[Sugar-devel] 0depend feature request

[Aleksey Lim]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 07:06:19PM +0000, Gary C Martin wrote:
> 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)...

if you have ready to use 0depend.xml file(for example from another
activity which uses the same deps) you as developer should only place
it to activity/ directory and for users starting this activity means
only having additional downloading progressbar(for the first time).

> 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?

0install integration is just an optional addon to activity bundles,
you can all time package fat .xos as usual.

> 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.

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Zero_Install_integration#Deploy_0install_packages_from_ASLO_like_a_regular_sugar_activities

as an addition, we can support offline mode for such activities
(request for downloading all required deps for all such activities
by one click).

-- 
Aleksey