Info-Mac moderaters: please put this file in /cmp/ but I think it would also be useful if you pasted just this blurb in the /gui/ index because people using custom inits/cdevs might find this installer useful.
May be included on the CD-ROM. It's freeware, but it requires the Compact Pro shareware program.
This upload is to save you the time of creating the installer yourself and also to give you the idea. This self-installing archive installs control panels, extensions, preferences, etc. into the system folder, and can install stuff into root as well. It's not as refined or as idiot-friendly as a Stuffit Installer Maker installer but it does work, is easier to create, and I believe Compact Pro is also cheaper.
What it's good for:
*Creating a product installer
*ORGANIZING YOUR COLLECTION OF INITS AND CDEVS.
The sysem folder is not a good place to keep anything you plan on keeping beyond the next system melt down. Put your inits/cdevs into this installer once and for all. Double click and they're installed.
If you do use Compact Pro, please pay the [inexpensive] Compact Pro shareware fee. Note: I have nothing to do with Compact Pro - I'm just a satisfied user.
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Use Compact Pro to add software to this archive.
You can modify the dialogue boxes with ResEdit. I have included the modified dialogue boxes in a ResEdit file.
Be sure to work only with a duplicate of the archive. If you create a new self-installing archive with compact pro, Compact pro will place it's own dialogues in the installer, not these modified ones.
The archive installs control panels, extensions, preferences, etc. into the system folder. Cavet: System Folder must be named "System Folder" and be in root.
root: Not on the desktop, not nested in some folders, but in, directly in, your hard disk.
This archive can also install files in root. I don't reccommend attempting to make it install files into the Desktop Folder because if the user does not install into root, it would create a second folder named 'Desktop Folder.' This is not a good idea. I have modified the dialogue boxes to guide the user into installing into root. I figure that if that's too complicated for the user, they may as well shut the machine off and use it as a paper weight. :)
What it's good for:
*Creating a product installer
*Organizing your collection of inits and cdevs
If you collect a lot of custom control panels and extensions from archives such as info-mac, you will experience the following problems:
- Building up a collection of custom inits and cdevs is time consuming, but your collection can be lost in an instant if your disk goes bad.
- If you ever decide to erase your system folder you will loose all your inits/cdevs
- If you ever do a clean install, moving all those inits/cdevs from the old system folder to the new one is tedious and error prone.
- You may forget what some inits/cdevs do and/or how to use them.
My idea for solving these problems is to maintain an installer archive of your inits/cdevs. Every time you add a new init/cdev to your system folder, add it to your installer archive as well. In the Apple Menu Items folder you can make a new folder and in that folder you can put all the doccumentation for the inits/cdevs. Installing your collection of inits/cdevs will be as easy as launching the installer archive.
Yes, you have to use Compact Pro to modify the contents of this installer archive. In fact, this self-extracting archive was created with Compact Pro in the first place. I then hacked out the dialogues to make it a little easier for the novice user to use. I'm not sure if modifing the self-extracting archive in this manner is permitted by the Compact Pro license or not, but I'm sure Bill Goodman won't mind :-) As long as you are a registered user of Compact Pro, you may distribute Self-Extracting archives such as this one for free. I think it costs about $15 to register Compact Pro. Contact the Compact Pro people (i.e. not me) for more info in this regard - you can get more info by downloading Compact Pro...
Please help software developers help you. Please pay for your shareware. Think of it as your contribution to the usability of the Macintosh. Imagine your Macintosh without any shareware. Imagine if you had to go through publi$hers for all your software. Imagine if all your software was created by huge companies like Micro$lop. So please be supportive of shareware developers.
Contact info:
Elliot Smith
smithe@minot.com <-prefered
smithe@warp6.cs.misu.nodak.edu
Or try 'n find me on the web!
français/english
PS - Note that if you want to install some items like Finder Preferences or the AppleShare PDS file you may add these items to the archive (Though I can't say what will happen if your user mis-installs and creates a second AppleShare PDS file somewhere else on the disk other than in root. Lets just say that I know that if the duplicate file is visible the result is not fun...) but you may not easily extract (install) these items because they are likely to be in use. For this reason you might want to put the installer archive on a startup floppy - create a startup floppy using your system software installer. Take all the items from the floppie's system folder and put them in the floppies root, delete the finder, and put in it's place any application (like the self-extracting archive) and name it Finder. Voila! a startup disk whose only purpose in life is to install run the program named 'Finder'
PPS - This file and the custom dialogues are copyright 1996 Elliot R. Smith. Export to Russia or the former Yugoslave republics, esp. Serbia, strictly prohibited...
