[V4RB] Macho VComponents folder is 22mb???

[Shaun Wexler]

On Aug 24, 2006, at 7:42 PM, Russ Tyndall wrote:

> For me (selfishly), I think I would rather contend with the 24mb  
> file sizes
> and stay attractive to Jaguar and Panther users rather than *still*  
> have 12
> mb downloads and only support Tiger.
>
> I wonder about the peril of V4RB only supporting Tiger, when RB  
> officially
> supports 10.1 and beyond; then again, new RB users shopping around  
> for db
> plugins will surely be most interested in Tiger+, so perhaps this is  
> not
> sensible caution.
>
> Of course, you (Ruslan) must decide what's best for Valentina; if  
> continued
> support for Jaguar and Panther consume resources that will take away  
> from
> bug fixes, optimizations and new features then something has just  
> got to
> give.
>
> I *do* believe it's critical to retain the ability to distribute  
> stand-alone
> drag-n-drop installed apps (like we do now for Mach-O) packages;  
> some of the
> conversation about /Library/Frameworks is confusing me.

To sum it up, I can create a plug-in which is placed in the Contents/ 
PlugIns folder of an application's bundle, and the developer would use  
an existing API (ie some sample code) to load and call the main  
function of the plug-in, which would then proceed to check for an  
existing install of Valentina.framework in the system hierarchy or the  
plug-in's own bundle, and if non-existent or the appropriate version  
is not found, then it would offer the user an opportunity to download  
and automatically install it from the developers own (or paradigma's)  
server.  The code would install this into /Library/Frameworks and  
optionally place a copy into the plug-in bundle to make the app  
essentially self-contained.  The code would then load the framework  
and link it into the executable, and then app could launch.  This way,  
developers could offer a small download file for low-bandwidth users,  
initial demos or incremental updates, or the full download which  
already contains the installer package, for those with high-bandwidth  
access.  If the user owns several Valentina-based applications, they  
would be able to share the same framework.  The only caveat is that  
Ruslan and crew must ensure they don't break binary compatibility  
between versions (ie minor version updates must all be compatible),  
otherwise the framework would have to gain another compatibility  
version within (in which case the main framework in /Library/ 
Frameworks would then be larger than the version-specific copy within  
the app's bundle.)

The net effect for developers is that they add a small function  
snippet into their app's startup, and enjoy trouble-free database  
management for versioning, and dramatically-reduced app size.  When  
the developer updates his app, upgrades would only be a small  
download, rather than containing the entire Valentina.framework or  
VComponents folder.
-- 
Shaun Wexler
MacFOH
http://www.macfoh.com