[postal2mac] Installer

Jason Harris jay.harris at mac.com
Sun Sep 19 17:21:08 EDT 2004


I use Apple's PackageMaker for every mod I bring over for Macologist, 
but seeing what Apple is doing with future versions of MP I think it's 
time to take a good look at the Loki installer and start to use that 
for future mods and patches. You say it's relatively easy to use Ryan, 
easier than Apple's PM?

--Jason

> Regarding your <rant packagemaker> (snip) </rant>
>
> I don't know much about the issue, do you mind clarifying?
>
> A) you're referring to Packagemaker right?
>
> B) what is your (and other game dev) opinion of Iceberg?
> http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14516
>
> C) So... Tiger's Packagemaker is basically done, and Apple refused to 
> backport it.
> Did they refuse publicly (URL please?), or have they simply 
> individually ignored/declined all such requests by devs?
>
>
> and re:
>> if ever. If you want a standardized installer, consumers need to start
>> telling Apple to stop fucking this up for everyone.
>
> It's not much, but for publicity I might soon write up a news item at 
> Macologist and submit it to MacBytes, where it may get picked up...  
> therefore the more rant details, the better =)
>
>
> --Robert/Santaduck
>
>
>
> On Sep 19, 2004, at 9:23 AM, Ryan C. Gordon wrote:
>> Forgive the upcoming rants:
>>
>> The problem is that there is no "standard" Mac installer, since the 
>> one
>> that Apple ships is totally insufficient for lots of common 
>> installation
>> tasks...a problem they will largely remedy when they ship Tiger, but
>> this presents a different problem...looking aside the fact that this
>> installer is still 6+ months away, no one is going to require Tiger 
>> just
>> for the installer. Apple says they will definitely not backport the
>> updated installer to Panther, Jaguar, etc...sadly, this basically
>> prevents third-party developers from using their installer for 3+ 
>> years,
>> if ever. If you want a standardized installer, consumers need to start
>> telling Apple to stop fucking this up for everyone.
>>
>> There is a lot that I don't like about loki_setup (which is what
>> ut2004/postal use), but it's quickly becoming a popular utility for
>> games, mostly because:
>>
>> 1) It's open source
>> 2) It's free for commercial use.
>> 3) It handles multiple CDs (apparently the only other installer that
>> does costs like 8,000 dollars a year, and if you stop paying, you have
>> to remove your product from the shelves. So I've been told. This is
>> explicitly why MacSoft financed loki_setup for ut2003).
>> 4) It allows CD key entry/validation in the installer.
>> 5) It's relatively easy to use to create installers.
>> 6) Big name games are using it, which tends to increase enthusiasm. I
>> used it for UT2003, then Transgaming started using it for Indiana 
>> Jones,
>> Tron 2.0, etc, and now I'm getting email from other publishers asking
>> about it. Everyone that's had to build a Mac installer has gotten 
>> burned
>> badly, so they're always on the lookout for better solutions.
>>
>> loki_setup has its problems, too, though:
>> 1) It's ugly...
>> 2) ...and so is its source code.  :/
>




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