Installer

Folks,

D6 will feature a new installer. I seem to remember some grizzling
about the installed shortcut icons (you know, Fresh Install etc) that
came with 5.1.

We want to get the new installer completed by the end of Monday 9th May
so if you have any suggestions as to how you want:

a) the shortcuts to work
b) which directories you want the base image installed in

then this is your chance to let us know.

We'd be interested to here how you use Dolphin. Do you run from the
standard installed shortcuts, do you create your own shortcuts, do you
double click the image files or do you drag an image over Dolphin.exe?

Remember we won't be able to make substantial changes and we reserved
the right to ignore any suggestions completely :-)

Best regards,

Andy Bower
Dolphin Support
www.object-arts.com

Andy Bower escribió:
> We want to get the new installer completed by the end of Monday 9th May
> so if you have any suggestions as to how you want:

> a) the shortcuts to work
The "Fresh Image" link may ask where to place the new image.

> b) which directories you want the base image installed in
> then this is your chance to let us know.

C:\Program Files\Object Arts\Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0
would be a good place. To continue the way of older versions.

> We'd be interested to here how you use Dolphin. Do you run from the
> standard installed shortcuts, do you create your own shortcuts, do you
> double click the image files or do you drag an image over Dolphin.exe?

As a personal case, I have my own directory with each project there.

One project => one directory.
Unfortunately (or not), I have many packages replicated, but it is
fail safe also.

Something I would like is use subdirectories as below:
%HOMEPATH%\My Documents\Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0\

Each one with the default installation, so you can have, as an
example, DPRO and DSE coexisting:

%HOMEPATH%\My Documents\Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0\Beta 1\
%HOMEPATH%\My Documents\Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0\Pre Release\
%HOMEPATH%\My Documents\Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0\Professional\
%HOMEPATH%\My Documents\Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0\Standard\
%HOMEPATH%\My Documents\Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0\My Project\

%HOMEPATH%\My Documents\Dolphin Smalltalk 7.0\Etc\

> Remember we won't be able to make substantial changes and we reserved
> the right to ignore any suggestions completely :-)

Feel free, I will continue to work that way however :-P

Best regards.


--
Esteban

Andy,

> We want to get the new installer completed by the end of Monday 9th May
> so if you have any suggestions as to how you want:
>
> a) the shortcuts to work
> b) which directories you want the base image installed in

In both cases I'm quite happy with the current situation and defaults.
Having the base image in the "My Documents" hierarchy makes it easy for my
nightly backup :-)

> We'd be interested to here how you use Dolphin. Do you run from the
> standard installed shortcuts, do you create your own shortcuts, do you
> double click the image files or do you drag an image over Dolphin.exe?

I've got a shortcut to the working image pinned on the start menu.
If I want to start a clean (untouched/patched) or temporary image I navigate
to the image folder and double click on the appropriate image file.

--
Ian

I am in agreement with Ian, this is pretty much how my environment is setup.

"Ian Bartholomew" <[hidden email]> wrote in message
news:[hidden email]...

"Andy Bower" <[hidden email]> wrote in message
news:[hidden email]...
...
I use a RAID protected network drive for my Dolphin images, packages and STS
Repository at work.  At home I keep my image files in a sub-directory bellow
"My Documents".  I currently double click my image files to load them.  One
thing I disliked about Dolphin 5 was that the packages were stored in
directories immediately in the image working directory.  I would have
preferred that they all be bellow a directory called Packages.  The reason
for this is that I have a Deploy, Workspaces, Virgin and Backup directory
bellow the directory my image is in.  Now I have a bunch of package
directories mixed in with my these directories.

I have not used the Fresh Install feature much.  I think it used to require
re-entry of the S/N, which was a pain.  Now it seems to remember the S/N so
I guess it would not be as much of a pain.  The first thing I do is grab a
copy of the clean Dolphin image and save it in a directory called virgin.
That then becomes my virgin image and I make copies as needed.

Chris

> I am in agreement with Ian, this is pretty much how my environment is setup.

Ditto for me.

I don't care about where is Dolphin Installed, because i use to double-click
de .img file.

"Andy Bower" <[hidden email]> escribió en el mensaje
news:[hidden email]...

Hi Andy,

> b) which directories you want the base image installed in
> then this is your chance to let us know.

"[My Documents]\Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0" would suit me.

> We'd be interested to here how you use Dolphin. Do you run from the
> standard installed shortcuts, do you create your own shortcuts, do you
> double click the image files or do you drag an image over Dolphin.exe?

I double-click image files, I rarely use Desktop or Start Menu shortcuts.

I have multiple images in my "[My Documents]\Dolphin Smalltalk 5.1" folder.
I have another folder where I keep a fresh+patches image and use batch files
to copy and rename the fresh image files into my "[My Documents]\Dolphin
Smalltalk 5.1" folder.

For example, one batch file copies the fresh image files as "deploy.img",
"deploy.chg" and "deploy.sml". I can then run this image side by side with
my development images, and all packages and resources are installed with the
same paths as the development image.

I find this system of working lets me quickly build an image from scratch,
and keep working in/saving to other images.

Steve
--
Steve Waring
[hidden email]

Andy,

> D6 will feature a new installer. I seem to remember some grizzling
> about the installed shortcut icons (you know, Fresh Install etc) that
> came with 5.1.

I had problems w/ D4's installer, I think.  IIRC, it was during that
beta that I got clobbered by a bogus mix of images and VMs that I think
you now have made impossible to occur??  No harm done, but it did change
the way I work, and I have never needed to revert to the installed
shortcuts.

Bottom line is that I am fairly happy with how things are now, though I
do not run Dolphin as intended.


> We want to get the new installer completed by the end of Monday 9th May
> so if you have any suggestions as to how you want:
>
> a) the shortcuts to work

As long as I can specify the dolphin.exe and image paths in a shortcut
of my own making, it makes little difference to me.  I use the fresh
start files (very helpful!), but via a restart batch file that copies
them to my intended directory.


> b) which directories you want the base image installed in

Folks seem to like My Documents, personally, I don't use it, though I am
content to edit my clean start batch file to copy from there, or
anywhere else.  Then one batch file gets me to a clean configuration,
and migrate.st takes over.  I tend to iterate there until the new image
builds cleanly, or close to it.



> then this is your chance to let us know.
>
> We'd be interested to here how you use Dolphin. Do you run from the
> standard installed shortcuts, do you create your own shortcuts, do you
> double click the image files or do you drag an image over Dolphin.exe?

My own shortcuts, specifying the VM and image.  They avoid overhead of
the installer checking for stuff that is indeed installed (why would I
do anything to damage Dophin?<g>), and avoids the D4 scenario described
above.  Besides, they are easy to create and transfer well from machine
to machine, at least w/o using My Documents (and maybe even with it???).
  Shortcuts for the active version end up copied to the root of my start
menu.

FWIW, I often use drag and drop to start Squeak, but that is only
because I have Squeak VMs (hacked and otherwise) littering my drives.
The centrally located Dolphin VM is so seldom visible on my desktop that
it makes a poor drop target.  With that said, I think it's great that
you offer the option.

Have a good one,

Bill


--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]

Andy,

> We'd be interested to here how you use Dolphin. Do you run from the
> standard installed shortcuts, do you create your own shortcuts, do you
> double click the image files or do you drag an image over Dolphin.exe?

The current setup doesn't cause me any particular problems, but I don't
actually use any of the stuff that it provides.

I let it install, and then move the image back to the installation folder.  I
have several images in that folder (Working, Clean, Deployment, and Throwaway),
all of which are started exclusively via short-cuts in the start menu (I never
normally use drag/drop or double-click to start Dolphin).  I don't use any of
the short-cuts that Dolphin installation sets up in the Start menu, but always
use my own.  (Incidentally, that's not specific to Dolphin -- it's how I handle
all application shortcuts: I move the installed cluster of shortcuts into one
of several sub-menus under 'Programs' ('Networking' 'Databases' 'Multimedia'
and so on) which I rarely ever use, and copy or create the short-cuts that I
will actually use in the top-level of the Start Menu.)

One concrete suggestion, if it's not too much effort, would be to give the
option of setting up a crash-dump registry key during installation.
(Incidentally, what will the registry key be for Dolphin 6 ?)

    -- chris

I am happy with the current directories.

I try to keep a clean backup image that has the abse image and the
packages I need for all my projects. I usually just copy that back
manually if I need to.

Dan
-------------
Dan Antion


Andy Bower wrote:

Steve Waring wrote:
> Hi Andy,
>
>
>>b) which directories you want the base image installed in
>>then this is your chance to let us know.
>
>
> "[My Documents]\Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0" would suit me.

seconded

>
>
>>We'd be interested to here how you use Dolphin. Do you run from the
>>standard installed shortcuts, do you create your own shortcuts, do you
>>double click the image files or do you drag an image over Dolphin.exe?
>
>
> I double-click image files, I rarely use Desktop or Start Menu shortcuts.

same here. A directory per project, within it a directory per version

>
> I have multiple images in my "[My Documents]\Dolphin Smalltalk 5.1" folder.
> I have another folder where I keep a fresh+patches image and use batch files
> to copy and rename the fresh image files into my "[My Documents]\Dolphin
> Smalltalk 5.1" folder.
>

fresh + patches + personal preferences + utilities/goodies (Ian's a.o.).
Like suggested in the previous  thread, would be perfect if those
utilities and goodies are pre-installed


Ted

Hi Ted,

> fresh + patches + personal preferences + utilities/goodies (Ian's a.o.).

That reminded me: my "fresh" image also contains a few personal preference
changes.

The first thing I do is to change the font from Times New Roman to a sans
serif font. I know the argument has been made that Times New Roman is the
most readable font, however I am convinced that is for print and not for
screens. IMO, on a screen, a sans serif anti-aliased font is the most
readable.

I don't install any utilities or goodies as I use a script to configure an
image for development. The script loads a few IDE extensions, loads Ian's
chunkbrowser, adds a few default categories and changes the Compiler
class>>defaultSyntaxColors method.

Steve
--
Steve Waring
[hidden email]

I have the usual two directory groups for Dolphin:

Program Files
  Object Arts
    Dolphin Smalltalk 98 2.1
    Dolphin Smalltalk Professional 5.1

(Yes, I've not got round to merging my old 2.1 stuff, but that will happen
soon.)

My Documents
  Dolphin Smalltalk 5.1
    _First
    _Professional
    _Shaping
    Bill Schwab
    ...
    Camp Smalltalk
    ...
    Object Arts
    ...
    Shaping
    ...
    WalicXE

Program Files directory:

I never touch this directory, except to install a .dll, which I suppose
should go in the top-level directory along with the other .dlls already
there.


My Documents directory:

This is where all the action is.

The first three underbar-ed directories are reference points for rebuilding
quickly back to a known state.  _Professional contains the original
img/chg/sml file set.  _First contains the same set but with my few favorite
mods (mostly User Preference changes).  Shaping is First with STS installed
and a bunch of other baseline packages.

There are several person/company names under the main Dolphin document
directory.  Under each person/company name is a set of directories, one for
each project, app, framework, or small-but-useful mod from that
person/company.  Each of these directories contains one or more unzipped
.pacs plus the original zip file from which they came.

When I install the D6 beta, I would like to have another directory named
'Dolphin Smalltalk 6.0' go in go in parallel to the 5.1 directory.  I'm not
sure this is the best way to go; it just seems safe and expedient.
Ultimately, I would like to make these version distinctions in STS.  (And I
still very much want namespaces.)

To launch an image, I double-click the image file, which is always in the
top-level document directory ('My Documents\Dolphin Smalltalk 5.1').  I've
saved a version of the original Professional image; so I just copy it when I
need it.  But if I must regenerate it, I launch the "fresh install" Dolphin
from the Start menu.  I rarely launch anything from the desktop.  Instead, I
use the "quick launch" (not sure this is the right term) icons from the top
area of the Start menu, or I go in through Start | All Programs to find what
I need.


Shaping