Thx Ben for all. I will investigate further as most of the students use windows (still I ask them top bring their computer cause here it’s all virtualized windows with network user files mounted on the virtual system launch).
> > btw, what is the directory here that its trying to write to? I don’t know… I ask the student to send me the stack. I won’t see them until 2 weeks. But I will then try with some to make this stuff work more reliably and give/ask feedback here. Anyway, I still have the solution to launch the old way. So there is an alternative. But I really like the launcher. It really helps organizing (for me :)). For students, in a first approcach it’s not that important. > > > 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. Oh yeah… I can see that… and since I don’t use windows since XP, I can tell you it’s a pain to just use it again. I (sadly) need a windows box to test. I’m thinking also to prepare a linux virtual box image which is also interesting. But still, to get adoption (even for A or 2 student), its important that it works well on windows. I’ll give feedback (but in 2/3 weeks). Cheers, Cédrick > 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 > <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.
