1:04 a.m.
Please describe as succinctly as possible: - What happened. - What you
thought should have happened. - Precisely what you were doing at the time.
The issue here lies in the very confusing nature of the download
process. I prefer to use the setup.exe approach, but it is hidden so
successfully and carefully on the xemacs site that I cannot find
it. Congratulations on successfully hiding this!
What about a revolutionary idea? Placing a link to the setup.exe on the
download page!! What an idea.
3:42 a.m.
>>>> "Paul" == Paul Thompson
<paul(a)wubios.wustl.edu> writes:
Paul> What about a revolutionary idea? Placing a link to the
Paul> setup.exe on the download page!! What an idea.
Erm, the netinstaller is right there, with a link labelled setup.exe.
We do not want to encourage use of the Installshield version because
it's old, not likely to be updated in a timely fashion (none of the
developers own the necessary software to build it), and there are
_many_ known bugs (not just in XEmacs itself, but in the packages as
well) that are fixed in the netinstall version.
--
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
My nostalgia for Icon makes me forget about any of the bad things. I don't
have much nostalgia for Perl, so its faults I remember. Scott Gilbert c.l.py
4:09 a.m.
Erm, the netinstaller is right there, with a link labelled setup.exe.
Actually its not on the download page. You have to go to downloads and then
wun32 and then setup.exe. I think it should be directly on the downloads
page and probably more obviously labeled that this is the prefered method of
installation.
andy
6:14 a.m.
>>>> "Andy" == Andy Piper
<andy(a)xemacs.org> writes:
> Erm, the netinstaller is right there, with a link labelled
> setup.exe.
Andy> Actually its not on the download page. You have to go to
Andy> downloads and then wun32 and then setup.exe. I think it
Andy> should be directly on the downloads page
This is the standard layout for this kind of thing: Unix people follow
this link, Mac people that link, Windows people yet another link.
People who have been there before and know what they're doing can
bookmark the link they want. People who haven't should read the
explanatory material.
Arrange what you like with Adrian, but make sure that whatever you do
scales if we start doing RPM and .deb releases, and revitalize the
binary kits program in general. We shouldn't put much more than a
link per platform class on the top Download page; that's really
annoying to users of whichever platform class gets put at the bottom.
If you're happy with just a link to setup.exe there (which might very
well be to something like 21.4.10rc2 at any given time), fine. Eg,
something like
<li>
MS Windows: We recommend the current version of XEmacs using the
Netinstaller (<a href="setup.exe">Install Now!</a>), but there are
a
variety of <a href="win32/">versions of XEmacs and styles of
installer available</a>.
</li>
--
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
My nostalgia for Icon makes me forget about any of the bad things. I don't
have much nostalgia for Perl, so its faults I remember. Scott Gilbert c.l.py
4:58 a.m.
<li>
MS Windows: We recommend the current version of XEmacs using the
Netinstaller (<a href="setup.exe">Install Now!</a>), but there
are a
variety of <a href="win32/">versions of XEmacs and styles of
installer available</a>.
</li>
That's sort of what I was thinking of. Since we list platform classes anyway
on the top download site I don't see an issue with also including a link to
the latest and greatest (setup.exe, rpm whatever).
andy
6:51 a.m.
>>>> "Andy" == Andy Piper
<andy(a)xemacs.org> writes:
Andy> That's sort of what I was thinking of. Since we list
Andy> platform classes anyway on the top download site I don't see
Andy> an issue with also including a link to the latest and
Andy> greatest (setup.exe, rpm whatever).
OK, I'll work up a patch, I've got some other web work pending anyway.
--
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
My nostalgia for Icon makes me forget about any of the bad things. I don't
have much nostalgia for Perl, so its faults I remember. Scott Gilbert c.l.py
2:22 p.m.
At 08:09 PM 10/15/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> Erm, the netinstaller is right there, with a link labelled
setup.exe.
Actually its not on the download page. You have to go to downloads and then
wun32 and then setup.exe. I think it should be directly on the downloads
page and probably more obviously labeled that this is the prefered method of
installation.
andy
Yes, I agree. I spent about 45 minutes last night finding the setup.exe,
setup.ini, etc. This morning, I have NO IDEA where I went to find it.
Additionally, when I used my existing setup.exe, it helpfully noted that a
newer setup.exe file existed, but went on downloading anyway. How about
letting the setup.exe download a newer setup.exe, setup.ini, etc.?
From the perspective of a frequent user of xemacs, I must say that I find
the pages somewhat confusing. The flavour of the pages is "It's all
here" Most people don't want it all, they just want the right
way. Whatever that is. There must be a preferred, straight-ahead,
installation technique for the windows installation.
Additionally, if I do think about the sumo tarball, etc. it is hard to find
these.
From now until my talk tomorrow afternoon, I am very busy. On Friday, I
will look again at the pages. Perhaps, as a knowledgable outsider, I might
have some suggestions to offer to simplify the download/install process.
Thanks for your response to my somewhat testy email.
4:58 a.m.
Additionally, when I used my existing setup.exe, it helpfully
noted that a
newer setup.exe file existed, but went on downloading anyway. How about
letting the setup.exe download a newer setup.exe, setup.ini, etc.?
This is a feature of cygwin setup that was introduced after I forked the
netinstaller. Its unlikely that I will find the time to add this - although
anyone else is welcome to.
andy
8073
days inactive
8074
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7 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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Andy Piper -
Paul Thompson -
Stephen J. Turnbull