Calling all self-builders

[Azerath]

Hi,

I simply build in VS 2010 with custom project definitions - so neither of them - don't care about switches :-)

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by Azerath

Hi,

I simply build in VS 2010 with custom project definitions - so neither of them - don't care about switches :-)

I don't know much about building on Windows - is it possible to change where the lib/ subdirs are installed to? So, for instance, if you want lib/save and lib/user in C:\Documents & Settings\Yourname\ and lib/edit and lib/help in C:\Program Files\Angband\, how do you make that happen? Anyone?

[Azerath]

On OS friendly data storage:

In post-XP OSes, this has changed as "normally" run applications will not have "access" to program files. Additionally ther is one more complication step with 64 bit versions as program files is divided on 2 part 64 and 32 versions.

Try read this post:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cjacks/archi...ram-files.aspx

The question is do you need such information as Angband is not normally installed application? If not, then relying on user's "unzip" action and storing locally in app subdirs would be OK.

On the other hand if you have plan to create "Program Files"-like installation, then above post would be nice start. Additionally you could look at so called "Windows 7 Client Software Logo" http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd203105.aspx

I can help you with some Windows stuff if you need help.

[Magnate]

I was just curious, really. I assume that most Windows users leave the whole thing in the Angband-ver.x.y\ folder where it's unpacked. I was just wondering if anyone bothered doing a multi-user install in Windows - I guess not.

[Azerath]

No need for such feature as "unzip to desktop" works like you mentioned :>

Additionally having central place for binaries and separate for user data will fail in multiuser environment when one of users would upgrade application.

How it is solved in *NIX OSes? Does binaries are separated from user data? What happend when upgrading binaries to newer version?

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by Azerath

No need for such feature as "unzip to desktop" works like you mentioned :>

Additionally having central place for binaries and separate for user data will fail in multiuser environment when one of users would upgrade application.

How it is solved in *NIX OSes? Does binaries are separated from user data? What happend when upgrading binaries to newer version?

Unix distinguishes between "users" and "administrators". Only admins can upgrade software, so the problem does not arise. ISTR that Windows makes this distinction too - but the default permissions for a new user are admin permissions!

I think this goes right back to the fact that Unix was always intended to be a multi-user system, so this kind of problem was foreseen. Windows was originally a single-user system, and multiple user functionality was added later - but all users expect to be able to upgrade software.

[nppangband]

Originally Posted by Magnate

I don't know much about building on Windows - is it possible to change where the lib/ subdirs are installed to? So, for instance, if you want lib/save and lib/user in C:\Documents & Settings\Yourname\ and lib/edit and lib/help in C:\Program Files\Angband\, how do you make that happen? Anyone?

Windows pretty much assumes it knows better than you and makes you do it their way. You could modify the Angband source with your desired path for the lib/save and lib/user directories and recompile.

Without re-compiling, if you want to have your savefiles & user files in a separate place, I guess you move them there, and when you play Angband and open a character, you get a window that lets you browse for the savefile. You can navigate to the savefile folder and open it from there.

[nppangband]

My answer to the quiz is "none of the above". I only tinker with the Angband source when I am taking source code for NPP or doing a patch for Vanilla. In that case, I use eclipse as my editor and compile with Cygwin. I should switch to MinGW.

[Max Stats]

Originally Posted by nppangband

Windows pretty much assumes it knows better than you and makes you do it their way.

No kidding, and it's even worse with Windows 7. More than once I have had it tell me that I don't have permission to delete a file, even though I am logged on to an account with Administrator privileges. I downloaded a "take ownership" script that is supposed to make you owner of an entire folder & subfolders, and sometimes even that doesn't work! To me, "administrator" means the equivalent of "root" in Unix, but apparently the Evil Empire doesn't see it the same way.

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by Max Stats

No kidding, and it's even worse with Windows 7. More than once I have had it tell me that I don't have permission to delete a file, even though I am logged on to an account with Administrator privileges. I downloaded a "take ownership" script that is supposed to make you owner of an entire folder & subfolders, and sometimes even that doesn't work! To me, "administrator" means the equivalent of "root" in Unix, but apparently the Evil Empire doesn't see it the same way.

This is the second main reason (after the appalling slowness of Vista and Win7) that I don't use any version of Windows beyond XP. The fact that they put huge amounts of effort into darkening the screen and popping up an "are you sure you know what you're doing?" dialog box every five seconds is enough to put me right off. Of course, you can change that default behaviour - but why should you have to just so that idiots can run bloatware?