Auraomega has finally released a new version of his shell for the PSP, heres his release news:
Due to Brickage Concerns We strongly advise against using it
Here it is, finally, the "full" release of Project4, its almost killed me (or my testers have almost killed me) getting it released, but its done - finally!
It now sports a few minor application extras, such as a calendar, calculator, stopwatch, all of which are still pretty basic and no doubt buggy - these I plan on updating properly in the future, for now they are there simply as a base to work upon later.
The major updates for this version come in usability, and user friendliness. The first update is a new easier to read configuration file, which now supports comments and more options, this gives an easier and more varied look for Project4, by simply changing icon placement or colours, and theres no more in depth thinking as to which part you are editing, the information is all there in the file.
The next thing is shortcut buttons, a file located in flash1:/P4/ can be used to link programs to buttons (and I may hazard a guess to say files too, but I've not tested), meaning if you want to have something like iRShell on there for loading the web browser or whatever, you can simply press the key combo and its launched.
The main update though, the one thats driven me over the barrier of insanity and back into sanity in a full circle... plugin support of files. This expands Project4's usage far beyond its original capabilities, simply editing the shortcut file in flash1:/P4/ will allow a program to load a file thus supporting any file that can be used by another application, its still not working how I wanted it working, because some files will not be opened by the application, I am currently looking into possible ways to fix it.
Theres also some nice graphic changes, namely in EBOOT loading, in old versions you just got the "Request" menu screen, in this version it will strip out the background image and icon image of the application, and blit it to the screen giving you a far better sense of what it is you're loading. This has caused some minor problems with loading odd files, in some cases it causes the system to crash (I'm not sure if this is just my PSP or others as well, had no reports and a lot gets corrupted on my card whilst testing), if this is the case loading the file while pressing the left shoulder button will bypass this.
I've added a new version format, theres some minor significance behind the numbers chosen and maybe the keen eyed and nerdy type will see what it is
Finally, I hate to have to do it again, but recently my computer died a painful death of an overdose of BSoD'ing, and even my Linux partition isn't doing so well, meaning theres a hardware issue, and my laptop is not having much better luck either, its taking multiple times to boot it and a lot of the hardware is failing, I've been looking into getting a new computer but after spending all my cash and donations on my holiday to Scotland (all packed and ready to go). So I'm asking again for donations this time towards a new competent computer, I had hoped mine would last until I got a job, unfortunatly I doubt this will be the case... A recap of rewards from donations:
£0.01+ - A personal e-mail (no automatted crap)
£1.50+ - A mention in the next readme
£2.50+ - A mention in Project4's about page
£5.00+ - Access to Project4's pre-release board where "beta" builds of the actual release get uploaded giving you the ability to get Project4 updates before official release and help towards testing.
