[ptx] Hugin 0.6 on OS X Crashing

[Mr. Roger Howard]

On Aug 1, 2006, at 1:42 PM, Ippei UKAI wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Briefly about .app package then:
>
> First, you need the right package structure (normal directories).  
> You can read about it on apple's documentation, but you can just  
> see any existing application bundles.
>
> Second, to be a proper application bundle, the files PkgInfo and  
> Info.plist should be in place.
>
> Third, HuginOSX finds many resources inside the bundle, so have to  
> place resources in the right places. Again, you can see inside  
> HuginOSX and reproduce it, but main idea is thatall resources go in  
> to the Resources folder, but localised version goes into the  
> languages's .lproj folder. Localising part is done by my hand  
> written script which is in the CVS. The xrc is (almost) directly  
> copied into the Resource folder.
>
> Lastly, all executable (and other platform-dependent) codes goes to  
> Contents/MacOS (HuginOSX and optionally enblend). If you use  
> dynamic libraries, you should compile the executables to  
> dynamically link @executable_path/lib*.dylib (I have no idea how,  
> by the way... I simply use static libs). Some projects choose to  
> store dynamic libs in Contents/Frameworks (@executable_path/../ 
> Frameworks/lib*.dylib).
>
> Basically, on OSX, no application that is not bundled can handle  
> GUI. You definitely need application package. I also chose to  
> simplify the install process and linked all the libraries  
> statically. You may choose otherwise, but most 'nice' applications  
> are distributed as d&d installation than installer packages.

FWIW, I'm just getting started revisiting Hugin on OSX and this issue  
is on the top of my list to raise here - while I appreciate having  
the prebuilt binary, there is still enough post-install work to do  
that the process is a bit of a mess. It's doable, and I've installed  
Hugin successfully each time I've attempted. I would personally like  
to see you deprecate the multiple options for how to handle the third- 
party components - don't have a preferred *and* a reliable method,  
just use the reliable one, pointing the app to an external directory.

Mac users have high expectations for app installation simplicity and  
I don't think Hugin is cutting it yet. This isn't meant as a  
criticism, I hope I can somehow help refine this process if there's a  
way for me to. If it means using an installer to handle the complex  
installation steps then that's acceptable to me, but expecting users  
to handle it manually isn't (IMHO).

My only other comment at this stage is that the UI on OSX is a mess.  
I don't mean it's ugly - I'm used to PTMac and PTGUI, so Hugin is  
cosmetically no worse at least - but am referring to many widgets  
simply being unavailable as they've positioned themselves in  
impossible to reach spots. Something with the widget layout code is  
amiss. For instance, the region under the Image list in the Image tab  
is about 20 pixels high, with a mostly cutoff scroll bar on the far  
right of the window the only clue that there was anything there. I  
hunted high and low for a few minutes for the Create Ctl Points  
button before discovering it scrolled off the screen in a tool well  
that is obviously suffering from some weird layout bug.

At this point I can't use it simply because I can't - I'd love to  
spend some serious time in it soon, but the UI is broken (again, I  
can deal with something that's not as beautiful as Apple Motion,  
that's not a problem for me - I run VIPS and plenty of other ugly  
tools!).

I talked to JD a bit about Hugin and he recommended I join here to  
see how I can get involved - I'm happy to give as much (or little)  
feedback as is welcome from a die-hard panographer with a heavily  
technical background and a lot of experience in PanoTools, PTMac and  
PTGUI.

Cheers,

Roger