If the launcher had a command line interface, I'd use it all the time :) On Tue, Mar 20, 2018 at 10:15 AM, Marcus Denker <marcus.den...@inria.fr> wrote:
> Hi, > > > I'm really glad PharoLauncher has been promoted to the download page, > but it seems some people want to push PharoLauncher to *be* Pharo. > To me this seems a poor strategy. > > The README file in the PharoLauncher zip downloads says... > "Pharo 1.1-2018.01.16 This distribution was built January 16, 2018." > > This seems strange to me and highly likely to confuse newcomers. > Pharo 1.1 more than a few years old. How can something built in 2018 be > named "Pharo 1.1" ? > > And if PharoLauncher is instead published as Pharo 7, then it seems > strange to use it to run Pharo 5 images and later Pharo 8 images. > Why not have the Downloads page just say "The recommended way to manage > Pharo downloads is with PharoLauncher" > and allow PharoLauncher to exist as a separate entity. This would be > similar similar to those applications where you download > an initial 500kB installer, which then grabs the other 100MB from the net > to complete the install. > > Also, when maybe one day we can use Pharo as a command line shell, how > will that relate to PharoLauncher being presented "as" Pharo. > > > > What is clear is that people use many images anyway. And the more machines > get bigger, this will happen even more. > > So any download can only be “the VM + a Template image”. > => when you just start “Pharo” it starts the template (read only) > => drag an image (or double click) -> opens that image. > > To make that work for real we would need to have one release per version > (Pharo6, Pharo7, Pharo8) that you install… > > The launcher is a similar scheme that I think could be even better, it > adds: > > - easy find images online > - manage your images (you do not need to use it, you can just use the UI > of your OS instead, too). > - manage VMs in addition. > - which means that it is just one download that people need to install to > be able to run all old images, too. > > So I think if can be quite nice… it needs some iterations > > - simplify the UI so people know what todo when they see it the first time > - make sure it works everywhere > - Sign it so installation is easier > - We need something that the images that end up on disk do not have the > bit set that make drag-n-drop fail. > - integrate command line: There should be a menu to write scripts to > /usr/local/bin to run pharo images easily > - Longterm: we need 1-file images… a container that has the image itself + > auxiliary stuff on “disk” but that is one file. > > So for me this is a bit like docker: to use docker, you install docker on > the mac. There is one way, it works. > > Marcus > > > > > > > > -- Guille Polito Research Engineer Centre de Recherche en Informatique, Signal et Automatique de Lille CRIStAL - UMR 9189 French National Center for Scientific Research - *http://www.cnrs.fr <http://www.cnrs.fr>* *Web:* *http://guillep.github.io* <http://guillep.github.io> *Phone: *+33 06 52 70 66 13
