Eric wrote: > Unless there is a lot of push back, the installers will be minimal systems > pretty much as currently seen on the beta download page
Yikes. Consider me pushing back as hard as I can. As neat as JHS is, browsers are not in a state where they can effectively replace native GUIs as a primary interface for developing programs, especially one so highly interactive as J. And even if they were, having no native GUI interface will confuse and possibly drive off first-time users. Also, not including the documentation is unacceptable. * The install should include the new J engine, the latest J documentation, the latest J standard libraries and the most common addons (e.g. fork, printf), JHS, and JGTK. The installer should put icons for both JGTK and JHS and in the start menu (or OS equivalent), in that order. I might go so far as to recommend that the JHS icon be labeled "JHS (launch in browser)". If time/effort permits, I would also include the old j.exe and java frontends in the bin folder, but without icons in the start menu, to ease the transition to J7 from J6. Though that sounds like a lot of material, and I personally have never built an installer, I don't imagine this would be that hard to configure using WinZip or something. So is time to prepare a release the main reason you're suggesting a minimal installer, or is it download size (bandwidth from Jsoftware.com), or what? If the latter, I'll point out that most users will download the missing components anyway; the ones that don't walk off in a huff, anyway. If you're worried about having to constantly rebuild installers as documentation & libraries change, don't; just include the latest at the time of the release and include a mechanism to update them on demand (which already exists). This will at least save users the step of the initial download of the ancillary materials. In general, I don't like the idea of putting the onus on one's users, esp. when I imagine the investment to avoid that to be low, and once-off. On the other hand, I know JSoftware has limited resources and J is free, so I can't complain much. Speaking of which, I have to review Raul's latest and David and Istvan's earlier contributions and see what they've earned for you guys. I wish I had more time for J these days. -Dan * If you imagine it's not so hard for a user to type fetchHelp '' or something the first time he starts J, put yourself in his shoes: (a) why? and (b) how will he know how to do that without help? To (b), if JHS prompts the user with "type fetchHelp'' to download all J help" when he launches JHS, and you imagine most users would do that, then why not save everyone the trouble and just include the help? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
