Subject: Re: Windows Installer for Abiword using NSIS
From: Paul Rohr (paul@abisource.com)
Date: Thu Aug 09 2001 - 14:14:43 CDT
More specific feedback and POW fodder.
At 06:47 PM 8/9/01 +0100, Alan wrote:
>i hope to add a directory to CVS with a copy of the NSIS source code.
>The licenses should not be changed unless Nullsoft change theirs to
>something unfavourable. In the unlikely event that Abiword developers
>make improvement to the installer its only fair to pass the changes back
>to Nullsoft under the same license we received their code.
Absolutely. If we decide to make the NSIS installer a dependency, then:
- our variant should become a peer module in CVS,
- the license shouldn't be gratuitously changed, and
- all changes should be passed back upstream.
As with any dependency, we want to always have a stable version on hand so
that the product remains buildable at all times. It also gives us someplace
to make any local mods (if needed) without having to wait for them to get
integrated into an upstream version and passed back to us.
>There will need to be some changes to remove the Nullsoft branding and
>Tweak the Look and Feel of the installer, but i dont have time to do it
>at the moment.
Yep. I haven't looked at the NSIS sources (no time here, either) to
determine whether all our branding and UI issues can be handled via .nsi
scripts (over in abi/src/pkg/win/nsis), or whether source changes would be
needed in the peer module too.
For example, both installers (our existing one and your replacement) are
multi-step wizard-like tools. If we needed to tweak the NSIS sources to
resize the installer and add a graphical sidebar (our current UI), then it'd
be a Good Thing to split that work into two parts with:
- generic functionality added to our CVS variant of makensis, and
- specific artwork referenced by the .nsi file over in the abi tree.
It might seem easier at first to fork the sources and do all that work in
place, but that'd make merging with any upstream changes a nightmare.
Paul,
stating the obvious
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