Allan,
Didn't spot the path bit, I thought java translated them automatically (it
did on the Win 2K system I used?). I can easily fix it though.
IzPack does have a web installer; you just download a small jar file and run
it. The installer then gets the appropriate software from the web (A bit
like the Cygwin installer, but Java).
The only thing I will have to add is some form of dependency checking.
Steve.
-----Original Message-----
From: Alasdair Allan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 January 2004 03:32
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: STARJAVA installer
> There is a new STARJAVA installer (starjava.jar) that works under Unix
> and Windows at:
>
> ftp://ftp2.starlink.ac.uk/starjava/
>
>
> Run it with "java -jar" to start the installation.
Just tried this on my Windows 2000 machine, doesn't see to work, it looks
like its getting the slashes the wrong way round in part of the path to
the applications.
In other words once installed it seems to be looking for
C:\Program Files\STARJAVA/lib/frog/frog.jar
for instance rather than
C:\Program Files\STARJAVA\lib\frog\frog.jar
which would (presumably) be correct. Tried fiddling with the shortcuts
but couldn't get it to run (presumably because it couldn't find the
other JAR files it depends on like JNIAST due to similar difficulties
with the pathes?).
> I was thinking of using the installer for the classic apps too.
The installer looks nice, would be nice to wrap th Classic Apps in
an installation system that didn't come out of the stone age.
If the software store ran a small Java applet to figure out what platform
the user is running, and then offered up a JAR file (and a few lines of
simple instructions on what to do when you downloaded the JAR file to
install it). This would go a long way towards making Classic usable by
the masses...
The current software store interface is way (way!) to complicated and
there is far too much text.
Lots and lots of text put people off downloading and installing stuff,
they go "My God, it looks complicated to install that, look at all the
instructions! I have to read that! Oh, I won't bother..."
Compare this,
http://star-www.rl.ac.uk/store/store.html
to this,
http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/java/Aladin_Web_Installers/install.htm
which looks more approachable?
Okay, so the SSC is slightly more complex than Aladin, but we have to try
and hide that. We need to make the Store clean and lean. Sure there should
be "advanced" options, but we hide all this behind a clean front page.
In general web pages should be fairly short and uncluttered, people aren't
prepated to read huge amounts of text on one page.
Al.
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