[bt-devel] the long awaited KDE BibleInstaller in the planning!

[Fred Saalbach]

> The first question: should we make it a separate binary or a dialog in
> BibleTime? David suggested the first solution which is good imo. The binary
> can be called from BibleTime and vice versa. Opinions?

I dont think it will make a difference to the end user other than we
will need to take care what order we make the depends.  i.e. should
bible time depend on the installer or is it an optional componant that
depends on bibletime or should it depend on sword?  This will probably
become obvious as the source develops.  

> 
> It is not yet certain if we will have to do the "backend stuff" on our own,
> that is, connecting to crosswire via ftp and downloading the module index and
> the modules, and maybe more. I just wrote to the sword-devel mailing list
> about this. But I actually suspect that we will have to do this on our own,
> because of the need for a cross-platform ftp lib which would have to be
> integrated into sword otherwise. But lets see what master Troy says.

The connection tools are all in the distributions.  We just need to
figure outhow to call them.
> 
> I shall now try to briefly describe the features desired in a first version of
> BibleInstaller, if I may call it so for now.
> -sources: user defined, local path (sword cd) and ftp
> -warn users in persecuted countries not to use ftp
> -destination: user defined, preset: current sword configuration
> -get list of available modules (mods.d.tar.gz)
> -get list of installed modules (reuse the bibletime backend object)
> -find out about new, updated and outdated modules
> -let the user select which to update / install / remove
> -do it ;)
> 
> That is what comes to my mind right now. Additions?

edit the location of the sword library pointed to in  /etc/sword.conf

Lets get the installer working before we make it elaborate.  Eventually
we should probably support open ssh even if crosswire does not have
plans to support it now.

> Not sure about the UI. I first thought of kind of a nice user-friendly dialog
> layout, but there are probably other ways of doing this. We shall integrate
> the documentation for this into the main BibleTime documentation, and the
> messages into the existing .po files. Should be strightforward.

The UI for InstallManager in sword could be a starting point
> 
> Now please comment on this, I am sure I have forgot more than half of the
> important stuff! ;) Joachim, would you give David (in case he still wants to
> do it) basic instructions on which classes to use?
> 
> /me gets excited!
> 
> Martin