Re: SF Downloads Page Reorganisation: MSYS-1.0.11 Base System Package

Chris Sutcliffe wrote:
> > > I know this has been asked quite a bit on the list, but should a
> > > snapshot be upload that has all the components?

That is the plan. The individual components are good for incrementally
updating to the preview version, and for getting tools that are
excluded from the main release. However, the final release will only
have some carefully chosen files, to be worthy of its "minimal" name.

Before it happens, however, I have to fix a text corruption issue with
my build of "less"...

> > > I know there was talk
> > > of a combined MinGW/MSYS installer, is anyone actively working on
> > > that?
> >
> > Not that I'm aware of, are you offering?  There is a CVS tag for version 6.
>

I plan to work on this as soon as I release the new msysCORE tarball.

> Is it an evolution of the 5.1.3 NSIS based installer that is in CVS?

It is a reasonable starting point, I think. I have never used NSIS
before, but I have read the manual, and I can understand the MinGW
installer source code, now.

Here are the needed tasks, as I see it:

Initial tasks:
1) Review the submitted installer-related patches in the SF tracker.
2) Review the outstanding bugs in the SF tracker.
3) Review the feature requests in the SF tracker.

Usability improvements:
1) Create manifest files as each package is installed. This is needed
to assure clean upgrades and removals.
2) Preserve and use an existing user-specified mingw.ini file, it
helps whenever the official version becomes stale.
3) When updating, show again the maturity level page (current, old,
preview), so it can be changed at will.
4) When updating, show the full package list, allowing the user to
remove deselected packages as well.

MSYS integration tasks:
1) Read the MSYS versions from a section on the mingw.ini file, or
maybe from a new msys.ini file.
2) Create a MSYS install option, with its own install location chooser
(and maybe its own maturity level chooser?)

Future tasks:
1) Add a page to select and install selected components from the msysDTK.
2) Maintain several MinGW/MSYS trees, each with its own maturity level.

As always, if anyone wishes to help, it will be much appreciated.

Regards,
Cesar

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