[ANN] V4RB and V4MD 2.1 fc1 for MAC

[Ed Kleban]

On 12/27/05 10:12 AM, "Ruslan Zasukhin" <sunshine at public.kherson.ua> wrote:

> On 12/27/05 5:47 PM, "Ed Kleban" <Ed at Kleban.com> wrote:
> 
>> ====
>> 
>> Also:
>> 
>> I note that the V4RB_2_Plugin.pkg and V4RB_2.mpkg both installed into a new
>> folder created under the root folder of my selected drive.  I do not know of
>> any software I've installed that has done that since the old days of MacOS
>> 9.  The vast majority of MacOS X software installs either in your System
>> Applications folder (requiring a password prompt) or your User Application
>> folder -- typically after asking "Do you want to install for all users on
>> this machine".  The other main install approach of course is to simply
>> provide folder in the .dmg file that you are instructed to simply drag to
>> your Applications folder.
>> 
>> You might want to consider one of these more standard approaches.
> 
> Something wrong Ed.

Probably my wording.

I understand that the .pkg files are not installed (i.e. placed) anywhere.
But when the user runs these files (these installers) they place the files
you list below on the user's disk.  My comment above is referring to these
files that are placed on the disk.  Modern applications in MacOS X do not
place these files into the Root folder of the selected drive.  They either
place the files in a special place where they belong, which I believe is the
case for your VComponents folder.   Or they place them in the Applications
folder.
 
>     .pkg files are NOT installed anywhere !
> 
> You need get on your computer
> 
>     RB/plugins/V4RB_2

Ah!  Well there are several problems with this:

1) Where does the installer expect to find my RB folder and what name does
it expect it to have?  I don't keep it in my Applications folder.

2) Which of the half dozen versions of RB that I have unzipped at any given
time does the installer want to put this plugin into?

3) I don't have a plugins folder.   I have plugin alias that I direct to one
of several common plugin folder sets.

4) For all of the above reasons, I don't want the installer to try and put
V4RB or anything else in my plugins folder.  I want to manage my own plugins
folder.  I am not aware of any other plugin vendor who does anything other
than provide you with the plugin file which you then have to manually move
yourself.

5) There are also all of the example files.  I CERTAINLY don't want those in
my plugins folder.  I believe that having a V4RB folder under Applications
would be a fine place for those to live.
 
>     /Library/CFMSupport/VComponents
> 
> Nothing more
> 

I believe the better approach here would be to either:

1a) Create a "V4RB v2.1 fc1" folder in the Applications Folder, or
underneath a "V4RB" folder in the applications folder, and place the
examples and plugin into there, instead of in a V4RB folder it creates under
the root folder of my drive,  or

1b) Prompt me for where I want it to put the "V4RB v2.1 fc1" folder that it
creates.

And then:

2) Include in that folder a "README" file that tells me how/where to copy
the V4RB plugin file so I can use it, along with a "Release Notes" file that
includes the change log.

I actually think REAL Software does an amazingly good job of managing their
beta and regular distributions in this manner.