[Sugar-devel] 0depend feature request

[Gary C Martin]

Hi Aleksey,

On 23 Nov 2009, at 18:45, Aleksey Lim wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 07:39:14PM +0100, Martin Langhoff wrote:
>> On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 7:31 PM, Aleksey Lim <alsroot at member.fsf.org> wrote:
>>> I've changed this feature a bit, so now its a Zero Install integration[4]
>> 
>> Good to see progress on this. Much appreciated. Some questions...
>> 
>> - Why is the depcheck happening at "first start" time? Install time
>> seems be more appropriate: install time means there is a src of
>> software, needed deps can be grabbed from the same src if present...
> 
> in that case we entirely depend on 0install, so sugar provide just new
> GUI for 0launch(here just for downloading/building dependencies).
> 
>> - What happens if the deps are missing? If the user is offline?
> 
> activity fails to start but in case of offline, 0install provides some
> options that could be useful for users(0share, 0mirror).
> 
>> - What happens when the build fails?
> 
> activity just fails, and of course we can add some kind of bugreporting
> feature.

First up, to be honest, I don't plan to use or involve myself with 0install for any activities I'm involved with (may be if it works invisibly as a worst case fallback)... But, if a deployment/teacher wanted to distribute one (or several) of these non-Sugar compliant installs on a USB stick for remote class installation, is it a trivial step for them to put 'the activity' on a stick so it can be installed without any network access or local server at install time?

Example: Teacher travels from a remote village to an education ministry or town with internet access once a month. Downloads a selection of new activities and content from ASLO to their USB stick. Journeys back to their village and uses the USB stick to install/upgrade each machine, kids also share the activity .xo bundle from Journal with friends who can't make it to the school.

Regards,
--Gary