On Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:18:45 +0200, Donn Ingle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> But why? Either
>>
>> (a) your program has a GUI and can display a dialogue box by itself
>> (b) your program has a GUI but has problems opening even a tiny part
>> of it (missing modules?), and should output diagnostics on the terminal
>> (c) your program is console-based, or a daemon or something, and should
>> not require a GUI to work.
>>
> I realise those things, and it's the simplest case.
>
> I was thinking of <a yet unknown, to me, way to> allow a setup.py file to
> be double-clicked and have the install start to run. When it comes to the
> bit where all the import statements happen, it can popup a stock dialogue
> informing the user about what they need to install first.
But does "setup.py install" really trigger any of your code's imports?
I must admit I haven't give it much thought.
Somehow this seems like setup.py's job, and if it cannot do it maybe
someone should invent an alternative.
Or maybe it's setup.py's job to create a suitable distribution:
./setup.py --help-commands
...
bdist create a built (binary) distribution
bdist_dumb create a "dumb" built distribution
bdist_rpm create an RPM distribution
bdist_wininst create an executable installer for MS Windows
"bdist_wininst" has a very nice GUI. But I doubt that you can
make it warn for unmet dependencies.
> Another thing to realize, and I have experienced this first-hand, is that a
> bunch of text, no matter how nicely formatted, spewed out of an app in
> white on black ( the usual terminal colours ) does *not* invite a user's
> attention. To read it is a chore and they usually panic.
I have experienced it too. I have tried to understand it, and failed.
Do they read books and newspapers? They are generally not stupid.
So what you really want is a nice GUI Python installer for Linux,
which everyone can use, and which can explain to users that they need
some other packages first. Yes, that sounds like a very reasonable
thing to want.
/Jorgen
--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu
\X/ snipabacken.dyndns.org> R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
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