Re: [pygtk] Installation problems win32

["muppet" <scott asofyet org>]

Murray Cumming said:
> It's quite normal for Windows apps to bundle all their dependencies
> together, causing massive downloads. Users are quite used to each
> dependency's installer running if necessary, with a restart often needed
> after each one. For instance, the Windows common controls installer, or
> the Windows database access installers. And now, probably the .NET
> installers.

another concrete example is DirectX, a different version of which was usually
required for various game packages.  if a current-enough or compatible version
was found, it would use that, otherwise, it would try to install it, usually
from another directory on the game cd (in today's terms, you'd try to download
it from the 'net automatically).

i don't see why we can't have a "blessed" installer, which knows how to handle
parallel-installable minor versions and find previously installed versions, to
allow a similar installation process to happen for gtk+ apps.  since gtk+ 2.x
guarantees backward compatibility in the 2.x series, i would think the mess
process would be a lot simpler than for DirectX and other infamously
incompatible win32 technologies, as we actually *can* upgrade nicely.

there's lots of examples of both good and bad ways to do it in the windows
world.  i'd have to gtk+ to revert to 1995-era tactics on windows, when we all
know we're much smarter than that.


the key is to follow the paradigm and idioms of the platform.  if you don't,
the whole thing feels alien (which is why X11 apps aren't so popular on MacOS
X or cygwin).

-- 
muppet <scott at asofyet dot org>