[Qt-interest] Politically Correct way to release an Open Source

[Scott Furry]

Paul,

Another option for you may be NSIS.
(Nullsoft Scriptable Install System - home page: 
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page)

It is X-platform, most useful and easy to pick up (especially with the 
Eclipse plug-in/editor) for building the installation scripts. 
Documentation is rather nice. Package is updated with some regular 
frequency. I found it rather nice to use.

The other alternative I've run across is IzPack (http://izpack.org/), a 
Java-based installer.
I do not have experience with this package but the Scala people use it 
for their deployments.

Doesn't Qt use BitRock for its installer?
Any comments on BitRock?

Cheers,
Scott

Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 13:03:51 +1000

From: "Ross Bencina" <rossb-lists at audiomulch.com>
Subject: Re: [Qt-interest] Politically Correct way to release an Open
Source QtProject
To: "Paul England" <pengland at cmt-asia.com>,
<qt-interest at trolltech.com>
Message-ID: <010f01cb31ef$56b5f060$0a73a8c0 at rossmacbook>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Paul

A pollitically correct open source app that only runs on Windows and 
Mac! that's unpossible ;-)


On Mac there are two common options:

1. A DMG with the app bundle in it and a shortcut to the Applications 
folder with a background screen suggesting the user drag the app bundle 
to their applications folder. A variant is to have a folder containing 
the app bundle and related stuff (which is what we do, you can check out 
our dmg at http://www.audiomulch.com/download.htm). There are graphical 
apps to generate installer DMGs like this. We developed an in-house 
script, but it was not easy to automate everything.

2. A package installer made with Apple's tool as Thiago suggested or 
some 3rd party tool (I think there are more reliable options than 
Apple's, someone else can probably recommend one).

I think the current Apple "recommended" way is option (2) an installer, 
but I'm not sure.


On Windows I recommend making an installer exe with inno setup, it's free:
http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php
and it will give your users a start menu item and an uninstall option. 
You can easily run it from the command line, which is handy for 
automated builds.


By the way, you'll also need to look into bundling Qt dlls or 
frameworks. On Mac Qt bundles a script for this, see:
http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/deployment-mac.html

On Windows you have to decide how to ship/bundle Qt dlls (or not).


HTH

Ross

----- Original Message -----
From: Paul England
To: qt-interest at trolltech.com
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 1:59 AM
Subject: [Qt-interest] Politically Correct way to release an Open Source 
QtProject


Okay, this is semi-OT, but I think this is the best place to ask it.

I've got an open-source project that is near the first release, and am 
about to upload it to sourceforge. It will really only be run on a Mac 
or Windows machine, as it's an "assistant" type of application for an 
app that only runs on those two platforms. My project run on Linux, but 
I doubt anyone other than me will really care.

So, the source all tar'ed up is a given, but for the Mac binary, what's 
the standard practice? After I compile it can I just zip the 
myapplication.app file upload that? This is actually the first time I've 
compiled/ran a Qt app on the Mac so I'm a bit lost. I have an old XP box 
lying around here and have the latest Qt on it. I assume compiling a 
Win32 executable will suffice for all Win users?

Cheers

******************************************

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