Hugo Burm wrote: > I had some fun with the NSIS installer for Windows > (http://nsis.sourceforge.net/) and created a Setup.exe for Cocoon that > should run fine both on a completely fresh "out of the box" MS Windows > system, as on a system with Java, Tomcat et al. already installed. > > - The Setup.exe (73 Mb) for Windows is built upon the following > components: > a) Sun JRE 1.5.04 with the javac.exe and server version of the java.exe > added to it. According to the Sun license you are allowed to do this and > distribute this as long as you add some value to it (your own software) > and you do not replace Sun components. > b) Tomcat 5.5.9 > c) Full build of Cocoon 2.1.7 > > - The installation process starts Tomcat and tries to open an URL giving > you access to the Cocoon samples. I tested this on three systems. Two > out of three worked OK. The third one probably had no decent browser > installed. > > - On my system (Athlon 2000) it takes a few seconds to download the > Setup.exe from a network drive. It takes 70 seconds to unpack and > install the package. It takes 25 seconds to start Tomcat and access the > Cocoon samples. Cocoon up and running in 100 seconds! > > - Off course, downloading 73 Mb will take some time if you have a modem. > But the simplicity of the Setup may appeal to users: just clicking on > Setup.exe and pressing "next, next, next" (anyone ever tried to read > these messages before pressing "next" :-) ) > > You can find the Setup.exe at: > http://www.datagram.nl/Setup-Cocoon.exe (73 Mb !!) > > If you want to know how it works: the NSIS skeleton: > http://www.datagram.nl/Setup-Cocoon-Source.zip (12 kB, skeleton, actual > content removed) > > I am interested in: > - If there is some demand for something like this > - Whether this actually worked for anyone > - Fine tuning the final step: starting Tomcat and firing up the HTML > start page. > - Legal issues. I have read the Sun license and tried to be nice to Sun > as much as possible. Especially, I tried to indemnify Sun's software > from the (L)GPL virus. But if you think something is not legal, Let me > know. I am aware of the fact that the ASF will not allow something like > this on their servers before these issues are cleared.
I initially proposed a Cocoon installer based upon AntInstaller, because I was starting to use it for my own stuff. I then switched to NSIS, which is more capable. However, here's some comments: 1. NSIS, while powerful, is a real step backwards in software development terms. It feels like C scripting, with replete with pre-processing instructions. Having said that, it _did_ produce a nice installer. 2. Any installer for Cocoon _must_ be able to handle dependencies between blocks. This is not a trivial task in _any_ installer package, I would suspect 3. As has been said, we cannot distribute a Sun JVM with Cocoon from an Apache server. However, we could potentially distribute it from somewhere else. But, for an installer to survive, its maintenance needs to be taken on by the whole community. 4. A pure java swing GUI for installing Cocoon, along with block dependency handling, was committed to our whiteboard (http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/cocoon/whiteboard/guilder) That could be used. 5. In the end, Apache is a 'do-ocracy', he who does, decides. So, go make something happen! Regards, Upayavira
