[sword-devel] Why Sword?

[Brook Humphrey]

On Monday 11 February 2002 02:11, you wrote:
> On Mon, 2002-02-11 at 14:45, John Stovall wrote:
> > But for third world missionary efforts in my opinion the
> > emphasis of Sword needs to be turned towards very easy to use
> > Linux modules.
>
> I concur. I have a couple of suggestions for making Sword easier to
> install and use:
>
> - firstly, the website, I notice it has been improved since last time I
> looked at it, however I still find it a little hard to navigate around.
> In particular, the "software" link should have it's name changed to
> "download" in my view. Whenever I go to a page with oss/free s/ware on
> it, once I have decided I want to obtain the software, I immediately
> look for that word; I think most people do the same. Also, I think the
> links should be slightly bigger and more prominent.
>
> - When downloading modules, there are two types of downloads, "raw", and
> "windows". I suggest there should be a download in .tar.gz format,
> called a "unix" download. It should contain a Makefile, which will
> automatically install the module, rather than requiring the user to know
> where to put the files.
>
> - It would also be good to have RPMs, as this is a widely used format
> under Linux.
>
> David.

One of two things could be done to make things easier:
1) I could make a new set of rpm's for all the modules. In this way no one 
whould have to worry about weather or not they are in rpm form.
2) An install manager could be programed that whould allow the install or 
updating of modules. This could be run the first time bibletime is run or 
downloaded sepperately. It whould allow files to be installed in either the 
sword mods directory or if there is no root access or they prefer otherwise 
the modules could be installed in the useres home directory under .sword.

The short term and maybe fastest way whould be to make the rpm's but I'm not 
shure I have the time for the constant updates. I could get the ones out that 
are available now but not worry about anything else untill makes it into the 
main repository. The disadvantage to this is that two different instalation 
methods are required one for windows and one for linux.

The install manager although it whould take longer whould make the 
instellation of modules universal. It whould be the same on windows and linux.

Might I also suggest the an installer whould be able to choose multiple 
mediums to install from (ftp,cdrom,http or whatever)


-- 
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                                                  Brook Humphrey           
        Mobile PC Medic, 420 1st, Cheney, WA 99004, 509-235-9107        
http://www.webmedic.net, bah@webmedic.net, bah@linux-mandrake.com   
                                            Holiness unto the Lord
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