[HotStuff2]

There are a few things in installer.app I'd really like to see:

1. A version # check for apps.

Yes, I know installer has added a date check, and it's "soon to be mandatory", but for now, not everyone has it, or knows how to do it correctly. I hate installing an app (typically from it's main repo), and someone else (Ste, or Shai, or someone else) puts it on their repo as well. Then, when an update comes out, and I update the app, the OLD version is shown as an "update" in installer, from the OTHER repo.

I also ran into this today: I had Screenshot 1.2.1 installed, from Ste's repo. It never showed an update, but I see that 1.3.0 has been released from the "official" repo of Robota Softwarehouse. WTH? Why didn't installer show it as an update?

2. The ability to scroll through the "All Packages" by first letter, sorta like the phone app or iTunes does, with the alphabet down the right-hand side of the screen. If I'm looking for, say, Screenshot, and I can't remember where it is, I have to go to "All Packages" and scroll through everything by continually flicking my finger to make it scroll.

3. The ability to selectively HIDE updates. In other words, a way to tell installer.app to ignore an update for whatever reason. This goes back to #1; I should be able to swipe left on an update it shows, and have an option come up that says "ignore this update?", and say yes or no to it. Installer would then not show the red 1 over it's icon, since I've told it to ignore it.

[Kyle Matthews]

No one has heard from Nullriver in a good long while.

[JLA]

Is Nullriver a group or a person?

In addition to making it open source, I personally would make these additions/changes:
- The ability to enter Installer without it automatically checking for updates...sometimes I'm in EDGE area and only want to uninstall something.
- Support for the alternate applications directory. Erica Sadun's Widget directory trick can allow someone to use two application directories, but I don't believe Installer knows about the media partition one.
- Plug-in for adding repositories via Safari.
- Updates for apps would come with a "Changes since version x.xx" list, which one couldread before updating.
- The ability to reinstall any app (sort of like BSD)...I frequently have to delete and redownload certain programs to make them work right, and it seems that wastes bandwidth.
- Support for using (optional) hit counters, so that a repository could indicate a hit counter is associated with a download, and installer would both read the hitcount total when a user examines a program for download, as well as trigger that hitcounter if the user decides to download it.

[Kyle Matthews]

Nullriver is a company.