[Mentalunix-developers] Re: install [Yahoo! Clubs: mentalunix]

[Mentalspice <clu...@ya...>]

Java is the worst possible language(well, I huess BASIC would be worse) to use for an installer. Here is why:

1. Speed. It's interpreted(sorta...evil VM), so it's slow.

2. Memoery usage. Java needs the program, the VM, and sopme other stuff(the supporting classes); so, it eats up RAM(and mentalunix is theory should be installable on almost any box). There is a way around this though(enabling java binary support in the kernel), but it's just as slow(you should enable another thing..i think it's foreign binary suppot, but it's probably not that lets you run java programs and more, but it's bigger). In the end, java needs to much ram

3. Graphics. AWT is crappy to say the least. Java can't access Gtk+ either(the gtk libraries are written in C). Plus, the graphics are slow. 

4. Access rights / hardware access. Or rather, the lack of them. 

I think that C, C++, or objective-C(my favorite) should be the language used for the installer. It's also easier for C/C++ stuff to talk to each other(CORBA). Since the installer is going to use a display back-end, having the objects talk to each other is really important. I've been thinking about XML, and i finally understand it's real purpose: error correction. You make your app only understand the elements you create, but use a dtd to let the xml parser make sure the document is vaild for you(which cuts development time by a lot). I'm nowhere near finishign the xml book i got, but ithas to go back tommorow, so i'm using my 250 bucks of quick cash(a two week job is a filing room) to buy a nice reference. The new Xforms, xsl, and xlink stuff is lookign ncie for xml too. libxml isn't all that great, so I'm waiting ot see when Skapeare's new xml parser is done(it is really nice...it introduces the new </> element..figure out what it does. It also feed the app the data like this:
xml_parse(file.xml);
if xml_valid = 1 then
{
read_xml(file.xml);
printf(xml_data\n);
 
it's ill-formed C...but i don't know that much C.
basically, it returns this(each newline is after a new read_xml()):

<menu>
<item>
This is my nice little item
</item>
</menu>

basicall, intead of feeding hte document to the app, it feads the element, then the text inside fo the element, then the end tag(aside from doing to other xml-stuff like validating and expanding entities).

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