S
socrtwo
A PAD File is an XML document I think was developed by the Association
of Shareware Professionals (http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/). It
contains standardized information, such as the name of the program, a
description, file size, version number etc. It is meant to be used by
shareware authors and distributors to automate and standardize
information about shareware and thus make creating entries and updating
them in a distributors site easier.
If the files are left at one unchanging URL on shareware author's
website, the distributors can periodically poll the location to see if
a software update has been posted. Also shareware authors can submit
their freeware to sites simply by submitting the location of their XML
PAD file location.
I was wondering if their is a similar system for freeware, whether
others agree that freeware authors should be encouraged to take a few
minutes to write a PAD file. The free PADGEN for creating a file is
here: http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/downloads/PADSetup.exe.
I did an experiment and looked up the the commercial programs for
corrupt file recovery on the database at the ASP Site. The major
players all had PAD files for their programs, so the use is probably
widespread among shareware/commercialware. Certainly the use of PAD
files would make my job as a Freeware distributor, much easier.
Paul Pruitt
www.s2services.com - a extensive list of corrupt and deleted file,
failing disks and lost password recovery freeware.
of Shareware Professionals (http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/). It
contains standardized information, such as the name of the program, a
description, file size, version number etc. It is meant to be used by
shareware authors and distributors to automate and standardize
information about shareware and thus make creating entries and updating
them in a distributors site easier.
If the files are left at one unchanging URL on shareware author's
website, the distributors can periodically poll the location to see if
a software update has been posted. Also shareware authors can submit
their freeware to sites simply by submitting the location of their XML
PAD file location.
I was wondering if their is a similar system for freeware, whether
others agree that freeware authors should be encouraged to take a few
minutes to write a PAD file. The free PADGEN for creating a file is
here: http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/downloads/PADSetup.exe.
I did an experiment and looked up the the commercial programs for
corrupt file recovery on the database at the ASP Site. The major
players all had PAD files for their programs, so the use is probably
widespread among shareware/commercialware. Certainly the use of PAD
files would make my job as a Freeware distributor, much easier.
Paul Pruitt
www.s2services.com - a extensive list of corrupt and deleted file,
failing disks and lost password recovery freeware.