«

Does anyone know of a cross-platform installer package? Scanning
Google, it appears that the installer package landscape is all focused
on specific operating systems.

wrote:
> Does anyone know of a cross-platform installer package?

WebStart.

Andrew T.

In article < .com>, wrote:
> Does anyone know of a cross-platform installer package? Scanning
> Google, it appears that the installer package landscape is all focused
> on specific operating systems.

InstallJammer. Written in Tcl and runs on several different platforms. Open
source. Does lots of cool things. Author is very responsive to suggestions
and eager to please. Worth much more than what it costs ($0).

www.installjammer.com

It's not Java-specific, but it does have a handful of settings to make it
easier to install Java apps.

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Apple Valley, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

Steven J. Sobol wrote:
> In article < .com>, wrote:
> > Does anyone know of a cross-platform installer package? Scanning
> > Google, it appears that the installer package landscape is all focused
> > on specific operating systems.
>
> InstallJammer. Written in Tcl and runs on several different platforms. Open
> source. Does lots of cool things. Author is very responsive to suggestions
> and eager to please. Worth much more than what it costs ($0).
>
> www.installjammer.com
>
> It's not Java-specific, but it does have a handful of settings to make it
> easier to install Java apps.

This is incredible. Thanks!

wrote:
> Steven J. Sobol wrote:
>> In article < .com>, wrote:
>>> Does anyone know of a cross-platform installer package? Scanning
>>> Google, it appears that the installer package landscape is all focused
>>> on specific operating systems.
>> InstallJammer. Written in Tcl and runs on several different platforms. Open
>> source. Does lots of cool things. Author is very responsive to suggestions
>> and eager to please. Worth much more than what it costs ($0).
>>
>> www.installjammer.com
>>
>> It's not Java-specific, but it does have a handful of settings to make it
>> easier to install Java apps.
>
> This is incredible. Thanks!
>

LOL, I actually found this post via a google and came pack to respond to
an old post I made asking people about cross-platform installers. I am
now using InstallJammer and it is excellent. While I'm sure JWS is a
good option it must first be installed and I don't think that is a
reasonable assumption.

Lionel.

Lionel wrote:
> wrote:
> > Steven J. Sobol wrote:
> >> In article < .com>, wrote:
> >>> Does anyone know of a cross-platform installer package?
....
> >> www.installjammer.com

Does the definition 'cross-platform' usually include Mac's?
(I say it does)

InstallJammer homepage..
"InstallJammer is a multiplatform GUI installer designed to be
completely cross-platform and function on Windows and most
all versions of UNIX with eventual support for Mac OS X."

IJ is not X-plat.
....
> > This is incredible. Thanks!
...
> LOL, I actually found this post via a google and came pack to respond to
> an old post I made asking people about cross-platform installers. I am
> now using InstallJammer and it is excellent. While I'm sure JWS is a
> good option it must first be installed and I don't think that is a
> reasonable assumption.

Possibly not. But then, JWS comes with any (modern) JRE.

What does IJ offer when no suitable JRE is found?
<http://www.installjammer.com/docs/index.html?LocateJavaRuntime>
...which ends with an option to 'Prompt User'.

JWS has a simple little web-page to check for WebStart availability
and prompt installation. As I understand it, the JRE can come from
the 'same disk as the web-page' (better for off-line install) - or from
Sun.

Andrew T.

In article <. com>, Andrew Thompson wrote:

> Does the definition 'cross-platform' usually include Mac's?
> (I say it does)
>
> InstallJammer homepage..
> "InstallJammer is a multiplatform GUI installer designed to be
> completely cross-platform and function on Windows and most
> all versions of UNIX with eventual support for Mac OS X."
>
> IJ is not X-plat.

Nitpick -

Not as X-plat as it should be. Windows and most flavors of Unix are
supported, so it's obviously not single-platform. IIRC the author
is working on Mac OSX compatibility, but you may want to contact him.


> What does IJ offer when no suitable JRE is found?
><http://www.installjammer.com/docs/index.html?LocateJavaRuntime>
> ..which ends with an option to 'Prompt User'.
>
> JWS has a simple little web-page to check for WebStart availability
> and prompt installation. As I understand it, the JRE can come from
> the 'same disk as the web-page' (better for off-line install) - or from
> Sun.

Well, that's a good point, but I believe I made the point that it's not
a Java-specific program. On the other hand, most installers that claim
to find JRE's only do a few specific things like checking the Registry
(on Windows), or checking the system path. That could be added in easily
enough.

Anyhow, IJ is a great general-purpose installer. This does not mean it's
going to be great for everyone, and I would expect that many people
(especially in this newsgroup) would prefer a solution like JWS. I was
just putting the suggestion out there...

--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Apple Valley, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

Steven J. Sobol wrote:
> In article <. com>, Andrew Thompson wrote:
...
> > What does IJ offer when no suitable JRE is found?
> ><http://www.installjammer.com/docs/index.html?LocateJavaRuntime>
> > ..which ends with an option to 'Prompt User'.
> >
> > JWS has a simple little web-page to check for WebStart availability
> > and prompt installation. As I understand it, the JRE can come from
> > the 'same disk as the web-page' (better for off-line install) - or from
> > Sun.
>
> Well, that's a good point, but I believe I made the point that it's not
> a Java-specific program. On the other hand, most installers that claim
> to find JRE's only do a few specific things like checking the Registry
> (on Windows), or checking the system path. That could be added in easily
> enough.

No. IJ already offers all the usual 'find Java to best version'
automatically (or you can tell the script to do so, according
to that page) - it is just that failing finding a suitable JRE
by the automated method, you (the deployer) can choose
to offer the 'Prompt for Java' as a last ditch effort.

[ As an aside - I prefer that approach to attempts to
'bundle' a JVM with each application. ]

> Anyhow, IJ is a great general-purpose installer. This does not mean it's
> going to be great for everyone, and I would expect that many people
> (especially in this newsgroup) would prefer a solution like JWS. I was
> just putting the suggestion out there...

Good points. There are sure things that JWS either
cannot do, or has significant trouble with.

No deployment solution fits every situation.

Andrew T.

In article < om>, Andrew Thompson wrote:

>> to find JRE's only do a few specific things like checking the Registry
>> (on Windows), or checking the system path. That could be added in easily
>> enough.
>
> No. IJ already offers all the usual 'find Java to best version'
> automatically (or you can tell the script to do so, according
> to that page) - it is just that failing finding a suitable JRE
> by the automated method, you (the deployer) can choose
> to offer the 'Prompt for Java' as a last ditch effort.

Eh... I must not have RTFM'd closely enough. I missed that. Thanks.


--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Apple Valley, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

Andrew Thompson wrote:
> Lionel wrote:
>> wrote:
>>> Steven J. Sobol wrote:
>>>> In article < .com>, wrote:
>>>>> Does anyone know of a cross-platform installer package?
> ...
>>>> www.installjammer.com
>
> Does the definition 'cross-platform' usually include Mac's?
> (I say it does)
>
> InstallJammer homepage..
> "InstallJammer is a multiplatform GUI installer designed to be
> completely cross-platform and function on Windows and most
> all versions of UNIX with eventual support for Mac OS X."
>
> IJ is not X-plat.

I'm relying the eventual support and I believe I can take a crack at
getting it to run on Mac OS X as it is unix based anyway. You do have a
point though and I wasn't as concerned about Mac as I was Unix and Windows.


> ...
>>> This is incredible. Thanks!
> ..
>> LOL, I actually found this post via a google and came pack to respond to
>> an old post I made asking people about cross-platform installers. I am
>> now using InstallJammer and it is excellent. While I'm sure JWS is a
>> good option it must first be installed and I don't think that is a
>> reasonable assumption.
>
> Possibly not. But then, JWS comes with any (modern) JRE.
>
> What does IJ offer when no suitable JRE is found?
> <http://www.installjammer.com/docs/index.html?LocateJavaRuntime>
> ..which ends with an option to 'Prompt User'.

My installer will automatically install Java, I only made minimal use of
the Java Support in InstallJammer. Launching the Java installer in
silent mode with basic gui (to show user progress bar) is an excellent
solution.


> JWS has a simple little web-page to check for WebStart availability
> and prompt installation. As I understand it, the JRE can come from
> the 'same disk as the web-page' (better for off-line install) - or from
> Sun.

My problem was that you have to check if Java is installed using
something other than Java anyway. Using InstallJammer I have a
consistent look and language throughout the install.

Also, does JWS provide an install builder? Will it automatically create
links to desktop on windows, linux, unix and eventually Mac? Will it add
entries to start menu? Is it possible to achieve everything that is
stated it can do without an Internet connection, just a CD?

I haven't found any clear cut tutorials which makes it harder for me to
just get the job done.

I'm still open, but I am proceeding incredibly happily with IJ because
it can do everything I want, and I get to learn a bit of Tcl/Tk .

Lionel.