With the new full release promised to arrive this month I’d like to address the distribution issue. Last time I checked the latest official release (1080) you had basically only two options to get your hands on it. First, downloading the installer program or, second, download via subversion. Since going through the whole SVN hassle is quite annoying the installer clearly would be the preferred way of getting 1.13 onto your machine.
But honestly, the last release’s installer sucked big time. That dumb software trying to be smart annoyed the hell out of me. It would not even install where I wanted it to. Instead, it checked the destination folder for a ja2.exe file assuming you’re that much of an idiot to not even know where to install that thing. This eventually got me firing up notepad and creating an empty file just to satisfy the installer. Besides from that there were also smaller issues but forgive me for not remembering the details. Afair it also created registry entries for un-installing purposes as well as start menu shortcuts without giving you an option to uncheck them or something, but in this case chances are that I don’t remember correctly. I’d like to see a tool that just gives you the damn files and nothing more.
In conclusion what I’d like to ask for is as simple as offering a zip/rar/anything-as-long-as-it-doesn’t-self-extract archive in addition to the installer packages. Please, no more SVN exports.
May 9, 2008 at 12:03 |
Do you have still problems with the installer of the new release? I included some of your suggestions in the new version:
- Optional start menu entry
- Optional desktop icon
- Installer now only checks for a valid “Data” folder in the JA2 root folder.
Of course, I also thought about providing a simple RAR-Package for the release. For most of the JA2 players that would do it. But there are also “new” JA2 1.13 players and I think it is more user friendly for them to provide an easy installer. With the installer it is also possible to simple uninstall the 1.13 version and go back to the “classic” JA2 version.
Another reasons for the installer is, that it looks more professional for a release than a simple RAR-Package
May 9, 2008 at 12:45 |
To be honest, I didn’t install it after the package turned out to be another installer. So I eventually ended up doing an SVN export again.
Nevertheless, I appreciate the improvements you mentioned.
For me personally, installers don’t work because I hate them to mess with my registry. I don’t even install JA2 anymore but just extract it from a zip archive. Additionally I often have multiple JA2 (1.13) “installations” which might cause problems with any uninstall information. My preferred way of uninstalling is to delete the folders anyway.
Don’t get me wrong. Despite the headline I encourage you to continue providing installers as I understand the importance for users less tech-savvy.
Maybe you want to throw some rar archives anywhere onto the server, but hide the links somewhere in the forums, so new players will find the installers and us veterans may choose to use the alternative data source.
May 9, 2008 at 19:20 |
Of course I can also provide a RAR-package for the advanced users. Should not be a problem