Subject: installer suggestions.
From: Alan (horkana@tcd.ie)
Date: Thu Jul 05 2001 - 10:08:41 CDT
i was looking at the NSIS a free installer from Nullsoft (makers of
Winamp). I think it is good and it has more features than the Abiword
installer. It is written in C++, its scriptable and it is free in all
senses of the word. http://www.nullsoft.com/free/nsis/
to demonstrate and show a few simple features of NSIS i repackaged the
Abiword june 4th nightly build, here is a temporary link
http://matrix.netsoc.tcd.ie/~horkana/setup_abiword.exe
i submitted an RFE to Bugzilla recently for more flexible installs, and
if Abiword were to use NSIS it would mean i could go off and write the
necessary scripts myself without having to do any programming. The code
is completely free, so Abiword could use it as is (perhaps with a
recompile to remove some of the Nullsoft labels) or borrow any code you
want, or completely fork and GPL it (which is a bit rude really).
Playing devils advocate: "Do one thing well", does abiword actually need
its own windows installer? Its written in C, not C++ like most of
Abiword. Its not like its even remotely cross platform. It would be
really nice if other projects were sharing the installer, but not very
many open source projects support windows.
The scripting facilities of NSIS would make it relatively easy to
localize the installer if there was a demand. Allowing people to only
install certain languages will be messy. every new language added to
abiword adds to the binary size (i realize you could just compile your
own if it bothered you but...).
I could certainly group the locale specific info. together using the
installer, but it would be better if all the locale stuff was separate.
e.g. a "locale" directory containing dictionary/*.strings/manuals etc.
with subdirs according to ISO language codes de-DE, fr-FR etc.
If the developers decide not to change the installer thats fine by me.
Im not suggesting we rush to get this in either.
later
Alan
PS i also have this really great idea about a paperclip ... :P
-- I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total oblivion. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.Litany against Fear Paul Mu'dib (Dune) and also Peter the Puppy (Earthworm Jim)
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