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000096_don@darth.byu.edu_Sat Jan 15 23:43 MST 1994.msg
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Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 21:45:00 -0700
From: Don Yacktman <don@darth.byu.edu>
Subject: MiscKit binaries, distributions, and release frequency
To: misckit@alaska.et.byu.edu
Reply-To: don@darth.byu.edu
Message-Id: <9401160445.AA09026@darth.byu.edu>
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Status: R
Hi there!
Well, now that the first release of the MiscKit is officially
available, I'd like to ask a question of everybody on the
MiscKit mailing list.
I think this is something we never really did discuss before:
How we should handle binary distributions? In order to answer
this, I think that perhaps we should begin by discussing
various options and see where that leads.
To start off the discussion, I would like to suggest that we
keep the source distribution's format as it currently stands
and then provide a separate binary distribution. In doing
this, I feel that the binary distribution should be a NeXT
pkg file, installed via Installer.app. This binary version
should be, in my opinion, a FAT binary, compiled for whatever
versions of NEXTSTEP are available at the time of release.
Although the source distribution does not install the top
level files of the MiscKit into LocalDeveloper, the binary
distribution would have to, so that the user has copies of
at least the license, license notes, history, charter, and
authors files. (Probably, I'd just put the whole top level
file set somewhere in the installed Documentation folder.)
If anyone would prefer to see the source distribution as a
package, too, let me know. I'm always open to suggestions
there, too. I think putting the source in a single
self-contained tar file is better for now since you get much
better compression with gzip than with compress, which
Installer.app uses. Since the binaries, headers, and docs
install all over the place, though, I feel a .pkg format is
much simpler to use. Of course, the target audience is
developers anyway, so it probably doesn't make a lot of
difference. But I do suspect that even developers prefer
mundane things like installs to be simple so as to not waste
their precious time.
So, if you agree with this suggestion, or any other suggestion
that crops up on the mailing list, simply send some private
e-mail directly to me to avoid flooding the mailing list. If
you have a different idea, which would most likely a better
idea than mine, feel free to post it to the list to foster
further discussion on this. Hopefully we can come up with a
distribution method that makes everyone happy. The main
goals I see in the distributions is to make them (1) easy to
install and uninstall, (2) easy to use, and (3) contain
everything necessary for the user to successfully make use of
the MiscKit.
Also, while we're on the topic of the format of the releases,
what sort of release schedule would you prefer to see? At
the moment, I plan to do it "on demand" so that new releases
happen more or less as bug fixes and new submissions become
available. I think that if releases come out any sooner than
two weeks apart, people will go bonkers trying to stay up to
date, so I'd say that we wouldn't do a release any _sooner_
than two weeks after the most recent release. So, does this
seem to be a good policy to you? Or would you prefer a regular
release schedule (say, once a month on, say, the first Friday
of the month unless there isn't anything new)? Or use the on
demand schedule, but with a larger space than two weeks
in between releases? Or something else entirely different?
Once these issues are ironed out, I plan to make a note of the
group's decision in the Charter document so that anyone who
grabs the MiscKit can know this information.
Well, sirs, what do you think?
---
Later,
-Don Yacktman
Don_Yacktman@byu.edu