Posted: 10/9/2010 10:26 PM
(Edited: 10/10/2010 6:22 PM)
Post subject: Dropbox -- A Filesharing Tool for Collaborative Projects
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Antoids
Joined: 8/27/2009
Posts: 159
Location: California
http://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTEwNjkyNDA2OQ That's a referral link. A bit of shameless self-promotion on my part, but, hey. I like free gigabytes. I did a search and didn't find any topic about it, so I thought I'd let you guys know, since this seems like it'd be right up your alley. Dropbox works by installing a program and creating a folder on your computer. Within that folder, you can create new folders. These'll host anywhere from 2 to 10 GB of files for you on the dropbox servers, and allow you to share them with relative ease. It's got three primary benefits: Easy Filehosting Say Cpadolf wants to post his sparkster TAS in a thread but doesn't feel like using microstorage because it's just a short, temporary thing. Well, now, BAM, he drops it in the 'Public' folder, right clicks to copy the link, and here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10692406/cpadolf-sparkster.smv It's there and once the smv is no longer needed, he deletes it or moves it out of the folder and it's off the internet. Of course, he could just use MicroStorage for that, so that one's not a big deal. Backups of all your WIPs Since the files are copied to Dropbox's server, they stay there even in the event of a hardware failure (which I know has affected TASes in the past). Even after you delete a file, Dropbox holds on to it for 30 days, giving you plenty of time to fix a mistake or change your mind. Not only that, but if a new route or trick is found earlier on in your run, you can just revert the file to the version it was in a week ago, and BAM, saves you from having to redo the whole run up to that point. It's like giving you extra savestates every time you save the file! Collaborative TASes The last bit of awesomeness TASers might benefit from is having collaborative projects being able to be worked on simultaneously. A good example would be the 120-star run in SM64. So, say you get all the TASers working on that run to download Dropbox. They create a Shared Folder called "SM64 120 Stars", and put all their runs to be hex-edited together in there. Now, not only are the files easily available and backed up for whoever puts together the final run, but if someone feels the urge to try to improve a Star, they can access ANY WIP in that folder and edit it at will. And if you end up with drama in the community, with someone deleting or saving over the files, it's not a big deal because you can revert and undelete those files, then kick the troll out of the folder. So, yeah. It's a nice little tool that's gaining popularity, and I figured TASvideos might benefit a lot from it, since all of these have been problems at one point or another. That's all.
Posted: 10/10/2010 8:36 AM
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Warp
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Tangential to your post, but I was wondering if anybody is using any kind of commonly-used versioning system, such as svn or git, for collaborative TASes. The benefits of using such a versioning system would be pretty similar to the benefits of using one in a software project, such as: - Versioning itself, of course. Which means that nothing which has ever been submitted to the versioning system is ever lost. Accidentally deleted or modified a file which you didn't intend to, and noticed that only three months after the fact? No problem: You can revert the old file from as back as you want. Or simply want to check how something was done three months ago, was modified, and now you can't remember it anymore? Same process (after reverting to the old version you can re-revert to the newest if so desired). - Commented history of the project, in the form of submit messages (of course this requires that every submission has a proper and descriptive message). - Multi-redundant backupping. No need to worry about your hard drive dying or lightning making your computer a molten piece of metal. All the important project files will be safely backed up in the versioning server and the computers of all the people who are participating in the project. And, as commented above, the backupping is incremental, as any version of any file ever submitted can be restored if needed. - Branching. Want to test a new idea without having to mess up with the main TAS files, or creating multitudes of ancillary test files (which are typically named "therun_test.smv", "therun_test2.smv", "therun_test2_tmp.smv", "therun_test2_tmp2_new.smv" and so on, and after a week you don't even remember yourself what they stand for)? Create a new branch from the current main branch, safely do anything you want in that branch without messing with the main branch, and if it works then merge to the main branch, or if it didn't work, just let it be (it will then exist as a testament of your test, and you could eg. refer to it if it comes up in later development, so others can check it out).
Posted: 10/10/2010 8:47 AM
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sgrunt
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Former player
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
adelikat frequently uses both Dropbox and an svn repository on Google Code (there's a changelog on his [wiki Adelikat]user page[/wiki]).
Posted: 10/11/2010 2:35 AM
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Antoids
Joined: 8/27/2009
Posts: 159
Location: California
Oh, so you guys are already aware of the tool. My bad for spammin' up the forums, then. Glad to see you guys are in possession of such tools already, you sure need 'em :P
Posted: 10/11/2010 2:46 AM
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sgrunt
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Former player
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
Well, we are tool-assisted speedrunners, after all.