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000236_fdc@columbia.edu_Thu Dec 13 15:40:07 2001.msg
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Flags: 000000000001
Article: 13061 of comp.protocols.kermit.misc
Path: newsmaster.cc.columbia.edu!news.columbia.edu!news-not-for-mail
From: fdc@columbia.edu (Frank da Cruz)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.kermit.misc
Subject: C-Kermit 8.0 files/installation?
Date: 13 Dec 2001 15:37:21 -0500
Organization: Columbia University
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I'm still in a quandary about how to package C-Kermit 8.0.
Previously it came with all sorts of .ini, .txt, and other files,
which few people wanted or knew what to do with.
In C-Kermit 8.0, the initialization file is probably unnecessary
for most people, and the *.txt files have been converted to HTML
and put up on the Kermit website.
Thus, if you download C-Kermit (in some form) from the net, you
can probably also consult the web pages the same way, rather than
installing plain-text versions of them on your computer and
putting them somewhere that nobody can find.
Furthermore, we want the tarball and zip archives to be as small
as possible. If we include all sorts of extra files in them,
they will take much longer to download (e.g. on 56Kb connections)
and most people will be annoyed when they find out why. Separating
into separate taballs for text files and program files, as we have
done in the past, is confusing too.
I'm beginning to convince myself that there is no reason why the
Unix C-Kermit 8.0 tarball should include anything but the source
code, the license, the manual page, and a brief read-me. All the
other stuff is just confusing -- people tend to think they NEED to
install those files or else C-Kermit won't work, which isn't true;
the executable does its job just fine without any external files
at all, and now that its default settings (e.g. file-transfer
performance tuning, 8-bit-cleanliness, etc) are in tune with
modern times, there is little need for anything but the binary
itself, except when users want to do their own customizations.
Thus the Unix "make install" target can be radically simplified,
as can the construction of install packages like RPMs.
Meanwhile, people who are not on the network and who order
C-Kermit on CDROM or tape or whatever will get everything, so
no worries.
Opinions?
- Frank