[Adium-devl] The disk image

[Augie Fackler]

[sorry about the double-send Peter, we should really set reply-to: on  
this maillist....]
On Nov 9, 2006, at 3:18 PM, Peter Hosey wrote:

>> <snip>
>> True, but I disagree with it and I don't think anybody actually  
>> does it. I, for one, like regular disk images better.
>>
>> “Internet-enabled” disk images are:
>> ⁃ by design, not much different from a zip or tbz or tgz (which  
>> is a downside IMO)
>> ⁃ harder to create (you have to do “hdiutil internet-enable  
>> foo.dmg” after creating it)
>> ⁃ no smaller than regular disk images.
>>
>> I see no reason to head down this road.
>
> In response to that thread, our Chris posted to the blog:
>
> 	http://adiumx.com/blog/2006/11/is-dmg-confusing.php
>
> We have twelve comments on that so far, but myself and Chris were  
> both impressed by this one:
>
>> You could of course just set the "internet-enabled" bit on a .dmg  
>> if it contains only one file (just the App, no documentation  
>> etc.). Then Safari takes care of downloading, expanding and  
>> deleting the .dmg, the user ends up with the application on the  
>> desktop.
>
> I hadn't really thought of the just-one-file thing before.
>
> Currently, we have ten tons of crap in our makefile for positioning  
> the icon Just So, and setting a background, and adding a symlink  
> to /Applications, blah blah blah. We could eliminate all of that,  
> replacing it with:
>
> 	hdiutil internet-enable Adium.dmg
>
> Then, as the commenter notes, Safari would expand the only item  
> (Adium.app) to the desktop, then auto-Trash the dmg. Result: Adium  
> on the user's desktop, ready for him to install anywhere he wants  
> it. No muss, no fuss, for 90% of users (I know I want to keep the  
> dmg, but I doubt I'm in the majority).

Honestly, I like the dmg, but internet-enabling it might be nice for  
the majority of our users. I can run this by my panel of non-advanced  
users (IE: make one of each kind of dmg, see which they prefer) if  
y'all would like.

Augie



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