Policy regarding third-party install scripts

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jhansonxi
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Policy regarding third-party install scripts

Post by jhansonxi »

I received a test submission queued for DesignSpark Mechanical v5. It includes a link to a GitHub page which is supposedly a new project for an installation script or something. The script was not present when I checked, only some pics and a vid.

Since winetricks is supported (not automatically invalidating test reports if used) what is the policy regarding other install scripts?
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dimesio
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Re: Policy regarding third-party install scripts

Post by dimesio »

Winetricks is supported because it was created by a Wine developer for Wine developers, is maintained by people trusted by the project, and uses vanilla Wine. The AppDB admins and maintainers are familiar with what it does, and since it's been actively maintained for over a decade, it's not likely to just disappear. Other third party scripts are not supported because many of them use hacked versions of Wine, users of those scripts generally don't understand what they do (leading to incorrect ratings), and there is no way the admins can keep track of all the scripts floating around. Most of those scripts eventually die off when the maintainer loses interest. Keeping up with Wine development is a lot of work.

It is fine mention third party scripts in the Extra Comments section so long as the main body of the report and the rating are based on vanilla Wine. In the case of a script that simply automates installing a bunch of dependencies, I would recommend listing the dependencies that the script installs so people can install them manually, and then just mentioning the script as making it easier. That way, exactly what needs to be installed is documented in the report, even if the script itself disappears into oblivion.
jhansonxi
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Re: Policy regarding third-party install scripts

Post by jhansonxi »

That makes sense. Thanks.
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