[openbeos] Re: on SoftwareValet for OBOS
- From: "Michael Phipps" <mphipps1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 22:59:33 -0500
>Just looking for folks' opinions on the value of the "software
>installer" for OpenBeOS.
Opinions are free. :-)
What follows is my *personal*, not the "official" opinion.
> I've personally never had any use for an installer for BeOS. Never
>learned how to use
>SoftwareValet -- always seemed way too complicated. I much prefer
>unzipping an archive
>to where I want the app installed (for me, it's ~/apps_n_utils) and
>then, if required, copy
>a couple of shared libs to ~/config/lib.
I never learned SV, either.
>I realize, of course, that OBOS will need at least some rudimentary
>utility to install pkg files (that is, if it achieves binary compatibility
>with BeOS R5
>apps) -- I just don't dig the full-blown SV.
Agreed,
>I see how you need something like InstallShield for that other OS
>because of the complexity involved with [shudder, pause, wipe
>cold sweat from brow] ... the registry. Or "package
>management" on GNU-Linux because, well, for me, because I don't know
>where anything goes in that OS. But things are just so simple in Be/OBOS --
Here is where we part opinions. BeOS is somewhat complex. Not unnecessarily so.
Installing drivers, for example. You unzip them to a directory. Inside the
directory is a
link directory. You have to d&d the driver folders into the directory. Or at
least double click
on a script that moves them for you. Another similar example is installing
shared libraries.
Final example - when we release new kits. We would need to (minimally) shut the
old one down,
hopefully zip it and move it out of the way, put the new one in place and start
it. Minimally, that
requires a little scripting.
This is not to say that there is no space between zip and SV. A *simple*
package format, that
can place files, and a little bit more would be very nice.
>I can't see it being too much to
>ask a user to unzip a zip file and then copy a couple libraries. Oh,
>and maybe also go Be Menu --> Configure Be Menu to add the app's
>icon to the Menu.
When it comes to this sort of thing, the question that I always ask myself is,
"Could your mom do it?".
>Can't we assume OBOS users can handle this?
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