At 05:55 AM 4/18/2006, Larry Loen wrote: <snip>
And, in truth, _everyone_ already knows how to download a zip file or even a self-unpacking .exe file. Browsers are popular for a reason -- people understand them.
<snip>
Is this all for some homely reason like the SVN repository and the flex web server are on different machines? Requiring everyone to use SVN or CVS is, so far as I know, pretty unprecedented for an open source project, especially one where most of the population aren't coders. Almost everything I can think of in the open source world that really matters is available as "naked" RPMs or tarballs outside of the repository proper (including, quite often, alpha/beta level code).
I suspect that *someone* could write a script to automate the process of picking up a SVN tagged version and plunking it at a website for download. The question is who is that *someone*.
I think, to a certain extent, we're in that classic situation of companies that roll out a new clunky online timecard application that adds an hour a week to every employee, so that one or two people (payroll clerks) can save a couple hours once a week. SVN makes life much better for the developers, but harder for the consumers, who, as you say, prefer the "grab and explode a .exe", even if there are potential problems with installing new over old, mdb migration, etc.
One idea might be to make a "installer program" that you'd install once, that hides all the svn stuff, verifies that you have the right framework and dll files, fetching them if you don't, deals with migration of databases, and, most important, can uninstall older versions.
We're sort of treading new ground here.. there's a fair number of technically literate sdr-1000 users out there who would like to experiment using the rapid turnover of development, but aren't interested in being developers themselves (along with the hassles and investment of time/cash that that requires). This seems to be a very different model from most purely software products, where you have "coders" and "users", and not much inbetween.
Jim
