Subject: [Wocky] MIT Adium 0.86 (Beta 1) installer available for testing

From: Atticus O Gifford <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 19:01:17 -0500

I've put together the first version of the Mac Adium installer.  Next week, this
installer, along with the Gaim installer, will have the UI cleaned up match our
other MIT installers, perform validation on the username etc.

This should allow you to install the application and create an account during
the install.  You can create more accounts by running the Prefs Installer in
/Applications/MIT Adium 0.86/

<https://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/adium/installer/>

The Gaim installer is also still available at:

<https://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/gaim/installer/>

I'll plan on coming to the meeting Tuesday if you're having one to discuss
possible next steps.

Thanks,
Atticus

---

From: Ken Raeburn <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 10:58:29 -0500

> <https://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/adium/installer/>

If I understand it right, your .htaccess.mit file in that directory  
limits access to people in two groups, swr-core and wocky.  Problem  
is, the wocky group in Moira and AFS doesn't contain any users, it  
just contains the one string [email-masked].  This may explain  
why I wasn't able to download it.  (Or, it may be related to the  
problems I've been having just recently with email access from my  
laptop too, if it's something certificate-related.)  Fortunately I  
was able to copy it out of AFS.

So, now I've got /Applications/MIT containing MIT Netscape 7.02, and / 
Applications/MIT Adium 0.86.  The Netscape install is kind of old, so  
maybe things have changed, but does MIT (SWRT) have a consistent  
policy on what level to install MIT Mac applications at?

The installer asked for my Kerberos id, which I gave it.  When I  
started Adium, I then had two [email-masked] accounts with basically  
the same configuration data.  (I've been using Adium for a while, and  
already had configured an mit.edu account.)  The installer should've  
checked for that, and either told me nothing needed to be done, or  
checked that the data was correct and updated (offered to update?) if  
it was not.

So I deleted one of them, the one listed first, which I assume was  
the old one.

Signing on to the account, I'm asked for my password, so I assume  
this version doesn't have the Gaim patches to use Kerberos  
authentication.  Is there anything interesting to this version  
besides having MIT's installer and prefs installer on top of the  
standard Adium distribution?

I took a look at the prefs installer.  (Why is it buried in yet  
another subdirectory, one which contains only the one program with  
the same name as the directory?)  It says it will create an Adium  
account for use at MIT; fine.  It also says ``Items will be installed  
on the disk "Mac OS X"'' -- what items?  The account data should be  
stored wherever the account data is stored under my home directory,  
regardless of what disk that happens to be on.  (If my home directory  
is not on the boot partition, will this report even be correct?)   
After I click "skip", the message says I can run "the Adium 0.86  
Prefs Installer in your Applications -> MIT Adium 0.86 folder".   
Except, that's not the name of the program ("MIT Adium 0.86 Prefs  
Installer"), and it's buried in a sub-folder.  Is there a right-arrow  
glyph that might be used instead of the dash greater-than construct?   
(The Character Palette shows Unicode code points for Rightwards  
Arrow →, Rightwards Double Arrow ⇒, Rightwards White Arrow ⇨,  
and Black Rightwards Arrow ➡, for example, in the Arrows and  
Dingbats tables, but I don't know if these characters are always  
available; some other code points listed in the Character Palette  
aren't displayed for me.)

The downside for me, semi-paranoid person that I am, is that I don't  
appear to have the option of simply copying in one program or folder  
without running an installer program, as I get with the standard  
Adium package.  Sometimes it's nice to know that (1) nothing's been  
installed outside that folder, so it's easy to throw it all away at  
once, and (2) it's not configuring any path-dependent stuff during  
installation, so renaming it or moving it to another folder is okay.   
The former may not be a problem if the installer program deigns to  
leave me a log file to look at, which this one appears to, though  
it's hard to tell that before running it if you don't already know,  
and impossible to decide whether to install a program based on  
whether it installs stuff in shared system folders, replaces system  
libraries, all that fun stuff you find on Windows.  I know I can move  
Adium.app around without breaking things, but I'm less sure about the  
MIT Prefs Installer.

Ken

---

From: Atticus O Gifford <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 16:33:19 -0500

Thanks for the detailed results.  I've interspersed a few comments below.

> was able to copy it out of AFS.

Whoops, I didn't realize wocky wasn't a standard list.  For the moment, I've
made the installer available to [email-masked] and I'll leave the AFS open as a
backup.  I'll figure out something a little more appropriate later.

> So, now I've got /Applications/MIT containing MIT Netscape 7.02, and 
> / Applications/MIT Adium 0.86.  The Netscape install is kind of old, 
> so  maybe things have changed, but does MIT (SWRT) have a consistent  

Yes, all our installers install to "MIT <product> <version>" under
/Applications.  Netscape on Mac was a little wacky (to say the least) and is
quite old, so its odd location isn't too surprising.

>  the same configuration data.  (I've been using Adium for a while, 
> and  already had configured an mit.edu account.)  The installer 
> should've  checked for that, and either told me nothing needed to be 
> done, or  checked that the data was correct and updated (offered to 
> update?) if  it was not.

You're definitely right about that.  That's slated for the B2 installer next
week.  The main focus of this installer was getting the code together 
to add an
account correctly and making sure it worked.  So far so good on that 
front.  Now
I need to add validation, doll up the UI (dialogs) and add the rest of 
the code.
I suspect the installer will work something like:

1) Ask for Kerberos username
2) Check for an account of that name
3) If not found, add
4) If found, offer to add anyway, overwrite (update?) the existing or 
just leave
it alone.

Hopefully that should all be in the next version.. if you get a chance to look
at that one let me know if it works better for you.

> standard Adium distribution?

The installer right now is just the main Adium distribution with configuration
added.  Now that there are framework installers for Windows and Mac, we can
probably discuss additions at the Tuesday meeting (if any).

> the same name as the directory?)

That's a hold-over from how we've always done the installers.  We used to
include a text file in the folder called "What's this?" or something 
similar. Since most other installers don't have a prefs installer or 
config wizard or
whatever, it seemed easier to abstract it a bit and associate it with a text
document.  I'm not sure if that's the best way to do things anymore, and we're
going to be revamping our mac installer standards over the next 2 months
(hopefully).  Any ideas or input you have on that front is most welcome.  I'm
happy to just move the file up a level and not include a description if that
seems less confusing.

> It says it will create an Adium  account for use at MIT; fine.  It 
> also says ``Items will be installed  on the disk "Mac OS X"'' -- what 
> items?  The account data should be  stored wherever the account data 
> is stored under my home directory,  regardless of what disk that 
> happens to be on.  (If my home directory  is not on the boot 
> partition, will this report even be correct?)

I thought I had turned that off, but I'll check again.  It may be that since
we're using the VISE installer as a wrapper, its text always assumes it 
will be
installing files of some sort.  If nothing else, I can just edit the resource
string for that text to reflect something more accurate.

> aren't displayed for me.)

That's a good point in general.  I try not to use that sort of 
construct, but I
should keep that in mind in case I can't get around it.  In this case, I think
the poor writing (and poor arrow :) of the dialog are a result of slapping
together a Beta installer around the configuration script.  I definitely
planned on rewriting all of that.  I'll see what I can polish up for 
the Beta 2
installer, and I'll use a proper arrow if the need remains.

>  Adium.app around without breaking things, but I'm less sure about 
> the  MIT Prefs Installer.

That's also a good point.  When we write installers on the Mac platform, the
primary reason is usually to add customization.  The problem is, we haven't
thought up any system to handle customization that is substantially 
more clever
than the sytem we're using (a prefs installer) without being more invasive or
path-dependent.  The only time we install items to non-Application folder
locales is when the vendor installer does the same thing.  The new TSM
installer is a good example: it installs binaries in unix locations as well as
under /Library/Application Support.  Adding a log file is trivial, but as you
say it doesn't solve the initial uneasiness.  Part of the problem is balancing
experienced users' trepidations with novice users' skittishness.  Too much
information and too many decisions tends to make novice users nervous, whereas
the reverse seems to be true as experience increases.

We're going to try to move all our installers to .pkg installers in the near
future for those users who are using Apple Remote Desktop to manage their
users.  I suspect that will only obscure the installers' workings even 
further,
however.  If you have any ideas or more issues you'd like addressed about
installers in general (or this installer obviously) please send them 
along. It's hard to get input on these things, and the more info we 
have moving
forward with a redesign the better.

Thanks for all the info,
Atticus

P.S. The prefs installer only adds accounts to ~/Library/Application
Support/Adium 2.0/... btw (in case you were still wondering).