[lokisetup] Features for Setup 2.0

[John Quigley]

On Saturday 23 November 2002 14:16, Stéphane Peter wrote:
> Le sam 23/11/2002 à 08:26, John Quigley a écrit :
>
> > - scripting: it would be nice if most of the setup was implemented in a
> > portable scripting language like lua/python, which then drives a
> > c-backend that does low level functions.  So operations like installing
> > the right menuitems would be entirely in script, but copying files would
> > be implemented in c.  I just really dislike bash ;)
>
> That's all good, but the main issue IMHO is how do we guarantee that a
> script in the chosen language will work on all platforms ? Do we package
> the language on platforms that are not guaranteed to have it (full
> Python distro in setup? Yuck!)

A full python distro would definitely be massive overkill.  But I think its 
possible to strip it down so that the minimum stuff required could be bundled 
with the setup program.  

Lua would be easier to bundle since it doesn't have the big library, so no 
pruning would be necessary.

> > Regarding on demand-installs, it would have to be secure.  I thought about 
> > doing this with loki_update for an upcoming game, where you download the 
> > initial installer manually then update actually grabs the full game.  But 
> > then I realized that the full game would be out in the open and 
> > accessible to all (this is a for-sale game).   So I'd have to implement 
> > some kind of security model.  I scrapped that idea. :)
>
> Maybe you should consider Loki's approach were basically only binary
> updates and demos are available online (never the full game). Then you
> can control the release of the full game as you see fit.

Can't do that for the stuff I'm working on.  They are download-only games (no 
cds will be burned).  Its not a big deal though, i have a good alternative 
plan that basically has the initial setup package in a secure download area, 
and updates will be nonsecure.

> > For the update problem generally, I had the vague idea to integrate
> > subversion as the backend for the update system.
> > Apparently it does efficient binary deltas, so updating your local game
> > installation would just be a matter of bring it in sync with the
> > repository with a subversion command.  GUI installers could make this
> > procedure "painless" for the end user.  Just an idea though, would
> > need to prototype it.  :)
>
> I'm reluctant to change the current loki_update mechanism now - but am
> open to suggestions to improve it ;)

Yes, its probably worth focusing on setup, then doing update afterwards if 
needed.  Not sure subversion is quite ready for what I have in mind.