• Hi,
    This is more of a 'policy' question (mostly for Gordon, but perhaps others have good insights as well).
    I wrote an app for Bangle2 that can read and display data (via BLE) from an OpenWind sailing wind instrument: http://www.openwind.de. It displays true and apparent wind speeds and angles (and optionally speed over ground) - see attached screen shot.
    I use this for sailing, but I suspect that I am the only person at the intersection of Bangle owners and users of this particular model of wind instrument. Is it considered cluttering the app loader to post a pull request for a (most likely) single-user app or should we take the "the more the better approach" to publishing apps?
    Thanks,
    Marko


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  • I'd say that any decent app is a nice addition, even if you are the only owner of this particular device, quite possibly someone else might want a similar app, so they could adjust/copy your code instead of starting from scratch.
    And it saves you some trouble if something changes which applies to all apps. (like e.g. the recent metadata change)

    But it should be a complete app, so you should consider if it's worth the effort of creating a nice icon, README, screenshots, etc. (My watch definitely has some "unofficial" apps because that was too much effort.)

  • Since I have my own website I prefer keeping my niche apps (currently just "BLE Clock Sync" widget which requires my bluetooth broadcaster) in my own app loader.

    Main problem with this is that someone could add different widget with same ID to official app loader and cause confusion.

  • I use this for sailing, but I suspect that I am the only person at the intersection of Bangle owners and users of this particular model of wind instrument.

    guess again :D
    Cool, I did not even know that this project openwind exists.

    What we could use is are a bit more engineered categories. It probably does not make sense to see this app (and some others) unless you look for it. e.g. an extra category external sensors.

  • I've had a watch face in the app loader for a few years which may have no other user, and I'm about to produce a variant. Although Gordon may have a different answer, those interested in the topic the watches are allied to may be pleased to find them there.

    In other words, it's research, and there seems to me no better place for the results.

  • Is it considered cluttering the app loader to post a pull request for a (most likely) single-user app or should we take the "the more the better approach" to publishing apps?

    Definitely the more the merrier! I'm not so happy about forks - if you have an issue with an existing app it's almost certainly better for all involved to fix that app than to create a whole new app.

    However apps like this sound more than perfect. This exactly the kind of thing I hoped Bangle.js would be used for - hobbies and niche applications that don't really end up getting served well be any other watches.

    In terms of categories, I'm open to adding more - but 'bluetooth' seems like an obvious one to use for now.

    I still think a GPS-based 'anchor drag' warning would be great - I've been meaning to add something for a while.

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App loader question: does it make sense to post niche use applications

Posted by Avatar for user113695 @user113695

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