[Mono-dev] Installers

[Jonathan Pobst]

I am definitely against having a separate installer for these libraries, 
so I like the way you are thinking.  :)

Some of these make sense to put with the Gtk# installer, like Mono.Posix.

Generally on Windows, you ship your dependencies with your application. 
  I would say something like SharpZipLib should be shipped with MD.  I 
would say the same for Mono.GetOptions, *especially* since it is deprecated.

I could see Mono.Addins going either way.  It probably is used by enough 
Gtk# apps to justify it being in the Gtk# installer.

Jonathan

Mike Kestner wrote:
> I am currently working to provide some additional installation
> capabilities to support the porting of MD to windows.  This includes
> shipping libraries like Mono.Posix, Mono.GetOptions, SharpZipLib, and
> Mono.Addins.
> 
> We've previously received requests to include Mono.Posix in the Gtk#
> for .net installer, as projects designed with the stetic designer in MD
> generally contain a Catalog dependency for string translation.  The Gtk#
> installer already ships Mono.Cairo.
> 
> The above examples indicate that many gtk-sharp applications will likely
> contain dependencies drilling down into the mono stack.  Tomboy uses
> mono-addins.  MD uses several mono libs.
> 
> My inclination is to just merge these additional libraries needed by MD
> into the current installer, as opposed to maintaining a separate
> installer which applications will need to add to their deployment
> instructions.  The current Gtk# for .Net installer weighs in at around
> 8MB.  These additional libraries currently take up just under 1MB in a
> standalone installer, so the addition of them to the current installer
> is roughly a 12% increase in download size.
> 
> I think the user convenience of being able to download all the mono
> stack goodness in one installer outweighs any advantage to be obtained
> by carving out subsets of the stack into independent installers.  It's
> conceivable we could add additional libraries from the stack in the
> future if the demand is high.
> 
> Thus, my proposal is that we move to a single "Mono Libraries for .Net"
> installer which contains these mono stack libraries, including Gtk#.  I
> believe I would probably name the installer mono-libraries.msi and
> version it with the major/minor version number of the mono release, and
> an installer version to support updating gtk-sharp and mono-addins and
> other libraries we might add which don't conform to the mono release
> schedule.
> 
> We can probably head off any potential issues related to the
> "disappearance" of the Gtk# for .net installer by providing some more
> detailed information about the contents of the installer on the
> Downloads page, but there may be some inertia out there around the
> existing installer name on some application download sites, ie "Download
> the latest version of the Gtk# for .Net installer from the mono project
> downloads page."
> 
> Feedback appreciated.  In particular I'd like to hear from those of you
> using the current Gtk# for .net installer or those considering win32
> ports in the future.  Which would you prefer, one installer or two?  If
> one, should it remain the Gtk# for .net installer for historical
> purposes, even containing the infusion of mono tastiness, or do we
> rename it to Mono Libraries for .Net?
>