Context Minimal for Windows installer

Context Minimal for Windows installer

[Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky]

Hello,

I appreciate your efforts of creating "context-setup-mswin", but I always had my own way of setting up Context. Today I created full-weight InnoSetup installer. 

My installer is native Windows application. It fetches files from contextgarden using rsync, then sets variables directly in registry, making Context binaries Windows-wide functional. (Call texexec from any application without need of setuptex.bat file).

http://rapidshare.com/files/70450795/ContextMinimalSetup.exe

I have tested it only with Luatex engine, but other may work as well.

Hope it will facilitate Context usage on Windows. Fell free to ask questions and make suggestions.

Best regards,
Vaytcheslav Yatskovsky

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Context Minimal for Windows installer (cont)

[Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky]

BTW, I can share sources as well. Waiting only for what community says. And, can it be hosted as alternative installer at minimals.contextgarden.net?

Vyatcheslav

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If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

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Re: Context Minimal for Windows installer

[Idris Samawi Hamid]

Hi,

On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:30:08 -0700, Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky  
<yatskovsky@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I appreciate your efforts of creating "context-setup-mswin", but I  
> always had my own way of setting up Context. Today I created full-weight  
> InnoSetup installer.

Congratulations!

> My installer is native Windows application. It fetches files from  
> contextgarden using rsync, then sets variables directly in registry,  
> making Context binaries Windows-wide functional. (Call texexec from any  
> application without need of setuptex.bat file).
>
> http://rapidshare.com/files/70450795/ContextMinimalSetup.exe
>
> I have tested it only with Luatex engine, but other may work as well.
>
> Hope it will facilitate Context usage on Windows. Fell free to ask  
> questions and make suggestions.

What files exactly are downloaded? just mswincontext.zip?

What are the installation options?

It would be a good idea to add pdftex and xetex formats options as well.

Thanks for the wonderful contribution and all the

Best
Idris

-- 
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Shi`i Studies
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523

--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/
___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

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wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
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Re: Context Minimal for Windows installer

[Hans Hagen]

Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I appreciate your efforts of creating "context-setup-mswin", but I always had my own way of setting up Context. Today I created full-weight InnoSetup installer. 

ah, nice, i wanted to look into inno setup (even installed it), thanks

Hans

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Re: Context Minimal for Windows installer

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 11/18/07, Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky wrote:
> Hello Mojca,
>
> Thank you for svn account.  Where do you think I should place my installer?

I'll drop you a note on a privite mail.

> > A wishlist for Vyatcheslav (although I cannot test):
> > - it would be nice if the installer would first ask the user for the
> > location of minimals
>
> It's easy, I'll start with it.

Thanks.

> > - then, you need to download (or include in the zip) the rsync
> > binaries and put them into PATH, that path might be a separate one
> > (distinct from ConTeXt bin in any case)
>
> Now rsync is bundled with installer. (I think it changes rarely, so if it will, I'll better update the installer.) if user selects default folder (c:\contextminimal), he gets the following structure:
>
> Directory of C:\contextminimal
>
> 11.11.2007  04:36    <DIR>          mswin
> 31.01.2007  11:33         1 873 811 cygwin1.dll
> 07.11.2006  09:26           283 136 rsync.exe
> 30.05.2006  16:18           118 784 SetEnv.exe
> 18.11.2007  01:12           691 481 unins000.exe
> 18.11.2007  01:12             6 452 unins000.dat
>
> So, installer-related binaries are located in root installations folder, while Contexts sits in mswin subfolder.

OK, rsync should come with it, and true: it doesn't change so often.

> > - can you please take a look into
> > http://minimals.contextgarden.net/setup/mswin/ and try to reproduce
> > the behaviour of first-setup.bat. You might need some binaries already
> > present, but it would be nice to get rid of the need for
> > http://minimals.contextgarden.net/minimals/ (even though I will
> > probably keep providing them) - so, it would be nice if you could call
> > mtx-update instead of syncing the whole folder
> > - if you use mtx-update.lua, you can ask the user to select the
> > desired engines,, the desired modules (probably not implemented yet),
> > and the user is also able to choose ConTeXt distribution (to roll back
> > if the latest one causes problems), and choose wheather to clean old
> > files or not; the functionality provided in mtx-update might improve
> > and/or change, but it might be a good idea to keep you informed, it's
> > only that the minimals are still in development phase, so they're not
> > quite stable yet and paths might still change
>
> Hmm.. I never used mtx-update, and, moreover,  my experiments with mixing installer scripts with lua scripts failed so far (I cound't make format files from it).

Can you try it once more?
http://minimals.contextgarden.net/setup/mswin/ is really
minimalistic,so you can probably figure out what's going on (or ask in
case you have problems) and try to reproduce it (you can first call
rsync to fetch the needed binaries and scripts, and then call
mtx-update properly). mtx-update should now be able to create formats
when called with "--make" (depending on the engins you select to
download).

> If mtx-update is so powerful, let it be the base of your installer, but I'd rather keep my simple and "pop", satisfying needs of non-advanced users (like me).

It might not be *so powerful* yet, but it would then be equivalent
with the "plain way" of setting things up, and it would be easier for
you later to add a checkbox into your installer if some functionality
in mtx-update is extended.

> BTW, InnoSetup allows to write very flexible scripts using build-in Pascal, so I can always duplicate most needed functionality on it, and I will be 100% confident that it will work on 100% of machines. :)

I believe that. But mtx-update should work on all machines as well (if
it doesn't, it should better be fixed). But it would really make sense
not to depend on precompiled "full minimals" since you loose most
control of what should be included and what not.
If you

> Rsyncing the whole folder will not be necessary when I implement selection of "components". Then the user can select what to download and what to not (fonts, etc.) I'd be very thankful if you point me out some obvious components that user might exclude from set up.
>
> > - it would be nice to have "enable minimals/disable minimals" switch,
> > so that one can theoretically run MikTeX in parallel (when the
> > distribution is enabled, it shadows MikTeX, when it's disabled, MikTeX
> > will run normally)
>
> Yeah, but know very well that making Contest work in global way requires not only enabling its settings, but disabling MikTeX settings...

OK, I didn't know that. What exactly do you need to do (which MikTeX
components/settings do you need to disable) if you want to enable
"minimal ConTeXt"?

> So it would be troublesome, and I believe that person having both packages should better use conventional installer, like yours.

But in that case any "comfortable windows user" would still be greatuf
for an "installer", even if its sole reason is to ask the user for the
destination of the distribution, and to download the necessary files.
So, everything can remain the same, but you don't need to set eny
environmental variables, you only create a batch file called
"enablecontext.bat" or similar somewhere in PATH (or in some place
that you place into PATH), with the contens:
   C:\Programs\context\setuptex.bat C:\Programs\context
depending on where the user decided to install ConTeXt. So, when
someone is in console and types in enablecontext, the environment will
be set up properly.

That was the approach I've been using when working on windows.

(When I think about it, setuptex could (or should?) be adapted in such
a way that one wouldn't need to provide any arguments to it, but
that's a completely unrelated subject.)


Some *really low priority* tasks for the future of the installer might also be:
- check if ruby is installed and ask the user to install it if needed
(well, Hans is planning to rewrite most of his ruby scripts to lua, so
that miht not even be necessary :)
- check if perl is installed and ask the user to install it if needed
- [for me] once the rest is done, I would like to reproduce
"mswincontext.zip" (add the missing bits and pieces to the
repository), but that's also lower priority than the rest

> > - you might need to provide alternative servers in the future/ask the
> > user which server to choose for downloading (in case of too much
> > traffic, another server could possibly mirror the contents from the
> > garden)
>
> Sure. Just point me them.

Well ... only as a remainder for the future :) According to Patrick we
didn't reach the bandwidth limit yet :)

> P.S.  If you cannot run the installer, you may found useful see my screenshots attached.

Great! Thanks a lot for it. It really looks proffessional. There's
only a slightly misleading information (you need at least 2.9 MB space
:) :) :) :)
(Miktex -> MikTeX, Context -> ConTeXt)

Thanks a lot for the great job :) Such an installed has been waited
for for wuite some time :)

Mojca
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If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
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wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
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Re: Context Minimal for Windows installer

[Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky]

Hello Idris,

> Congratulations!

Thanks.

> What files exactly are downloaded? just mswincontext.zip?

Downloaded are all files from http://minimals.contextgarden.net/minimals/mswin
They are current beta, I think.

> What are the installation options?

There is only one option so far -- to do rsync or not to do it. This option must be On for the first time, since you have no files yet; it also be used to update Context by running the installer again. It may be Off if you just want to update environment vars.

> It would be a good idea to add pdftex and xetex formats options as well.

The installer doesn't make format files itself. (It might be good idea, but I stuck with difficulties here). After setup, the installer prompts the user to build format files manually. User is free to use any engine; I only tested it for Luatex, as the most progressive one.

And a thing I must notice -- sorry, it cannot be installed along with Miktex or TeXLive, because environment vars will clash. It's inevitable; if you want to use them in parallel, use Context in old way. This installer is for clean machines only.

But there is good news also. Uninstall is possible :)

> Thanks for the wonderful contribution

Thanks  again.

-- 
Best regards,
Vyatcheslav Yatskovsky

___________________________________________________________________________________
If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki!

maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
webpage  : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net
archive  : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/
wiki     : http://contextgarden.net
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