Re: GSoC project about binary packaging

[Michael Goffioul]

On Sat, Jul 6, 2013 at 12:22 PM, Patrick Noffke <address@hidden> wrote:

On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 1:26 PM, Anirudha Bose <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 8:19 PM, Patrick Noffke <address@hidden>
> wrote:
>>

> files in the installation directory. Can you provide a similar basic XML
> file to help me understand WiX?
>

A basic .wxs file is attached.  This will not provide any UI other
than a small box with a Cancel button.  I'll provide some basic UI
stuff later.

I have not tested this file yet (my mxe-build failed).  You will have
to edit the Source attributes to point to the files you want to put in
the installer, and add/remove any files that you want.  I just
included the main EXE, a couple Qt DLLs (though my earlier email for
using wixl-heat is a better approach for including lots of
dependencies), and some translation files (just placeholders).  I'm
not sure how translations are handled, or what they're named, so you
might just want to comment this one out for initial testing.

I generated fresh GUIDs on my machine using uuidgen.  The Package GUID
has a '*', which means let wixl or WiX generate it.

I know nothing about WiX, but what are the advantages over NSIS?

 

- Checking for JRE:  Based on another email thread about Java, is this

necessary?  Once you check for the JRE, what do you need to do?

When I wrote that in my installer, it was to detect whether to install the java package or not. Of course, it made sense when java was a separate octave-forge package. Now that it's integrated into octave, it doesn't make much sense anymore.

 

- Adding environment variables:  Here's an example of updating the
PATH environment variable:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1931586/can-anyone-give-me-a-example-of-modifying-windows-environment-system-variables-i
Note the follow-up answer that says it needs to be part of a directory element.

I'm really not found of programs that modify my PATH environment (actually, I hate them). Why do we need to add octave bin directory to the PATH?

Michael.