RE: packaging for windows

["Konovalov, Vadim" <vkonovalov spb lucent com>]

> > Did anyone look into packaging perl/gtk applications for windows ?
> >
> > I have some users that would really like a package that 
> "Just Works" 
> > (when perl was installed already).
> > I installed my application manually on one system but it involved 
> > manually unzipping a lot of dll's which is quite obscure.
>
> I've had to do a couple of rollouts, and have some more on the way.
>
> I use Alex Shaduri's gtk packages available at:
> http://members.lycos.co.uk/alexv6/
> There is also a neat theme switcher, and some even neater themes. The 
> default gtk theme from the official win32 binaries looks like 
> arse, but 
> Alex has certainly solved this issue for Windows gtk users :)
> I've done a fair bit of testing ... as I said, I've already done a 
> couple of rollouts, and had zero complaints :) It works 
> flawlessly with 
> Perl Gtk2. Alex updates his packages pretty regularly too.

thanks for pointer, very worthwhile to see...


> You'll have to grab libglade and libxml2 win32 binaries from 
> around the 
> place, as these aren't included in Alex's gtk packages. I just dumped 
> them in the gtk program files directory ( the default location for 
> Alex's installer ).
>
> After that, you'll 'just' have to install ActiveState Perl 
> and all your 
> modules. As others have suggested, you can make ppms of all your perl 
> modules and install from those. In most cases there are already ppms 
> available anyway, so just put them on a CD in case there's no 
> internet 
> connection where you're installing ( has happened ).
>
> Perhaps someone else has a better idea again?
>
> Here's a method I've been meaning to try, but haven't gotten 
> around to 
> it yet ( warning ... untested and dodgy ):
>
> - install ActiveState Perl on a development box
> - install all Perl modules
> - zip up entire ActiveState installation folder ( eg c:\Perl or 
> whereever you put it )
>
> ... and then on the target PCs:
>
> - install ActiveState Perl
> - unzip ActiveState folder, from above, on top of current installation
>
> Just to repeat - I haven't tried this yet. It depends on whether 
> ActiveState's Perl distrubution only uses the actual Perl 
> installation 
> path ( eg C:\Perl ), or whether it also dumps things 
> elsewhere ( eg the 
> registry ) when you install modules. I suspect it would *not* use the 
> registry, so this should be safe. Someone who knows better 
> might want to 
> comment on whether this is a bad idea or not ... but anyway I'm sure 
> testing will reveal whether it's likely to cause problems.

ActiveState's Perl distrubution do use registry, but it will run just fine
if those registry entries are missing.
(you'll miss some ActiveX perl stuff or similar). This means you do not need
"- install ActiveState Perl" step.

However, larger problem here is - ActiveState do not permit to freely
repackage their binaries (quality assuarance stuff, licenses and so on)

I. personally, have an experience on repackaging perl distribution with some
required modules, into some 10 files, which appears to be quite easy
(intercept "do" and "use" to load Perl files from ZIP isn't that hard...) 
I am quite sure that packaging perl with gtk isn't hard...

Sorry for the more and more out-of-the-topic stuff.

Best regards,
Vadim.