On Thu, 2010-03-04 at 10:54 -0600, Mikus Grinbergs wrote: > The one time I ran the newer Speak-12 (it was not on 802B2), it did not > "call home" - but I assumed that was because all the resources required > by Speak-12 were available without a need to "call home". But not too > long ago I tested a different recent Activity (whose bundle included > 'zeroinstall', etc.) -- and that Activity *did * call home. > > I've come to believe that the latest 'zeroinstall' facility has a dual > function -- if any prerequisites (for the Activity being launched) are > missing in the operating system being run, there are *some* modules > pre-packaged within that Activity's 'zeroinstall' facility, and can be > installed without any need to "call home". The second function -- to > "call home" for modules -- would be used only if the pre-packaged > modules were inadequate. I do NOT know how an user might be able to > determine (before launch) whether an activity version (that included > 'zeroinstall') would/would_not need to do any downloading of additional > files from a remote server. I'm using ZeroInstall in my Non-Sugar related XO efforts, and I do wonder if you are seeing a feature as problem unnecessarily. While ZeroInstall does have the ability to grab the program from a server if you don't have it, the alternative is not having the program. There is little difference between this and a download link for a program.
Having said that I don't think it is a feature that should be used as a matter of course, and there may be a temptation to do that. A shipping installation should come with a filled ZeroInstall cache. There should be a clear demarcation between things you have and things you don't. There may be already a command in ZeroInstall that can query whether a 0launch is good to go without downloading. If not It wouldn't be hard to write (and certainly should exist) A slightly more complex issue is determining something your friends have. I have installed software onto offline machines by transferring the zeroinstall cache from a system that already had the files. _______________________________________________ Testing mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/testing
