hmmm wander if windows has one of those.
going to have to look at that.
At 05:15 PM 6/11/2013, you wrote:
Hi Shaun,
To begin with you are totally over thinking the dependencies for my
games. The new Evolution engine does not require a lot of Windows
components like DirectX, .NET, etc. All of the components it uses are
open source third-party libs such as SDL 1.2.15, SDL Mixer 1.2.8, and
SDL Net current. All of the dll files can be bundled with the game and
don't even have to be installed to your system directories to work.
The only thing that absolutely has to be installed are the Visual C++
runtime libraries which is generally a prerequisite for most Windows
applications anyway. That is how my games can be cross-compiled on Mac
and Linux, because they don't need or require any of the Microsoft
specific stuff.
So the thing is I don't need anything like Advanced Setup Installer,
because all of the usual things it checks for like Microsoft SQL 2008,
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0, DirectX 9.0C, whatever simply do not
apply to my games. So there is no need to do a lot of dependency
checks here.
If I need to do any dependency checks at all I can script it in Inno
Setup and have it install SDL 1.2.15, the VC++ libs, and be done with
it. The same can be done on the Linux side with a package manager like
dpkg which allows me to set minimum versions of things like SDL, and
have it worn the user if something like SDL is out of date.
In fact, package management is one advantage
Linux has over Windows installers.
For example, lets say you opened Gnome Terminal and typed
dpkg -i mota-1.0-i386.deb
into the console. Dpkg will check the install script in the package
for SDL 1.2.15, SDL Mixer 1.2.8, etc and will display an error if the
dependencies are not met like this.
Error: Dependencies not met. LibSDL 1.2.14 is out of date. Run sudo
apt-get install sdl1.2 to update.
I find that dpkg, rpm, and other package managers are far more
detailed about what is out of date, what is missing, and it leaves no
possibility of installing an application without one or more required
dependencies unless the user specifically disables dependency checks
with the nodeps flag. Otherwise it works like a champ. Even better
unlike Windows installers if you remove software with dpkg or rpm it
removes everything
without leaving a lot of garbage behind. So the more I think about it
using a package manager might very well be in my best interests here.
Cheers!
On 6/10/13, shaun everiss <sm.ever...@gmail.com> wrote:
> tom why not have a componant checker and installer, that would have
> websetups for all dotnets directx runtimes, etc in it and other dll
> files whatever needed for your games and check for these.
> if the versions are not current or older than the programs then run them.
> if newer or the same don't.
> on windows, dotnet is loaded by default, c libs may not be however in
> windows for all my boxes I have loaded dotnet everything as a lot of
> stuff uses it.
> if there are any extras they can be installed by the program.
> Kinda like the old days.
> you installed your programs say a game like doom in dos, it would
> have a setup program which would load extra componants and configure
> the game its sort a something like that.
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
