, you'll want to build on the platform you're developing for, so download and install Xcode 1.5 in Panther and get started.

There is much to learn, but with dedication and perseverance, this could lead into great things for you.

 

[mzs.112000]

I had a quick play with the RapidWeaver 3.5.0 demo on my mini running Panther and it is super easy to use. You could setup a website with download links for all of your files within a few minutes. You would just need to host it all somewhere.

Check it out...

View attachment 784338

Here's the Theme Browser view and site setup inspector.
View attachment 784339

Here's the default theme which is like the old school Apple.com (circa 2000-ish)

View attachment 784340

And the file editor for adding and removing entries.. It's all easy enough.

I think you'd get more cred for building it on a Mac running Panther too

Hmm, even better, if you run the main server on a G3 PowerMac, connected via 100Mbit ethernet, and port-forwarded from your router. Of course, you do still need a domain, and need to point that domain to your IP...

 

[AmazingHenry]

Hmm, even better, if you run the main server on a G3 PowerMac, connected via 100Mbit ethernet, and port-forwarded from your router. Of course, you do still need a domain, and need to point that domain to your IP...

Lol I'd like to see someone try that