[openvrml-develop] Deployment on Windows

[Braden M. <br...@en...>]

As long as OpenVRML was just a library (or libraries), it was pretty  
easy to kick the deployment issue downstream to clients of the  
library. However, one of the changes included in the node  
implementation modularization work I've done involves the introduction  
of XML descriptor files that specify the contents of a component.  
(These will be introduced for profiles, too.) These descriptor files  
need to go somewhere that the library code can find them at run time.

On Linux and similar POSIXy FHS-loving systems, the location of these  
files gets hard-coded at build time. This works fine because, in  
general, binaries don't need to be relocatable on such systems. This  
isn't practical on Windows systems, where the installation location of  
binaries tends to be arbitrary. So on Windows, it would seem that the  
right thing to do involves getting some information from the registry.  
Such information would be put in the registry by an installer. Which  
brings me to the point: it's probably time to think seriously about a  
real installer on Windows.

My experience in this domain is quite limited; so I'm hoping to hear  
from anyone who can comment on the current state-of-the-art in this  
regard. I have looked a bit at WiX and I'm leaning toward using it at  
the moment. I am certainly partial to systems that can be driven  
entirely from the command line.

-- 
Braden McDaniel                           e-mail: <br...@en...>
<http://endoframe.com>                    Jabber: <br...@ja...>