Re: GS on Windows installation report

[Wim Oudshoorn]

Jason Clouse <jhclouse@charter.net> writes:

> I have gotten -gui and -back working reasonably well on Windows.  It
> was buggy, but it worked.
>
> I don't think it would be very difficult to add -gui (and some
> applications) to the current installer.  I'm willing to help, though
> I'm in the same situation that Wim is in: I only have access to a
> Windows machine at work.

No, it would not be very difficult.

> The biggest hurdle is including more libraries.  We need to work with
> the gnuwin32 people.  BTW, those -lib packages from gnuwin32 are the
> compiled libraries, and the -bin packages are extra tools (like
> jpegtran, tiff2ps, etc.)

No, that is not really a big hurdle, as long as we can get the libraries,
are allowed to include them and the do not depend on a fixed location.

> I'll get the ball rolling by wiping GNUstep completely off my work
> machine Monday and reinstalling.  I'll write down everything I have to
> do to get -gui, -back, and user applications installed.  Then we can
> move on from there.

That would be great.  Just to give you a very very short overview
of how we create the installers:


Installer builder script:
  (1) Takes a collection of files:
      - gnustep-base-x.y.z.tar.gz
      - gnustep-make-... .tar.gz
      - libobjc.... .tar.gz
      - msys....installer.exe
      etc.
  (2) Unpacks all these files in the right directory structure
  (3) add "build" scripts to this directory structure
  (4) build the binary version
  (5) packages everything in the installer


The installer contains:
   - all the sources, 
   - build scripts
   - already build libraries

When executing the installer will:
   - unpack everything
   - if you choose to build from sources:
      - execute the build scripts.


Now in order to add gui, we need:

* List of files that should be included.
* List of command line steps to execute to get it build and installed.

> I'm not familiar with the installer being used.  Can we offer the user
> options at install time?  I'm thinking about:
>
> [x] Install GNUstep core
> [x] Install GNUstep Development Tools
> [x] Install GNUstep User Applications

Yes, but I would prefer to split it into 3 installers.
For basically two reasons:

* the release schedules are different.
* I would like to have the installer creation process
  to be part of the development tools, so
  every application developer can create their own installers.
  

Wim Oudshoorn.