Re: Simplifying package installation.

[Tom Gilbert <gilbertt tomgilbert freeserve co uk>]

* Miguel de Icaza (miguel@gnu.org) wrote:
> 
> > However just a tarball is not AS great, as it doesn't register with any
> > "application database", for better package managment.
> 
> We could make the installation process install the .keys, .mime,
> .gnorba files in the user directory.

You could in fact set the thing up to do any number of things on the
first (and/or every) run. Running various checks for other stuff, icon
installation/registration etc...

Could the sort of information a .app may need to provide (icon file,
app description, requirements, etc) be stored/interact with the (in
development?) gconf?

This could also add protection against multiple versions, incompatible
versions etc. It depends how far you wanted the thing to go, to
prevent against incompatability, file conflicts, library mis-matches
is fairly non-trivial IMO.

(Very worthwhile though).
 
> Another approach is to have a 4777 directory in the system where
> people can install applications.

Hmmm. If you couple this with a run script, could this not open the
system up to malicious code installed by ignorant users?

> > The user package would add it's icon to the user menu ("Favorites" nowdays)
> > and maybe a link to the ~/bin/ so that the user can run it from command line
> 
> this we can do trivially.
> 
> miguel

However the rest of the stuff is worked out, the idea of a single
zipped directory structure to be downloaded and stuck in ~/Apps (or
suchlike) is a good one, and would help out newbies hugely.

Also, self-containment can be a good thing. (As long as it does not
lead to over-duplication of support libs/routines etc).

Tom.
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