2c considerations about win installer
Dear all, I'm using conTeXt to create automatic documentation about sound classification. The idea is that starting from an html file collecting infos about sounds my program can generate some schematic images using R and POV-Ray and to create a conTeXt file including both images and textual information. Now, I'd like to share this work with my students. I'm on macosx, they're typically on win. My program is in python so it's cross-platform, so no problem. Obviously they can annotate sounds, generate images and include them manually in a MS word file. But I'd prefer that they compile the conTeXt file. On two win machines I tried to install conTeXt using the complete package (shipped with Scite: nice). I had always (different) troubles (on each machine) with environment variable (e.g. for Perl): actually I'm not able to run conTeXt. Hacking a bit, eventually asking the list, I think I will solve the problem. But I don't think that my students can do, as I suspect that they probably not even know what is PATH. And I cannot help them on each installation. So, more generally, I was asking myself if it would not be possible (and better) to have an .exe installer as usual happens in win, including Perl, maybe Ruby (+ or- 20 Mb doesn't change too much). Double click, and it set ups all the installation parameters. A completely autonomous installer would allow many people to try, use and get fond conTeXt (and maybe to leave Word) without having to struggle with problems which typically lead people to leave out. It seems to me that a similar installer would be a refinement in the spirit of the actual mswincontext distro. At the end, it's not that far form Gerben's distro on macosx. It does everything for me... Or maybe am I missing something? Just my 2 c Best -a- Andrea Valle DAMS - Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione Università degli Studi di Torino http://www.semiotiche.it/andrea andrea.valle@unito.it
So, more generally, I was asking myself if it would not be possible (and better) to have an .exe installer as usual happens in win, including Perl, maybe Ruby (+ or- 20 Mb doesn't change too much). Double click, and it set ups all the installation parameters. A completely autonomous installer would allow many people to try, use and get fond conTeXt (and maybe to leave Word) without having to struggle with problems which typically lead people to leave out.
It seems to me that a similar installer would be a refinement in the spirit of the actual mswincontext distro. At the end, it's not that far form Gerben's distro on macosx. It does everything for me... Or maybe am I missing something?
No, nothing; and it is very easy to do it, above all when it could be done with Ruby using the "gem" installation. You can install and update ConTeXt with a single comand controlling indipendies and everything else needed. It is also very easy using "InnoSetup" (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php). Cheers, jk -- Jilani KHALDI http://jkhaldi.oltrelinux.com
Jilani Khaldi wrote:
So, more generally, I was asking myself if it would not be possible (and better) to have an .exe installer as usual happens in win, including Perl, maybe Ruby (+ or- 20 Mb doesn't change too much). Double click, and it set ups all the installation parameters. A completely autonomous installer would allow many people to try, use and get fond conTeXt (and maybe to leave Word) without having to struggle with problems which typically lead people to leave out.
It seems to me that a similar installer would be a refinement in the spirit of the actual mswincontext distro. At the end, it's not that far form Gerben's distro on macosx. It does everything for me... Or maybe am I missing something?
No, nothing; and it is very easy to do it, above all when it could be done with Ruby using the "gem" installation. You can install and update ConTeXt with a single comand controlling indipendies and everything else needed. It is also very easy using "InnoSetup" (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php).
texsync TeXSync | version 1.1.1 - 2002/2004 - PRAGMA ADE/POD
TeXSync | --address adress of repository (www.pragma-ade) TeXSync | --destination destination of tree (kpsewhich) TeXSync | --force confirm action TeXSync | --full download everything (all binaries) TeXSync | --list list available trees TeXSync | --make remake formats TeXSync | --terse download as less as possible (esp binaries) TeXSync | --tree tree to synchronize (tex) TeXSync | --update update installed tree TeXSync | --user user account (guest) this will sync the minimal distribution ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------
On 4/21/06, Jilani Khaldi wrote:
So, more generally, I was asking myself if it would not be possible (and better) to have an .exe installer as usual happens in win, including Perl, maybe Ruby (+ or- 20 Mb doesn't change too much). Double click, and it set ups all the installation parameters. A completely autonomous installer would allow many people to try, use and get fond conTeXt (and maybe to leave Word) without having to struggle with problems which typically lead people to leave out.
It seems to me that a similar installer would be a refinement in the spirit of the actual mswincontext distro. At the end, it's not that far form Gerben's distro on macosx. It does everything for me... Or maybe am I missing something?
No, nothing; and it is very easy to do it, above all when it could be done with Ruby using the "gem" installation.
Have you already done that? If it's easy to do it, I think that there would be many users would be really thankful if someone would have written an one-click-installer. MikTeX developer doesn't listen too much to requests from ConTeXt users (although he does a marvellous job with MikTeX otherwise and has enough of other things to do). But if I don't count the troubles connected with not-so-good-support for ConTeXt in MikTeX, it stil remains one of the easiest ways to install and update it. It's staightforward to install standolne-ConTeXt, but not for beginners and those having almost no knowledge about computers. An installation .exe would be warmly welcome. Mojca
You can install and update ConTeXt with a single comand controlling indipendies and everything else needed. It is also very easy using "InnoSetup" (http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php). Cheers, jk
andrea valle wrote:
It's staightforward to install standolne-ConTeXt, but not for beginners and those having almost no knowledge about computers. An installation .exe would be warmly welcome.
Thanks Mojca, that's exactly what I was thinking.
i can make an ino base installer once i have - a faster machine with also more disk space - a faster outgoing line (currently 8000/1000) Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------
(Hans, I wasn't saying you *have* to do it : I'm already impressed by your actual amount of work, it's enough for me :-) ) Best -a- On 23 Apr 2006, at 18:12, Hans Hagen wrote:
andrea valle wrote:
It's staightforward to install standolne-ConTeXt, but not for beginners and those having almost no knowledge about computers. An installation .exe would be warmly welcome.
Thanks Mojca, that's exactly what I was thinking.
i can make an ino base installer once i have
- a faster machine with also more disk space - a faster outgoing line (currently 8000/1000)
Hans
----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------
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Andrea Valle DAMS - Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione Università degli Studi di Torino http://www.semiotiche.it/andrea andrea.valle@unito.it
Mojca Miklavec wrote:
MikTeX developer doesn't listen too much to requests from ConTeXt users (although he does a marvellous job with MikTeX otherwise and has enough of other things to do). But if I don't count the troubles connected with not-so-good-support for ConTeXt in MikTeX, it stil remains one of the easiest ways to install and update it.
supporting miktex is not so much a problem but i cannot get multiple trees working (config is not flexible enough, more or less hard coded paths and so) if i drown in free time i'll have a further look (newtexexec already should be better) Hans ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------
On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 01:33:04 +0200, andrea valle wrote:
Dear all, I'm using conTeXt to create automatic documentation about sound classification. The idea is that starting from an html file collecting infos about sounds my program can generate some schematic images using R and POV-Ray and to create a conTeXt file including both images and textual information.
Now, I'd like to share this work with my students. I'm on macosx, they're typically on win. My program is in python so it's cross-platform, so no problem. Obviously they can annotate sounds, generate images and include them manually in a MS word file. But I'd prefer that they compile the conTeXt file.
On two win machines I tried to install conTeXt using the complete package (shipped with Scite: nice). I had always (different) troubles (on each machine) with environment variable (e.g. for Perl): actually I'm not able to run conTeXt.
Hacking a bit, eventually asking the list, I think I will solve the problem. But I don't think that my students can do, as I suspect that they probably not even know what is PATH. And I cannot help them on each installation.
So, more generally, I was asking myself if it would not be possible (and better) to have an .exe installer as usual happens in win, including Perl, maybe Ruby (+ or- 20 Mb doesn't change too much). Double click, and it set ups all the installation parameters. A completely autonomous installer would allow many people to try, use and get fond conTeXt (and maybe to leave Word) without having to struggle with problems which typically lead people to leave out.
It seems to me that a similar installer would be a refinement in the spirit of the actual mswincontext distro. At the end, it's not that far form Gerben's distro on macosx. It does everything for me... Or maybe am I missing something?
Just my 2 c
Best
-a-
Andrea Valle DAMS - Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione Università degli Studi di Torino http://www.semiotiche.it/andrea andrea.valle@unito.it
If I'm not wrong, If you go on http://www.pragma-ade.com/dir/context/install/ (click documents > directory view > context > install), you will find that the bigger *.zip (cdwincontext.zip) contains Perl & Ruby, while mswincontext.zip no. So you can run Context out of the box with cdwincontext. (untested, because I got Perl & Ruby already) Your students can also install Ruby (single click .exe : Rubyinstaller from : http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/9417/ruby184-16_rc1.exe) and Perl (single click .exe : activePerl :http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/) whithout any pb's of adding new executables to the path, since it's done while installation. Cheers -- olivier Turlier
olivier wrote:
Your students can also install Ruby (single click .exe : Rubyinstaller from : http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/9417/ruby184-16_rc1.exe) and Perl (single click .exe : activePerl :http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/) whithout any pb's of adding new executables to the path, since it's done while installation.
Except that I found out the very hard way, that at least Ruby installs nicely for a power user, but doesn't change the path unless the installation is done when logged in as Administrator - which may be a problem in a multi-user environment. Other than that, I haven't had any problems with newer versions of the MSWinConTeXt distribution (the one that unzips into 'isoimage' folder). I'm currently running the April 10 version from CD at work and once Perl and Ruby got installed into the path, the system has been really easy to use. [I downloaded the mswincontext.zip, unzipped and burned the *contents* of the isoimage folder onto a CD - and that's it, then.) Yes I agree, it is harder to put a working ConTeXt into Windows than into a Mac where it was *very* easy, but with Administrator rights to Windows2000/XP, the abovementioned Perl and Ruby installation packages are no problem and after that things just work. Mari (multi-OS user, but best in Windows)
participants (6)
-
andrea valle -
Hans Hagen -
Jilani Khaldi -
Mari Voipio -
Mojca Miklavec -
olivier