aMSN 2 prerequisites installer (for Windows)

[Mark_L]

Hey people,
I thought it might be handy if you could install all the things you need to use aMSN 2 on Windows with one installer. This installer should check which prerequisites are allready installed, and download and install the ones which aren't. You should also be able to select which toolkits (for the frontends) you want to install.
When aMSN 2 will be released this installer could be extended to install aMSN 2 after installing the prerequisites (atm this isn't usefull yet, because you will want the newest code from the git repo).

I will create this installer using InnoSetup.
  (if you want to use Inno Setup yourself, see the site for info and use the Inno Setup QuickStart Pack).

Current state of the installer:
-The installer downloads and installs all of the prerequisites listed below.
-The installer installs the aMSN2 (including .git folders, so you can update) with normal installer options (icons, uninstall, allready installed check etc).

ToDo:
-Check which prerequisites are allready installed using the registry, and install those which aren't.
-Let the user choose which frontends he wants to be able to use, and install only the prerequisites for the choosen frontends.


I took the following steps to get aMSN 2 working on Windows:

Getting the aMSN 2 code:
-checked out the amsn2 git repo using Git for Windows.

Installing the general prerequisites:
-installed python 2.5

-installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (needed for openssl)
-installed openssl

-installed pycairo
-installed pygobject
-installed pyopenssl
-installed pycrypto

Installing the prerequisites for the frontends:
gtk:
-installed gtk+
-installed pygtk

qt4:
-installed qt4

efl:
In an other topic in this forum I read that there is yet no installer for efl available since there is no released version. As soon as there is an installer it can be included in this list and the aMSN 2 installer.

P.s: I might start programming on aMSN 2 too, but I have said that before allready (a few months ago) but didn't do it then either, so don't count on it.
P.p.s: why are there so few comments in the aMSN code? A comment every few lines makes code much better readable.[/b][/list]

[kakaroto]

Hi Mark,
An installer would be good indeed, although it will be mostly useful once aMSN2 will be near completion... For now, I'm not sure who might be interested in it... anyways, it would still be good work for the future...
about openssl: I don't know, you'd have to see why exactly it refuses to load it.. maybe it installed in the wrong dir, maybe it only works with python 2.6 (didn't I read somewhere that any python code will not work with python 2.6 unless it's ported for it... so maybe even amsn2 won't work)
about pps: well, we're lazy sorry about that.

[Mark_L]

I got it working now (with python 2.5).

I don't know if there are people interested in trying aMSN 2 under Windows (to see how the development is going or to help develop), but if there are such an installer would be very handy to them.
I created a list of the prerequisites with links to the files, so anyone interested in trying aMSN 2 under Windows can use that, untill I finished the installer  .

About that laziness: although heavily commenting your code takes some getting used to, I do believe it saves time in the end :wink:.

[kakaroto]

usually, something weird or unnatural or a special use case is always commented.. but normal code is not, because for the most part, it's easier to read the code and understand what it does than read the comment and say "humm' then read the code to really understand what it does...
Of course, comments help you actually when there's some code that is hard to understand... but the general idea is to always write clean code that doesn't need comments anwyays, that's the theory... but you know what they say...

In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice...

[Mark_L]

I think I don't fully agree with you, maybe I'll start a topic about this .

I got aMSN 2 working with gtk and qt4.

The installer:
Atm the installer just downloads and installs all the things I listed in the first post. It also installs the checkout of the git including standard installation options (shortcuts, allready installled check, do you want to launch amns2? etc).

I'll add:
-options for selecting which frontends you want to use.
-checking which prerequisites are allready installed (using registry, need to find out which keys I should check for).
-installation of the prerequisites for the choosen frontends.

Currently I am working on a bug which prevents you from connecting. I think I won't have time to continue with this untill Monday/Tuesday.

[Alfredo]

I would like to give this a go. When do you think you'll release it?

[Mark_L]

Sorry for the late reply. Since I am quite busy I expect I will release the first version of the installer in a few weeks (or later).
There are 2 bugs which will prevent you from logging in, though, so you won't get further as the login screen.

[arantes]

any updates here ? I would be quite interested in such an installer. I have everything installed on my linux but i'm too lazy to install it once again on windows =)