Message-ID: <325DBD00.5851@cs.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 20:20:32 -0700
From: "John M. Aldrich" <fighteer AT cs DOT com>
Reply-To: fighteer AT cs DOT com
Organization: Three pounds of chaos and a pinch of salt
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
CC: Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>,
        grendel AT ananke DOT amu DOT edu DOT pl, djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Install thingy
References: <Pine DOT SUN DOT 3 DOT 91 DOT 961010132302 DOT 10903B-100000 AT is>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 10 Oct 1996, Hans-Bernhard Broeker wrote:
> 
> > > Either return error codes, or the installer could parse the text output of
> >          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > I think that's next to impossible if `djverify' is a batch file...
> 
> The batch file doesn't generate the status by itself (you can't do that
> with ye olde COMMAND.COM, I think), but rather runs a program and looks at
> its exit status.  The installer should run that program directly.

Exactly.  After all, if the install program itself runs, then djverify
ought to be able to run as well.  One might also want to compile the
installer with the special stubify so the djverify batch file will work
with it too.

For example:

% djverify		<-- runs just djverify
% djverify install	<-- runs the installer which runs djverify

You could even make an 'install.bat' which invokes 'djverify.bat' on
'install2.exe' which calls 'djvrfy2.exe'.  :)

You'd still need to distribute cwsdpmi with the installer, which would
effectively make it an integral part of the djgpp package, wouldn't it? 
It is distributed separately now, but there seem to have been so many
problems getting people to use it that this might not be a bad idea. 
(The only problem being keeping up with newer versions of cwsdpmi...)

BTW, I will work on making the djverify output properly formatted ASAP,
as soon as I've finished putting in all the detection functionality. 
Substance before form, right?  ;)  Mark, when you get finished with a
preliminary version of the installer, I'll hopefully be ready to send
you information on my formatting structure so we can coordinate.  I
think I'm going to be putting in some major work this weekend...

-- 
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| John M. Aldrich, aka Fighteer I  |        fighteer AT cs DOT com         |
| Plan:  To find ANYONE willing to |   http://www.cs.com/fighteer   |
| play Descent 2 on DWANGO!        | Tagline: <this space for rent> |
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