Re^2: OT Windows Installers

[jdtoronto]

dragonchild

Excelent question! I develop using ActiveState ( I have Komodo-Pro ) and I package with PerlApp right now, but I have also used PAR successfully on the same project.

The application is pure-Perl/Tk which uses MySQL. I have about 385mb of data which right now I ship as a directory on the CD-ROM which the user has to copy into the \mysql\data\ directory during the installation process.

Currently I distribute a MySQL installer pacakge on the CD with my software. But their is no attempt at automation at all!

I have no real idea where to start. It seems that the average Windows user does not know how to get to a command prompt, let alone what to do with it when he finds it. We did a conference call last night with about 50 purcahsers and they were able to install the product, but only with the help of four pages of documentation for a simple job with only about 10 command line actions. I can reduce that to three with a .bat file, but even so, I don't want to spend my life on conference calls, particularly when it looks like my client could sell a thousand of these without any difficulty in the next couple of weeks!

jdtoronto

[SpanishInquisition]

Ok, this is OT but here goes. ActiveState says you can't distribute ActiveState by yourself without a license. A PAR executable could do nothing but evaluate a perl file passed into it on the command line. This, in effect, is not Perl, but a Perl program .. does this constitute distributing ActiveState perl?

I have no interest in doing this -- but I have used a PAR app before (it actually did something other than evaluate Perl code), though we never quite got the legal ok. I told my boss, "let the lawyers figure this out", and evidentally it passed. I was not about to make the decision myself. Really, I wish we bought the ActiveState license -- that would have been the way to go.

[Anonymous Monk]

That refers to the entire package only because they have copyrighted programs/html included. If you're worried, all you have to do is compile perl yourself.

BTW, ActiveState is not ActivePerl.

[radiantmatrix]

IANAL, you should get the advice of one, blah, blah, blah.

Firstly, you are allowed unlimited personal distribution and distribution within your organization. It's only an issue at all if you want to redistribute outside your organization.

That said, If you use PAR to distribute ActiveState-based applications, I think you are limited to using the options that require your users to download the Perl libraries. In other words, you can sort of "dynamically link" against ActivePerl. However, it would seem from the terms that are included with Komodo Pro that anything you compile and ship out with PAR (since Komodo uses PAR for compilation anyhow) is an acceptable redistribution.

Those are what the ActiveState licenses seem to say to me. It is worthy of note, though, that there is a great deal of industry precedent to suggest that redistributing static-linked code is not the same as redistributing the packages themselves -- so, you might be OK to send a PAR-packed .exe, complete with libraries.

What I suggest is sending e-mail to ActiveState and asking them what their policy is. They may not explain all of your legal rights, but you'll know if they are likely to have a problem with what you plan to do or not. What ever they say, get it in writing.