On 23 March 2018 at 05:14, Cédrick Béler <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just saw students and they still have some problem on windows with the
> launcher.
>
> First, the launcher has to be run in admin mode.
>
> Then, the image download starts but there is an error when uncompressing.
> Here is the stack.
>
> Any idea on how to fix that ?
>
>
>
> FileHandle>>streamError
> FileHandle>>writeStream
> FileSystem>>writeStreamOn:
> FileReference>>writeStream
> FileReference(AbstractFileReference)>>writeStreamDo:
> ZipFileMember(ZipArchiveMember)>>extractInDirectory:overwrite:
>

btw, what is the directory here that its trying to write to?


Now I notice...
the Linux PharoLauncher download is a ZIP file
and the Mac PharoLauncher download is a ZIP file
so... can we make the Windows PharoLauncher download a ZIP file?

Doing that, at least as an interim measure, would *immediately* make
PharoLauncher
usable to students on locked-down Windows machines in University student
labs.
I'd expect this will improve the success with this experiment
to use PharoLauncher as the main user entry point.

The problem with using an "Installer" for the Windows PharoLauncher is the
large amount
of testing required to work *reliably* with *all* the "different ways
people work"
under several different versions of Windows introduced different layers of
user security intricacies.
Lets move forward in small steps.  A ZIP download/extract is simple, and
consistent with other platforms.


In the meantime while waiting for that to happen, you can...

1. Download/extract  http://files.pharo.org/platform/Pharo6.1-win.zip

2. Rename  Pharo6.1    folder to  PharoLauncher
    Rename  Pharo6.1.*  files to    PharoLauncher1.1.*

3. Metacello new
       smalltalkhubUser: 'Pharo'
       project: 'PharoLauncher';
       configuration: 'PharoLauncher';
       load.
    PhLDeploymentScript doAll.
    PharoLauncher open.
    Smalltalk snapshot: true  andQuit: true.

4. Zip up the parent folder, test on another machine and provide a link to
your students.

cheers -ben


P.S.  I was going to suggest also renaming  Pharo.exe  to  PharoLauncher.exe
but with an empty Documents\Pharo\vms
I get... "Error: Cannot detect Pharo executable in
C:\Temp\MyPharoLauncher\PharoLauncher"
in PhLVirtualMachine>>initializeOn: "File @
C:\Temp\MyPharoLauncher\PharoLauncher"
since "executables := aFolder allChildrenMatching: self class
executableName."
is empty since "self class executableName" ==> "Pharo.exe"

It would be nice for that to not be hard coded.  I tried digging further
but ran out of time.
I am curious it mattered since using "Pharo.exe" the Launcher went on to
download a VM anyway.


P.S.2.
I believe the best path forward for system-wide PharoLauncher installed
under "C:\Program Files"
would be to install there only...
* the VM
* PharoLauncher.ZIP
* a tiny non-Pharo wrapper program as the shortcut linked from AllUsers >
Start Menu > PharoLauncher
that extracts PharoLauncher.ZIP to the user's data area and then starts
that user specific PharoLauncher.

Then regardless whether:
* they individually download/extract  PharoLauncher.ZIP
* the system-wide-wrapper extracts  PharoLauncher.ZIP
its a similar experience for users which should aid reliability by reducing
the number of "different " use cases.

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