Re: Installer UI advices

[Frederico Muñoz]

On 2005-03-12 11:50:29 +0000 Pete French <pete@twisted.org.uk> wrote:

> > have learned to drive a manual transmission car. Driving and flying 
> > airplanes is getting easier every day. Why can't computing?
(...)
> You have to hide the complexity, you cant get rid of it because it is
> necessary for the whole lot to work. If you have dictatorial control
> over your OS then it's easy but for GNUstep it isnt because it runs 
> on many
> systems. So all we can do is stick to the bits we *do* have control
> over - i.e. if you install an app it goes either in your Apps
> directory or the system Apps directory. Nowhere else.

One of the reasons packages exist at all is exactly because they, for 
some reason (and we can discuss if they should be "better designed", 
but the fact remains), need to be installed in certain places. As I 
said before, if an app is self contained it could just be droped and 
executed. A package is sutable when this isn't an option, or even 
when, although the package is self contained, the developer ot 
packager feels that some extra info must be presented to the user 
(like a license).

As I said in a previous mail I think I understood the app/package 
hybrid that checks and if necessary installs all the non-relocatable 
dependencies and leaves the self contained part where it was droped. 
This is something that is worth taking a shot at. Having said that, 
and reading the other messages, there are situations were something 
really needs to be installed to some place. Also, the argument about 
the user losing the apps is not without merit, I just checked and I 
have several duplicate apps and documents around just because I 
totally forgot where I had put them in the first place. This doesn't 
mean that the user shouldn't be allowed to choose were the apps go, 
but a certain coherent behaviour or simple guindace will go a long way 
for most users.


> Conclusion: Dont use the installer to try and package up things which
> arent GNustep stuff and we'll do fine.

Yes, I'm primarily talking about apps that are purely GNUstep. and 
live inside GNUstep's jurisdiction. The format itself can be used (and 
in OSX is) to install everything but I'm primarily concerned with just 
GNUstep apps.

Best Regards,

fsmunoz