Sorry about the noob question, I’m trying one more time to get into gamma, and I keep getting stuck on the basics, despite watching the tons of great tutorials (thanks everyone for the hard work btw) !!
I’ve opened a vl exemple: MediaPipe, How_to_use_the_hand_detector and I get this red node:
I’m assuming it’s missing some Stride dependencies.
I’m then trying a command line nuget install, but without much luck.
I’m sure this is will be obvious for most gamma users, but despite 20 years of beta, accessing a gamma example or opening a window is such a difficult mission for me at this stage :)
You can also browse what is available when you click on the document → Dependencies, where the checked box indicates whether the package is currently referenced in your document (nodes available in the node browser):
Your dependencies in the menu bar should be red, and you can select the missing one, and select, install from there, select exact referenced version, to be sure it works with what you are opening, it should install and your red nodes clear.
This is only true if the package works with your current vvvv version. For VL.CEF in this case, it should probably be a newer one that works with the current stride and current vvvv gamma, see:
Thank you for the super prompt and detailed help !!
I’m starting to understand the entry barriers, the confusion between packs, nugets, the various locations.
I can finally open some gamma examples (stunning work btw) some are so powerful and convincing, it would be amazing to ease the access. I have the feeling that this coud be mostly solved with a few Ux fixes !
Dependency / packs / Nugets (and also extensions and addons ? ): there might be room for more clarity in semantics?
Does something prevent a “install” button ? For noobs like me, this could be one less barrier in the early struggle :)
Sorry about the unsollicited suggestions, I really feel like beta and gamma deserve a lot more adoption, and I can see now what may stop people in the process.
Only a lot of work. But this work specifically is actually ongoing right now. For a quick preview of the status of the upcoming Package Manager, see the December review blog.
Dependency would be the general term to describe “some piece of “code” the patch needs in order to run”, which could be a dll, another VL file, or a package.
Packs : there I have a question for the devvvs. I saw the term “pack” being used a lot recently when reading about the upcoming package manager : is it the new official term for a nuget/package/lib/plugin/however we used to call it in the past? :)
Nuget is the term in the .NET ecosystem to call a package that contains a dependency you would use in a project. Because gamma is part of the .NET ecosystem, we use their terminology as well.
In beta, your dependencies could be packs, dlls or other .v4p files.
In gamma, you can also reference .vl directly as you would do with .v4p files in beta, but that has multiple issues :
you have to manually put that file somewhere so that your patch sees it
you might have to manually install the dependencies this file needs
you don’t have proper version control : what if you need a specific 2 years old version of that file?
This is why gamma uses the nuget package manager. You can see those nugets as beta packs on steroids : they automatically install the dependencies they need, you can come back to any version of that package, and most importantly your patch “knows” it which nuget it needs, and which version. Which means if you open a project, you know exactly which dependency it needs, and have a standard and “always working” way of retrieving that dependency (nugets are hosted on the public nuget feed. You can see a list of available packages here)
But, even with your link, right here, right now I can not find it (it’s linking to “packs”, and it doesn’t come up in research). Generally, the “unable to acccess” feeling is what might prevent adoption.
The main issue I can see is that things are out of access for the general public (or even beta users like me).
I think the Ux and the issues with semantics (Dependencies / packs / Nugets / extensions / addons / plugin / lib / package) are creating “a fence of struggle and pain” that doesn’t help revealing your incredible work.
I feel like this might actually be “easy fixes”, as opposed to add more code, more layers, more tutorials or links, happy to help, will follow up in an email !
Thank you for taking the time @sebescudie, I really appreciate that !
I understand the convenience and the benefits, the ease for versioning of the Nuget infrastructure indeed, I think the struggle is more on the Ux / Front end / accessibility to users, the Help browser is a great start indeed, but imho there are major problems in semantics and Ux that are pushing people away to other tools, but thanks to these discussions I think I can seeing now what the main issues are (and good news, it’s not code). :)
Oh, I was looking for a preview of the Pack manager (ie: VL.PackMan -pre) I didn’t realise you meant “http://vvvv.org/packs” is actually the preview. It’s a great and impressive list btw !!
