Let me chime in here.
IHMO it is not so important whether an installer is a graphical one
or not.
I've seen brilliant command line based ones and broken-by-design
graphical
ones (and the other way around too)
A good installer makes it easy for an (possible novice) user to get a
software installed on his/her system without ending up in a clueless
state
about something or in an unresolvable situation. The question here
is: How to
achieve that goal?
It is all about good guidance. That is:
- Ask the right questions (== ask the necessary questions in a right
order)
- make it possible to go some steps back (although the need for that
should
be avoided as far as possible by the above)
- offer the possibility for expert choices at several points, but
always
offer a default/novice way to do things
- avoid "GNUstep speech" (That is using terms where only "old GNUstep
hands"
understand what those mean) as far as possible.
- explain, explain, explain (what is going on, what this or that
choice means
etc. in a short and to the point way)
How to get this implemented into a working and good installer?
Not just start coding away and work around problem later but:
- design the interaction flow first:
- get an idea about what is needed
- get an idea what can be answered/decided by the installer and which
things
need user interaction
- get the questions which the user has to answer in a right and user
comprehensible order
- then start to think about how to implement it
- command line based (works almost always)
- html based (should work mostly since webbrowsers are a commodity
today)
- graphical (needs some sort of graphical interface to be installed -
no
problem on Windows but what to use on Unix/Linux? KDE or GNOME are
what we're
going to replace, depending on their libs just for an installer is
somewhat
odd. TCL/TK? Has everyone installed that? the same questions as for
KDE/GNOME
arise)
- mixed (start with command line and switch to something GNUstep GUI
based
for the last steps (Example: the OPENSTEP installer)
- implement it ;-)
I am thinking about moving this discussion into the wiki so that it
becomes
fruitful and doesn't pass away like those thousands of fruitless
polemics
here on the list do since an really good installer is something
GNUstep needs
badly to get more users (GNUstep installation is one of the toughest
hurdles
you've to take if you want to become a GNUstepper. I hope the most of
you did
not forget their challenging first "GNU"steps. We should make it a
lot easier
for the "following generations")
regards, Lars
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