Re: [Gnumed-devel] install instructions

[Sebastian Hilbert]

On Monday 10 November 2003 22:07, Hilmar Berger wrote:
> > Even on GNU/Linux (and other serious OS' :-)) we should think about
> > coding an
> > installer that has very few dependencies. This installer should gather
> > information about ones packages and install what is necessary. Ideally it
> > could detect a missing python installation and get it via apt-get, yast
> > etc.
>
> IMHO getting package dependencies right is the task of the package manager
> (apt, yast, rpm).
Point taken. I was talking about MS Windows where there is no such thing as a 
package manager unless you stuff everything in one huge executable.
On MS Windows it is necessary to check for Python etc. before installing the 
rest. NSIS ca do this.

On *real* OS no such thing should be necessary. 

> The installer should only check if everthing went right (just in case
> someone installed the packages by hand).
> Then the installer should provide a way to comfortably configure and
> install client
For the client I do not see the need for a graphical installer. Once the rpms 
are installed, the client can be fired up without the need to configure 
anything. All you need can be entered into the login-dialog.

> and/or server.
Now this is a different story. One could decide to hide bootstrap behind some 
nice gui. I think GNUmed (server) should not be setup by anyone who does not 
understand enough of what is going on. This is the duty of skilled IT/IS 
personel. I don't think GNUmed's objective should be to get rid of 
IT-personel. It is the same with MS Windows. I don't have the skills to /
(properly) set up an MS SQL-server. I might be able to install it but it 
takes more than that to get a clean installation.
>
> > It should not even depend on python. Call me paranoid but I have had
> > python
> > rpms lately that did not work at all. This would than render the
> > installer unusable.
>
> I guess that we have to make at least some assumptions here. It should not
> be a common problem that installed python packages don't work.
>
I wish you were right. I use apt4rpm which takes care of dependencies the way 
apt does but because of that I was provided with a broken rpm. 

Please elucidate what exactly we want the installer (gui/console) to do.

Sebastian