Re: Feature request: Windows ZIP Distribution
Bulat Ziganshin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: SF> That's an impressive reduction in size; compressing the SF> CAB file inside the MSI using the LZW-based compressor SF> that Microsoft provides with their 'makecab' utility didn't LZX (very different from LZW, born long ago, in 1984) btw, while writing this letter i compressed GHC 6.4 installation with cabarc. it results in 33 megs only (!). may be when you creating your installation, you are using MSZIP compression instead of LZX? or you compress with LZX:15, i.e. with minimal 32 kb dictionary instead of LZX:21? Cool, thanks for trying this out, Bulat. When fixing on MSZIP as the compressor for the tool that creates these MSIs sometime ago, I did play with different memory sizes for LZX, but the resulting installers didn't reduce space usage by all that much, so I opted to just go with the cheap&cheerful MSZIP. This wasn't with GHC installers though, and as your experience shows that fixing on always using MSZIP wasn't such a good idea. I'll go with LZX for the next GHC release, as I'm able to reproduce what you're seeing. ... Re: lzma, 7-zip: I'm not questioning the improvements possible going this route, just that I won't be doing it for now. Others are free to offer up other distribution forms, of course. However, as an end-user on a Windows platform, I do prefer using non-executable installers. --sigbjorn ___ Glasgow-haskell-bugs mailing list Glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs
Re[2]: Feature request: Windows ZIP Distribution
Hello Sigbjorn, Thursday, May 19, 2005, 9:18:56 PM, you wrote: SF> That's an impressive reduction in size; compressing the SF> CAB file inside the MSI using the LZW-based compressor SF> that Microsoft provides with their 'makecab' utility didn't LZX (very different from LZW, born long ago, in 1984) btw, while writing this letter i compressed GHC 6.4 installation with cabarc. it results in 33 megs only (!). may be when you creating your installation, you are using MSZIP compression instead of LZX? or you compress with LZX:15, i.e. with minimal 32 kb dictionary instead of LZX:21? SF> make much of a difference in size (but increased compression SF> time quite a bit.) I'm idly speculating that LZMA's larger dictionaries SF> is what's paying off here. the difference is also in format of compressed data. in particular, lzma use arithmetic instead of huffman compression to futher compress data SF> I'm not planning on switching to 7-Zip in the near future though. you are not understood me. with help of 7-zip you can create EXE-file, which will self-extract all the compressed files when runned (it's much like to that any installer does). so you can either: 1) use microsoft installer but include just one self-extracting EXE file in it. so in beginning of installation this EXE must be runned, it will create all the dustributed files and then normal installation procedure will arrange all other tasks 2) use Nullsoft installer which can compress files with LZMA. of course, in this scenario ypu will need to rewrite all installation scripts/configs to deal with new installer-creation software 3) you can also use 7-zip's own installation-creating facility, which is based on it's SFX. afaik, this installer just extracts all files in archive and then runs program you specified, so in this case you must arrange all installation tasks by hand-made program SF> However, I think Brian Smith's suggestion of offering up a SF> .zip'ed up version of the GHC distribution tree is a good SF> one & plan to do that for the next release. It can then be used SF> to derive other distribution/installer formats. i think that other distributions can easily be created by just installing current one and then compressing ghc-6.4 directory with appropriate archiver. or i am wrong? in any case, if you can provide lzma-based distribution in any form (some installer or just .7z archive) i will bw very grateful. my bandwidth is 56K only :( btw, if you are interested in playing with lzma and other modern compression algorithms included in your own program, you can download Compression'2005 library from http://freearc.narod.ru -- Best regards, Bulatmailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Glasgow-haskell-bugs mailing list Glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs
Re: Feature request: Windows ZIP Distribution
That's an impressive reduction in size; compressing the CAB file inside the MSI using the LZW-based compressor that Microsoft provides with their 'makecab' utility didn't make much of a difference in size (but increased compression time quite a bit.) I'm idly speculating that LZMA's larger dictionaries is what's paying off here. Thanks for the pointer, I'll definitely play with it. I'm not planning on switching to 7-Zip in the near future though. However, I think Brian Smith's suggestion of offering up a .zip'ed up version of the GHC distribution tree is a good one & plan to do that for the next release. It can then be used to derive other distribution/installer formats. --sigbjorn - Original Message - From: "Bulat Ziganshin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sigbjorn Finne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 23:09 Subject: Re[2]: Feature request: Windows ZIP Distribution Hello Sigbjorn, Wednesday, May 18, 2005, 8:38:55 PM, you wrote: SF> The 6.4 installer has a UI bug that may prevent you from using SF> it on a box where you don't have admin privs. Try starting up the installer, SF> hit Next, followed by Back. That should bring up a dialog letting you choose SF> whether to perform a user or machine wide installation. Select the former nice bug! :) you can cut installer size in 1.5-2 times by repacking it with another compressor - LZMA. i tried this on the your 6.4 distribution and whole installed directory was packed down to 26 megs to get this work you can either switch to Nullsoft installer, which has support for LZMA, or create self-extracting module with help of 7-zip (www.7-zip.org) anf include this self-extractor in your installer in order to test lzma compression, download abovementioned 7-zip and try it on some directory with the following cmdline: 7z a archive -r -mx9 -- Best regards, Bulatmailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Glasgow-haskell-bugs mailing list Glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs
Re[2]: Feature request: Windows ZIP Distribution
Hello Sigbjorn, Wednesday, May 18, 2005, 8:38:55 PM, you wrote: SF> The 6.4 installer has a UI bug that may prevent you from using SF> it on a box where you don't have admin privs. Try starting up the installer, SF> hit Next, followed by Back. That should bring up a dialog letting you choose SF> whether to perform a user or machine wide installation. Select the former nice bug! :) you can cut installer size in 1.5-2 times by repacking it with another compressor - LZMA. i tried this on the your 6.4 distribution and whole installed directory was packed down to 26 megs to get this work you can either switch to Nullsoft installer, which has support for LZMA, or create self-extracting module with help of 7-zip (www.7-zip.org) anf include this self-extractor in your installer in order to test lzma compression, download abovementioned 7-zip and try it on some directory with the following cmdline: 7z a archive -r -mx9 -- Best regards, Bulatmailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Glasgow-haskell-bugs mailing list Glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs
Re: Feature request: Windows ZIP Distribution
One e-mail regarding this would do.. :) The 6.4 installer has a UI bug that may prevent you from using it on a box where you don't have admin privs. Try starting up the installer, hit Next, followed by Back. That should bring up a dialog letting you choose whether to perform a user or machine wide installation. Select the former and proceed as before. Hopefully that does it. Distributing a .zip wouldn't be a big deal, just want to make sure it is solving a real problem. --sigbjorn - Original Message - From: Brian Smith To: glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 08:57 Subject: Feature request: Windows ZIP Distribution Hi, I think it would be convenient for some users (including me at this particular moment) if the Windows binary distribution of GHC was available as a ZIP file. My laptop died and I am using a shared computer with the Windows Installer disabled, thus I cannot use the MSI distribution. Maybe other people have similar situations. Note that ZIP files (unlike TAR.GZ files) can be unzipped in Windows XP without any third-party tools. Thanks, Brian ___ Glasgow-haskell-bugs mailing list Glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs
Feature request: Windows ZIP Distribution
Hi, I think it would be convenient for some users (including me at this particular moment) if the Windows binary distribution of GHC was available as a ZIP file. My laptop died and I am using a shared computer with the Windows Installer disabled, thus I cannot use the MSI distribution. Maybe other people have similar situations. Note that ZIP files (unlike TAR.GZ files) can be unzipped in Windows XP without any third-party tools. Thanks, Brian ___ Glasgow-haskell-bugs mailing list Glasgow-haskell-bugs@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/glasgow-haskell-bugs
