RE: [stellation-res] Windows distribution file

["Jonathan Gossage" <jgossage@xxxxxxxx>]

> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: stellation-res-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >[mailto:stellation-res-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Mark C.
> >Chu-Carroll
> >Sent: December 17, 2002 9:42 PM
> >To: Stellation-res
> >Subject: Re: [stellation-res] Windows distribution file
> >
> >
> >On Tue, 2002-12-17 at 09:42, Dave Shields wrote:
> >> On Mon, Dec 16, 2002 at 07:19:39PM -0500, Jonathan Gossage wrote:
> >> > I have been thinking about the best format for the Windows
> >distribution file
> >> > for Stellation. Basically there are three options:
> >> >
> >> > 1. Produce a Windows installer file.
> >> >
> >> > 2. Produce a .zip file.
> >> >
> >> > 3. Produce a self-extracting zip file.
> >> >
> >> > The pro's for option 1 are that this is a well understood
> >format that is
> >> > tightly integrated with the Windows environment.
> >> >
> >> > The major disadvantage is that either you need an expensive
> >commercial
> >> > installer generation program or you are faced with a LOT of
> >work to generate
> >> > a .msi file.
> >> >
> >> > The main pro for option 2 is simplicity. Ant will readily
> >generate a .zip
> >> > file. This is also the current distribution mechanism for Eclipse.
> >> >
> >> > The main disadvantage is that you require Winzip installed
> >on the machine to
> >> > get access to the contents of the .zip file. Winzip is frequently not
> >> > installed on servers which is where the server component of
> >Stellation will
> >> > normally be installed. It also means that installation is a two step
> >> > procedure instead of a single step procedure.
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >> Jonathan,
> >>
> >> According to the Stellation Installation document:
> >>
> >>   Before you can use the system, you must install it.
> >>   We use Ant to install it.
> >>
> >> Indeed, one of the reasons for using Ant is that it provides support
> >> for unpacking zip files, so you don't need Winzip if you have Ant.
> >
> >Yes, but... The main reason we've used ant thus far is because we've
> >been too busy to look at any alternatives. If Jonathan and Ringo want
> >to take a stab at this, to make things easier for users, then I'm
> >all for it, and it makes sense for us to be involved in the discussion.
> >
> >None of us on the IBM team have time to help with this in anything
> >but an advisory mode. But if you guys want to do it, we'd be thrilled
> >to have a decent install process on windows.
> >
> >Eventually, we'll probably want to either do a similar install
> >under Linux, or put together an RPM. But that can wait until either
> >we have time, or we have volunteers...
> >
> >	-Mark
> >
The Ant approach works well so long as the users are developers involved in
alpha testing or working as contributors. However, for product distribution
we need a solution that does not require the user to pre-install any tools
or other software before installing Stellation. This implies either building
the install/uninstall capabilities directly into Stellation or using a
Windows installer based tools (either open source or commercial) for Windows
and something like a RPM based approach for Linux. For my own education,
does the RPM approach work on Solaris and other non-Linux based platforms?

If we need a "quick-fix" solution for the immediate future then Ant is the
root to go, but I don't think it can be our final distribution/installation
solution. So do you feel that we should go for Ant now and look at a final
solution later or should we bite the bullet and invest the work now to get a
final installation solution?

Regards

Jonathan

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