<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Oh, I fully realize that *none* of this "self-extracting" nonsense is
> going to be cross-platform by any means. For each variation of Unix
> you'll need a seperate par binary, but its no worse than C. But Unix
> really isn't a problem. Any Unix dist worth its weight in snot comes
> with Perl.
>
> The real use is for distributing to MacOS and Windows. That's much
> easier. One binary for 95/98/Me, one for NT/2000, one for MacOS, one
> for MacOS X and maybe one for DOS/3.1. It might seem like alot of
> work, but its dirt cheap for cross-platform development. (Of course,
> you'll still have to be careful about file operations and the like).
>
OK. Convinced me. We could even have one distribution of pre-built
statically-linked customized Perl builds for the platforms listed below
(Win/Mac) that already does automatically the same that `pun' does, but also
automatically knows that the executable itself is the `par'-file. This file
would also have sockets/zlib/... statically linked in for scripts that need
them.
`par' could get a command-line option to ``use an executable as container''.
This would create a .exe/.bin/whatever file, that would:
1. Copy the `container' file into that other file.
2. Append the resulting .par to that file.
3. Adjust things so that zip gets happy and knows it's being included in an
executable.
Running the file would run the script. Running it with some exoteric options
(like --par-install, --par-uninstall, etc.) would do the same as `pun' with
some shorter options
> Perl gets *creamed* on this issue. Personally, I've had lots of ideas
> for little utilities to help with office-work killed because all the
> non-programmers run Windows and don't want to be bothered installing
> Perl. No, its not a fight you can easily win.
>
Yeah, I've had many of these too. And never got to do them...
>
> Well... there is one part that will be cross-platform. The problem
> of having Perl but not pun.
Won't be a problem with Perl 6.
> That's simple enough, par can build an
> archive with a minimalist version of pun with the par attached as
> __DATA__ or something.
>
See my solution above.
- Branden
