Synfig Project Forum

So I thought this category was looking a little bare....

I'd like some feedback on the Windows packaging, and how it could be improved.

The easiest, and possibly most desirable change, would be to combine the studio and synfig core installs. You can't use studio without synfig core, and I imagine most (all?) people will want to play with the gui rather than have standalone windows renderers.... I believe I can figure out how to update the scripts to do this, so I'll take a stab at it in my copious leisure time.

How useful would it be to re-distribute GTK+ & GTKmm? I know Inkscape, Gimp include it as part of their installs, but I'm concerned that you end up in versioning competitions with other apps.

How desirable is it to register as a known publisher or a trusted publisher, so that Vista doesn't pop-up a dialog box asking if you REALLY want to install, and trust the application? From my understanding, a becoming known publisher would be free to do, but to be trusted would require paying money to a certificate authority.

Anything else?

Can you make Synfig be a default package installed with Windows Vista and its following(s) versions? Something similar to MS Internet Explorer...

-G

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Hmmm.... let me check the magic 8-ball.

It says.... "Signs point to NO!"

I don't understand what you want to say. Could you explain it to me?

The only thing I've got to say is that it would be really nice if the four installs which are now needed would be put together to form one complete package.

Hi Devilly,
Synfig relies on certain dlls in the GTK & Gtkmm installs (I don't know exactly which ones, as we just separately install the runtime environments, with everything included).
Gimp & Inkscape include the GTK & gtkmm files they need as part of their install procedures. This is OK, but means that you end up with multiple copies of the gtk & gtkmm dlls installed. (Which kind of defeats the idea of a dynamic linked library). Waste of HD space, possibility of paths messing up and not pointing to the right dlls...
Ideally all gtk programs would rely on the same gtk & gtkmm dlls files shared in a common place (e.g. c:/gtk/bin) but then you can run into problems where one app needs a certain version number....

Does that help?

Chris

Where I first only saw a black hole (which does mean I didn't get anything), I now see a beautiful sun (it's all clear to me).
Thanks a lot, it's a really good explanation.

My opinion: put them in the package if it's not too much of a trouble. It's so much easier for new users to start with.

I think with current day hard disk sizes, storing some libraries multiple times, might be worth it if it simplifies the installation.

G.

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Abstraction: The Biggest Lie in Computer Science.

OK - let me start with combining Synfig core & studio, and then move on from there.

Chris

Well, you're doing the work, so I guess it's your party...

G.

_________________
Abstraction: The Biggest Lie in Computer Science.

I think a good way to improve the interface is to have all other Navigation Panels linked within the Canvas. For me I have troubles switching from Params to Layers and back to the Canvas. Especially while I'm surfing the net at the same time (or looking at tutorials for Synfig).

Plus I keep clicking on the shortcuts on my desktop because the screen is not encompassed...

As for the publishing thing, I don't think it's a problem. I researched Synfig before I downloaded it and any smart person would do the same. It's a one time thing anyway, and most people will forget about that 'tiny button' they had to push to dl this awesome program.

There was an interesting discussion about the pros and cons of such an approach on Slashdot when Gimp 2.6 was released. (Synfig uses the same GTK as Gimp)
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid ... 6&from=rss (near the bottom of the page).

pixelgeek:
I have a question. How did you made synfig relocatable? I.e. if user installs synfig-core and synfig-studio not on C: but on D:, how synfigstudio finds where synfig is and where all supporting pixmaps located? AFAIK, the paths to pixmaps data are hard-coded at compiletime...

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I'd love to say I did something clever, but it was already done. It's all taken care of at install time under Windows - From the Nullsoft installer script code -

The $INSTDIR is set when you type the location to install to in the the dialog box.

Chris

Just wondering how synfigstudio finds those pixmaps. I thought the paths are hardcoded at compile time... Or I missing something...

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Morevna project:
Recently completed tasks: Demo released
Top priority tasks: Website reorganization

OK -I've done a little research (read Trial and Error) to figure out which files Synfig studio actually uses at runtime. Over and above what is supplied by the synfig & synfigstudio installs, the following are needed -

from c:\GTK\bin:
iconv.dll
intl.dll
jpeg62.dll
libatk-1.0-0.dll
libatkmm-1.6-1.dll
libcairo-2.dll
libcairomm-1.0-1.dll
libfontconfig-1.dll
libfreetype-6.dll
libgdk-win32-2.0-0.dll
libgdkmm-2.4-1.dll
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0-0.dll
libglib-2.0-0.dll
libglibmm-2.4-1.dll
libgmodule-2.0-0.dll
libgobject-2.0-0.dll
libgthread-2.0-0.dll
libgtk-win32-2.0-0.dll
libgtkmm-2.4-1.dll
libpango-1.0-0.dll
libpangocairo-1.0-0.dll
libpangoft2-1.0-0.dll
libpangomm-1.4-1.dll
libpangowin32-1.0-0.dll
libpng12.dll
libsigc-2.0-0.dll
libsynfig-0.dll
libxml++-2.6-2.dll
libxml2.dll
zlib1.dll

from c:\GTK\etc, some or all of
fonts
pango

c:\GTK\etc\gtk-2.0\gdk-pixbuf.loaders
c:\GTK\lib\gtk-2.0\2.10.0\loaders\libpixbufloader-png.dll
c:\GTK\lib\pango\1.6.0\modules\pango-basic-win32.dll

So ~35 files plus the font dir. (If I don't write this down here, I'll forget it later)