Installmgr & fonts (was Re: [bt-devel] RE: UTF-8 and new module classes)

[Martin Gruner]

> Well, I understood that we were going to discuss approach and feature
> content
> (which we've begun to do -vis a vis font installation and ftp download),
> and that the solution was to be a 'part' of BT (Does this mean it can only
> be available after BT is installed, or couldn't the same code be available
> to the RPM install script as a standalone version to install a base set of
> modules and fonts?)

We decided to make it a part of BibleTime, but have the possibility to 
execute BibleTime in installmgr-only mode.

> What I'm also trying to do is get a handle on just how integrated the BT
> effort is/has been to the Sword project.  I've been playing around with the
> CD, and apparently BT is one of a number of tools distributed by this CD,
> with Sword having it's own Bible s/w running on windoze as well?

Right. These are the different frontends to the SWORD programming library. By 
making a static build of BibleTime available we make the installmgr features 
of BibleTime available for the whole *nix world.
The best solution would be to have a truly platform independent program, 
which does not seem possible at the moment.

SOMEBODY MUST TEST THE STATIC BUILD IN A NON-KDE ENVIRONMENT 
BEFORE WE START WITH THIS!!

> 1) How much code can be used as a code base from the Sword installmgr? (if
> any)

IMO: no GUI code. You should look at using some of the code which is related 
to the SWORD api.

> 2) If we really want me to write from scratch? (which I'm not adverse to
> doing)

Yes. Looks like it is the best solution.

> 3) Whether the features that are apparently in installmgr are what we are
>    looking for, or do we want to engineer something better? (which is fine
>    by me and currently sounds like what we'd like to do)

If you can do it better, just go ahead. ;)

> 4) If we were to use installmgr as a code base, wouldn't it be bad taste
> for me to take it without the sword team's knowledge and permission?
> (according to open source development etiquette)

You can ask Troy (scribe@crosswire.org) for permission.

> There are an infinite number of ways to solve most problems.  Most of them
> are not coherent to the current context.  If I don't understand the current
> context, I stand a good chance of building something that is of limited
> or no value.

Just ask.

Martin