This is the mail archive of the cygwin-apps@cygwin.com mailing list for the Cygwin project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]
Other format: [Raw text]

Re: setup.exe sucks


On Tue, Dec 07, 2004 at 08:58:41PM +0100, Reini Urban wrote:
>Christopher Faylor schrieb:
>>As loath as I am to admit it, I think that setup.exe should be scrapped
>>in favor of one of the other setup projects out there.  We just aren't
>>doing a good job of keeping up in the innovation or the tech support
>>department.
>>
>>I know the reasons that all of the above exist and I TRULY am not
>>blaming anyone for this state of affairs.  I think it is just time to
>>call an end to this program which everyone seems to struggle with and
>>work on providing something better.
>>
>>People have previously offered other suggestions for setup utilities.
>>Does anyone have a favorite program that they think would be useful
>>for the cygwin project?
>
>setup.exe doesn't suck that much.
>Just the memory footprint sucks, the UI partly sucks, and update
>cycles suck.

I'd say that judging from the number of complaints we've gotten, the UI
more than partly sucks.  Personally, I liked the 'cycle thingy' that DJ
invented for this project but apparently it is tremendously difficult to
understand.

Also the manual dependency requirement sucks.  Peopple are always
getting it wrong.  The way dependencies are handled in installation
sucks.

I could go on but I was trying not to start a diatribe against
setup.exe.

>I investigated what other existing packagers do, and how we can use it.

I don't think we need to reinvent any wheels here.  The last time this
came up someone mentioned an existing installer which already does
everything we need it to do.  I am just too lazy (and too busy) to try
to formulate a google search to try to find it.

I've been working more than I want to with rpm lately and I see how much
better rpm is at dealing with things that we struggle with.  That is no
surprise.  It's been mentioned for years.  I've probably even
discouraged the use of rpm.  However, even as much as rpm sucks (and it
does suck in many ways BIG TIME), it is still better than setup.exe,
IMO.

I believe that it was always Robert's intention to work towards the use
of a true package manager someday.  That time is now.  I can't take it
anymore.

cgf


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]