Dyalog is considering making enhancements to our installer for version 13.1 (currently targetting "Spring of 2012"). As an experiment, we would like to invite everyone to propose enhancements to the installation system via the Forum. Please make your proposals in this forum topic if you would like to discuss them in public, or send proposals to me at mkrom@dyalog.com if you prefer to make proposals "in private".
When making a proposal, please do what you can to explain the problem that you are looking to solve, rather than simply describing a change to the installer that you feel would be a good "solution".
Thanks in advance for your input!
P.S. Come to Dyalog'11 in Boston, October 2-5, if you want to make proposals in person!
Version 13.1 Installer - Requests for Enhancement
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Morten|Dyalog
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- Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:52 pm
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Dick Bowman
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Re: Version 13.1 Installer - Requests for Enhancement
Trouble being that having installed a couple of months ago my feeble mind has forgotten the aggravations until next time...
But here are a couple (in no particular order)...
0⊃ Long been puzzled by being offered a "custom install" option that didn't seem any different from the "normal install"
1⊃ I'd really like to be able to migrate session files or - failing that, to be able to do my "personalisation" as part of the install rather than scrambling around in Options/Configure afterwards (I usually manage to get something wrong every time). I know this runs counter to making installation easy/quick for the new/uncommitted - maybe it could be offered as part of "custom install".
Peripherally, something I've asked about a couple of times is some sort of "call home" checker that compares the Dyalog installation on a customer PC to a reference installation. It's not important at the install point, but after a few rounds of patches and "download new DLLs" I find myself a bit unsure about whether I've updated everything I ought to.
And - also tangentially - it would be good if the Patch process was able to remember all of my answers as I go through. It's tedious answering the questions every time. I sometimes think about poking around the insides of the Patch workspace and hardwiring file names - what puts me off is a sense that just as soon as I've made my own version there's going to be a new official workspace. Oh - and how about having Patch do the unzipping of the patch files?
And another - I keep asking for a new set of icons for each version, so that Alt-Tabbers with several versions of APL open at one time can more easily recognise which session they want to look at (this being useful when first moving to a new version and having the same application in both old and new).
I'll be back later with the other 100 items on my list.
But here are a couple (in no particular order)...
0⊃ Long been puzzled by being offered a "custom install" option that didn't seem any different from the "normal install"
1⊃ I'd really like to be able to migrate session files or - failing that, to be able to do my "personalisation" as part of the install rather than scrambling around in Options/Configure afterwards (I usually manage to get something wrong every time). I know this runs counter to making installation easy/quick for the new/uncommitted - maybe it could be offered as part of "custom install".
Peripherally, something I've asked about a couple of times is some sort of "call home" checker that compares the Dyalog installation on a customer PC to a reference installation. It's not important at the install point, but after a few rounds of patches and "download new DLLs" I find myself a bit unsure about whether I've updated everything I ought to.
And - also tangentially - it would be good if the Patch process was able to remember all of my answers as I go through. It's tedious answering the questions every time. I sometimes think about poking around the insides of the Patch workspace and hardwiring file names - what puts me off is a sense that just as soon as I've made my own version there's going to be a new official workspace. Oh - and how about having Patch do the unzipping of the patch files?
And another - I keep asking for a new set of icons for each version, so that Alt-Tabbers with several versions of APL open at one time can more easily recognise which session they want to look at (this being useful when first moving to a new version and having the same application in both old and new).
I'll be back later with the other 100 items on my list.
Visit http://apl.dickbowman.com to read more from Dick Bowman
Re: Version 13.1 Installer - Requests for Enhancement
I'd say that the last of Dick's suggestions would be done more easily by something I've asked for a number of times: that ⎕SE.Caption include the Version number.