Blair Campbell wrote: > The text installer is not written in batch though...
Ah, I was thinking more about the batch file that runs just before the installer. It would make it seem more consistent with the current setup program (e.g. I am in a setup program now, with the option to drop to the command line). Also, IMHO the timeouts that are in the current batch file are bad. I was trying to install the last beta onto a FAT32 partition on my computer, and the kernel timing was completely f~cked so the choices that come up only flashed for less than a second. I had to reboot to linux, run it under bochs, note down the choices and then continually try to beat the choice screen by pressing my choice before it flashed away... Loop mounting the CD image under linux and replacing the kernel with a newer one fixed the timing problem, but you can't expect people to do that when installing. Anyway, I'll modify the install batch file to work with powerbatch and post it, and see what people think. Marcus. PS: Incidentally, the above problem was what initially prompted be to go hunting for a GPLed version of Nortons batch enhancer for Freedos. Firstly, I contacted the author of WBAT [http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/] who told me that he couldn't open source it because it was linked to a proprietary library. Then I went through Simtels list of MSDOS programs and tried contacting authors of long-dead programs. Matthias Nott was one who replied to me and he went hunting for the source code that he hadn't seen in years. Eventually he found a printout of it, scanned it in, sent me the images of the code and gave me permission to GPL it. A couple days later he also found (thankfully) the actual source files and sent it on. After I posted it to this list, Eric modified it slightly and now has a size-optimized version of it too. Moral of the Story: If anyone can think of any other programs that they miss from DOS or found useful, it might be useful to contact authors of programs listed on Simtel and see if they'd be willing to open source them. PPS: Just in case anyone wants to see all the programs available on simtel, I found the archive of simtel.net to be much more comprehensive than the current version of the site: [http://web.archive.org/web/20020822170524/www.simtel.net/pub/msdos/] > > On 7/5/06, Marcus Furlong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Jim Hall wrote: >> >> > Blair Campbell wrote: >> >> Just to let you know, due to lack of bugfixes in the graphical >> >> installer, it cannot be included with 1.0, otherwise people would >> >> blame us for releasing buggy software. The text installer works >> >> pretty much everywhere and is much more stable. >> >> >> >> Unless anyone releases a showstopper-fixed graphical installer :-). >> >> >> >> [...] >> >> FDPKG 1.0-pre will be installed by default for package management, and >> >> a modified text installer will do its best to integrate package >> >> management into the installed FreeDOS (including removal of unwanted >> >> packages, dependency checking, etc..) Included with it is a utility >> >> that uses specified files to rename short filenames to long filenames >> >> needed by some packages. That way, the long filenames can survive >> >> being zipped and unzipped with an Info-Zip that doesn't support long >> >> filenames. >> >> >> > >> > >> > Hi Blair, >> > >> > After the "1.0" distro is out, I'm thinking I'd like to help >> > rebuild/improve the graphical installer, merging it with FDPKG, etc. >> > The installer is the first thing that people will see when they try out >> > FreeDOS ... a text installer is okay, but a nice-looking graphical >> > version would be killer. I've been putting some thought into how to >> > make the install process easier (not possible to implement before >> > "1.0", but likely for the next distro) and I'd like to get involved >> > again and >> > write code for that. Heck, integrating package management into the >> > FreeDOS installer was always a big goal of mine, but I never went to do >> > it - maybe I can finally help make that happen. :-) >> > >> > Looks like the Install program that's on CVS >> > (http://freedos.cvs.sourceforge.net/freedos/install/) is a slightly >> > modified version of the text installer I wrote several years ago. >> > Where >> > are the sources for the graphical installer? Or would it be better to >> > re-write the graphical installer from scratch? >> >> powerbatch is also available under the GPL now, if you want to make the >> actual text installer prettier: >> >> https://www.cs.tcd.ie/~furlongm/dos/pbatch/ >> >> There's an example included with the zip, to show off the fancy things it >> can do. >> >> Marcus. >> >> >> Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? >> Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job >> easier >> Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache >> Geronimo >> http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 >> _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing >> list [email protected] >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel >> > > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
