On Thu, Sep 29, 2016 at 9:49 AM, Jovon Tan <jovontan(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Ciao Developers,
I read an earlier post "Re: [Ciao-users] Ciao mode on emacs failed" and was (and still is) excited to know that a new release candidate is in the making. I need to use Prolog on both Ubuntu and Windows 7 (64 bit). In Ciao 1.15, the Windows binary required admin rights to install. As I do not have admin rights on the Windows box I am on, is it possible for the upcoming Ciao's Windows binary to not require admin rights? Better still, could it be a portable distro (that is, installing is simply unzipping). For your consideration please.
Dear Jovon,
Thank you for your feedback. We are actually considering simplifying as much as possible the number of binary distributions that we offer. There is a significant cost in maintaining good quality packages/installers for each popular Linux distro, MacOS and Windows version.
We are tempted to go for this solution, at least for the first release candidate: - source distribution (via git) -- with relaxed minimum dependencies (so that we can get a working system even if emacs and TeX is not installed) - precompiled binary distributions for Linux, Mac and Windows in a .zip/.tar.gz format (as you mention) - "easy" installation scripts that do not need root/admin permissions (e.g., "curl ... | sh" one-liners, and equivalent in PowerShell)
Any suggestion or opinion is welcome! Specially, if you really need some specific distribution format beside binary archives: .msi or .exe installers, .deb, .rpm, Chocolatey, homebrew, .pkg, .dmg, etc.
Thanks,