For your batch install I suggest you create exactly the folder structure you
want on your base machine. Zip that up and install it with unzip on each
target machine. This automates things as much as possible and gets you
almost everything you want. The remaining problem is the launch icon (I
assume you want only one for j.exe). For this simple case you may be able to
get away with simply creating the one you want and then just copying it to
the targets desktop. Or windows may require you to actually create it on the
target machine. In that case it is at worst: windows explorer to j.exe, left
click, send to, desktop, and perhaps rename.
There are utitilies for creating and manipulating shortcuts. You could even
do this in J with cd.
My own opinion, not knowing exactly your requirements, is that it would be
easier to install J in its standard location (with unzip from a zip on your
base machine). And automate creating the J production launch icon to launch
the correct version.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Henry Rich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Beta forum'" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 7:46 PM
Subject: [Jbeta] Configuring J on many machines
I am trying to plan how to install J602 on all 50 machines I
have J on at school. I want a system that will work for
602, and then 603, etc until something fundamental changes.
What I want is something that I can automate, so that a single
batch file does the job.
The end result needs to have J in the same place every time,
so that user code and shortcuts don't have to change. Thus,
if the J install won't copy into C:\J, I will have to
do that.
The end result must also have ~user in the same place every time,
so that code is always in the same place and files that load
other files, of which there are plenty, don't break. (I know
that files could be named so they would be portable, but I can't
force the users to do that and I cannot magisterially tell
them to change all their code as some administrators can).
I think what I want is the following:
0. Command-line switches for the install so that I can give
it the install type and install directory, etc. without having to
be there clicking the mouse.
1. Support for installing into C:\J rather than C:\J602.
It appears that I can work around this by installing somewhere
& then moving the files, but I can't for the life of me
see why the install shouldn't just install where I say to.
2. I see no reason for the ~user directory to end with
'j602-user' (or 'j64-602-user'). This will just create a
headache when 603 comes along, and all the user scripts and
projects are in the wrong place. I can create a profilex.ijs
to fix this, but wouldn't it be better for ~user to be set
to just 'j-user'? There would be no need to change that
until you change the name of the language. This should be
the default, and if someone wants to distinguish releases let
him create a profilex.
Configuration changes such as Oleg mentions I can handle by
doing it once and then copying the configuration file.
It seems to be a big deal for Jsoftware to distinguish the
different releases in the directory paths, but for at least
some users we want to hide the release changes as much as
possible. Once J602 runs it is just J as far as we're
concerned, and 601 is a distant memory.
Henry Rich
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