* The key word is customizability. One will never found an installer that all agree is the one and only installer to use. The solution to this problem is customizability: A user should have the opportunity to decide what parts of LyX and third-party software that should be installed.
* Ideally, there would be only one minimal installer (around 9 MB) that give the user the choice (by checking check-boxes) to - only install LyX itself and nothing else for people who have everything else already - automatically download and install third party software that are necessary to run LyX or to use special features of LyX, such as MiKTeX, ImageMagic, ASpell, etc (these should not be inculded in the installer, the installer should only give the user the possibility to install these by downloading them from a third party web page)
Did you try the official installer? As far as I can tell, it does exactly these.
- add some extra features to LyX, such as extra toolbar buttons that are not part of the default instllation
Why? To solicit reports that some buttons are missing on non-windows platforms?
- automatically download and install third party software that are NOT necessary to run LyX BUT are useful anyway, such as JabRef, LaTeX2RTF, etc (these should not be inculded in the installer, the installer should only give the user the possibility to install these by downloading them from a third party web page)
The official installer can do this easily, but we need to agree on what to list there.
* A second alternative would be to have two installers: - As Georg says, "a minimal installer that does only install LyX itself and nothing else for people who have everything else already and maybe still use a modem" - A complete installer, that come with all necessary third party software BUT also include check boxes where the user can CHOOSE (by checking check-boxes) to add some extra features to LyX, such as extra toolbar buttons, and can CHOOSE (by checking check-boxes) to automatically download and install third party software that are NOT necessary to run LyX BUT are useful anyway, such as JabRef, LaTeX2RTF, etc)
I agree with most of what you have said and the official installer does all these, maybe except for Jabref etc. Could you please test the official installer and report here what exactly are missing? Cheers, Bo
