This is the mail archive of the cygwin-apps 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 and release messages


On Jul 22 10:51, Christopher Faylor wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 09:32:34AM +0200, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> >On Jul 21 15:42, Christopher Faylor wrote:
> >> On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 09:13:31PM +0200, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> >> >Hi,
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >It just occured to me what would be an IMHO really cool extension to
> >> >setup.exe.
> >> >
> >> >What if we could put some simple text file on cygwin.com called, say,
> >> >setup.rel, and setup.exe would try to fetch this file and, before
> >> >presenting the chooser dialog, open another dialog with a scrollable
> >> >text field containing the text from this release message file?  Then
> >> >setup.exe would store a hash of the text.
> >> >
> >> >Later invocations of setup would only show the file content if the hash
> >> >value of the text differs from the stored hash value, which obviously
> >> >means the file has changed.
> >> >
> >> >This would allow us to generate arbitrary release messages for important
> >> >stuff.  Just to give people an idea that there's some major change, for
> >> >instance, the jump from Cygwin 1.5.25 to 1.7.1
> >> >
> >> >Or consider we have to rework some functionality in Cygwin 1.7 which
> >> >turns out to require some user intervention, for instance a
> >> >configuration change. 
> >> >
> >> >This would not only give us a chance to deliver release messages, it
> >> >would also give people a chance to stop if they don't feel comfortable
> >> >with the described changes.  Well, if they read the message at all, that
> >> >is.
> >> >
> >> >What do others think of that idea?
> >> >
> >> >And who volunteers to implement it?
> >> 
> >> I've been thinking about adding some way of reviewing documentation from
> >> setup.exe, just like every other installer in the world.  But, that's not
> >> quite what you're talking about.  I think you want to display something
> >> before the user makes a decision.
> >
> >Yes, exactly.
> >
> >> We could add this to the setup.ini file and make it per-package so that
> >> caveats or announcements show up on the next screen after the packages
> >> are selected.
> >
> >What if upset adds the content of this setup.rel textfile to setup.ini?
> >In this case there's only one file to download.  Setup could look for the
> >text and show it as I proposed.
> >
> >In the long run we could add per-package announcements as part of the
> >setup.hint file, just like a version dependent ldesc field.
> 
> I think we have to somehow make the announcement per-version don't we?

That's what I meant with "just like a version dependent ldesc field"

> I've been talking about changing the format of setup.hint files to use
> a real markup language.  Maybe this would be the time to do that.

Not before the 1.7.1 release, IMHO.


Corinna

-- 
Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
Cygwin Project Co-Leader          cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Red Hat


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