[bt-devel] Some thoughts...

[Lamar Owen]

On Wednesday 04 February 2004 07:06 am, Brad wrote:
> As a committed Christian, while I am supportive of what you are doing in
> trying to create some Bible software for Linux, I find that the install
> process is "typically Linux" ie there are 101 traps for the unwary,
> there are little quirks that need to be overcome, and documentation is
> cryptic at best for a newbie.

While I quite understand your point of view, please understand that for all of 
this to happen someone has to do it.  Many of us who are helping this project 
are doing so on limited time: myself included.  There aren't enough hours in 
the day to do everything that everybody wants; nor is there a standard way of 
doing it.  You would like to see a better installation and better 
documentation.  So, roll up your sleeves and help do it!  I personally would 
welcome the help, as would all the other guys in the project.  That is, after 
all the Open Source Way: you want something done, help make it happen.

Please also understand that making installation an easy thing is not in itself 
an easy thing to do.  In fact, the easier the percieved install, the more 
difficult it is to develop.  I wonder how many thousands of man hours went 
into programming the Microsoft Installer, or InstallShield?  

Making a simple installation for as diverse an audience as BibleTime has is 
not going to be easy.  In fact, it might be as difficult or more difficult 
than the actual BibleTime software.

But, since such an installer would be welcome and usable for any package that 
uses the auotconf build method, maybe googling for such a project or browsing 
SourceForge or Freshmeat for such a project and then helping them would prove 
useful.  Then, when such a framework exists in the generic (such as 
InstallSheild or Microsoft's Installer are both generic, driven by config 
files) projects such as BibleTime can use the framework.

But there are other methods, such as using the package manager included in 
your operating system.  Getting BibleTime onto one of the third party yum and 
apt enabled repositories would prove useful, since then you can use those 
tools to do a seamless installation.  Synaptic works extremely well with 
apt-rpm repositories such as fedora.us and freshrpms.  Getting the packages 
onto these repos is the hard part.  Or we can set up our own repository for 
these, but again somebody has to do the legwork.  These sorts of things take 
time and lots of effort, as well as buildhosts and a server with sufficient 
bandwidth to make it happen.  If you use Gentoo you use the 'emerge' 
functionality, which automates a from-source build, including all 
dependencies.  But the configuration and build scripts have to be built by 
somebody with the time and skills to do the job.

The last thing we need is for BibleTime to have Yet Another Custom Installer 
that is different from every other installer.
-- 
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11