Thanks, that's quite reassuring. I more or less just copy the hildon.menu from the application's resource files to the menus folder, so this really shouldn't happen at all.

The only files I'm dynamically messing with are the .desktop file (an error within which only seems to result in a default icon) and the .menu files in the submenu folder (and messing up those will simply make Hildon not import them).

I'm just automating the process explained in my tutorial post, so I can already see the results, which so far are:

Almost no idle CPU usage (with X Terminal active, Hildon keeps between nothing and 1.5%, with stray peaks at 2%), the only effect I can see so far is that sometimes there's a delay in loading the application menu itself. For a second or two, it will show the no-applications-found message.

I've included a deactivate (the one that for some strange reason at 2:30AM I named "unactivate" ) button that will simply delete the hildon.menu file, so if you still find the hildon.menu messing with your CPU you could just deactivate it at night and hit the activate button first thing in the morning.

Okay, the thing is more or less ready (minidom does a terrible job at formatting, but at least it works). Now I just have to figure out how to turn this into a downloadable package.

And I have to find someone who would be willing to write the Readme - wouldn't want to force people to read (and somehow understand) my terrible English...

I'll be more then happy to write a ReadMe if I have a free weekend.

I can help with a translation in Italian...if you need it
I am looking forward to try this soon

hi if you want i cAN be a beta tester .. i want this app!!

Anyone, who's willing to reflash their devices in worst case, can test this app once it arrives in Extras-Devel. So no need for beta-testers, unless for some reason the developer himself would want those (which I guess he doesn't want nor need).

Thanks a lot, people! It's great that there's someone out there who cares and even wants to help.

I'll definitely come back to the translation offers once I replaced the hard-coded English with translatable content. Might take a while, though - I want to get rid of major bugs and annoyances first so I won't have to nag you for new translations every time there's a minor change to the UI.

And as to beta testers, while of course the application will be available to everybody who has included extras-devel, sworn beta testers would be great. I know a lot of people (and I've done it, too!) will just uninstall an application that doesn't work like they want it to, while having one or more active beta testers always helps with improving an application.

I still didn't manage to get things into extras-devel, though. There's lots of tutorials on how to do this with C++/Qt, but I couldn't find any easy ways to do the same with my Python files. Never delved into packaging for Debian before, so it might take some time.

And I'm not sure how to learn about dependencies - I didn't have to install anything to get it working on my device, but then again I have so many applications installed that I most probably simply already installed all the necessary libraries with those.

If everything else fails, I'll try to upload the non-packaged application this weekend, so those interested in taking a first look at it can just manually install it.

(And if anybody happens to run into missing dependencies, please let me know! )

Please have a look at Py2Deb (and please don't forget to edit /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/py2deb.py to get a working bugtracker link)

You'll get 3 files. You can upload these to extra-devel and the autobuilder will compile your 3 files into a *.deb file if everything is fine.

Nathraiben,

I don't know if you are informed, but I suggested something like your application here to the maemo coding competition.

I'm sure... if you want you can still register yourself with your project to get more help, more testers, more feedback and a chance to win the contest.

EDIT: Ah, I see... you already posted there. So you are informed.

Thanks Helmuth, you're a lifesaver! Uploaded my files to extra-devel during my lunch break and am waiting for it to show up in the repository. According to the builder log, so far everything has been okay and it has been queued for uploading.

Funny, I'm messing with the systems of big companies every day, but uploading to extra-devel actually makes me feel like a child waiting for first day of school again...

Yes, I planned to upload ApMeFo (note the most ingenious creativity behind that name ) as my first (and, looking at how much functionality I want to squeeze into my game, probably last) contribution to the contest. Nonetheless, thanks for the hint!

Also, I didn't know about your request. Glad to see this might actually really be useful to others!