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

[Shaun Wexler]

On Aug 25, 2006, at 12:48 AM, Dave Addey wrote:

> This may be the preferred Apple way of doing things, but I would  
> still much
> rather offer a complete download, with the Vcomponents inside my
> application's bundle, even if this means the download is bigger.  Many
> applications do this for private code (and frameworks) they use -  
> just look
> inside Photoshop CS2's bundle, there are 24 private frameworks in  
> there in
> the bundle's Contents/Frameworks/ folder.
>
> I would be quite happy if V4RB was *packaged* as a framework, but  
> only if I
> could choose to place this framework inside my application bundle,  
> rather
> than having to place it at /Library/Frameworks/.  I don't release new
> versions of my software that often - certainly no more often than  
> new minor
> releases (2.x) of Valentina are released - so I would be unlikely to  
> benefit
> from the download speed benefits of a framework installer.  And I  
> really
> don't want to have to ship an installer of any kind with my  
> application,
> even one embedded in the application bundle.  I use the "copy this  
> folder to
> your Applications folder" approach, and it makes support issues non- 
> existent
> for application install.

Your preferences would be served exactly by the proposed method in my  
last email, where you'd simply include the Valentina.plugin in your  
application bundle.  One function added to your app would be called at  
startup to load the plug-in and cause Valentina.framework to be linked  
in, analogous to calling ValentinaInit() as we do currently, but with  
some glue in the form of moving that function into a static lib, so it  
would be completely transparent to your code.  All of the "framework  
loading" functionality would be abstracted away, and automatic.  For  
those developers who wish to ship a "complete" packaged app, ie drag/ 
drop install, they'd place the (downloadable) Valentina.pkg inside  
their embedded Valentina.plugin within the app bundle, and that-is- 
that.  The good news about this technique is that the actual  
Valentina.framework contained within the pkg is already compressed  
(and encrypted/signed), so the actual app footprint is further  
minimized.  The pkg would be installed if necessary (ie upon first app  
launch), and subsequent launches would simply use the installed  
framework from /Library/Frameworks.  If the user wiped his OS install  
and lost the framework in the process, the next launch of your app  
would reinstall it for them.  Nice, eh?  ;)
-- 
Shaun Wexler
MacFOH
http://www.macfoh.com