PyEdit: Media Helper


One of the best features is PyEdit's ability to get media for your maps from multiple sources, both local and remote. It does this by calling a seperate program the "Media Helper". It calls this tool with a media "path" the media helper then goes about it's job of finding the media. Currently the media supports sources such as CVS, HTTP, FTP and of course the local drive.
It also planned to have support for reading tar and zip files so you no longer have to extract those pesky media files.
The media helper will only download the media you ask for, this can greatly reduce download time. It will also check all the local caches of the repositories before it downloads media meaning you should only ever have to download it once.
The next best thing about the media helper is that it can be used by any program! The media helper is not bound to PyEdit in anyway, it does not depend on any external dependancies (such as pygame or pyUI) and will work with stock python installs!
As well there are efforts to compile media_helper into a binary format through a process called "freezing". This means that you won't even have to have python installed to use the media helper!
Lastley every program that shares media helper shares all the repositories. Thus if a client wants some media that PyEdit has already downloaded the downloaded copy it used!