Renewing OSX Distribution (was Re: [ptx] Hugin 0.6 on OS X Crashing)

[Ippei UKAI]

Can I try summarising a bit about the installation issues on OSX?

The problem with HuginOSX+enblend on Mac is that the current  
distribution is rather non-standard and not very obvious how to  
install. It's based on the "Drug and Drop installation", but enblend  
is not inside HuginOSX application but in the Tools folder  
separately. This is the decision made by the project leaders so to  
clearly divide enblend from hugin because it is from different project.

Technically, HuginOSX is already made so that enblend stays inside  
it. Enblend is so an important functionality to hugin, that although  
it is from a separate project, I feel it should stay as a part of  
HuginOSX application. (many applications on Mac does this)

For end users, it is the best to have HuginOSX application ready to  
use (including enblend inside the application). The license is both  
GPL anyway, and installation will be a single DnD to wherever user  
wants to install. This is the ideal distribution recommended by Apple  
too. (We can always separately take care of advanced users with  
command line requirements.)

The alternative is to use Installer Package. OSX has default  
Installer application, and we can make packages for it. In this case  
user will choose whether enblend be installed or not, and where  
things should be installed. Note Apple's installer does not have  
uninstallation, and often is unnecessary unless the software really  
needs be so complex.


Autopano-sift
More people feel autopano-sift optional compared to enblend, and I  
think it can be rather dealt as a plugin rather than an integral  
component. It also has stability issues with shell scripts. So it  
should be dealt on a different thread.


Suggested change to hugin itself

In the preference, the paths to enblend and autopano should be the  
choice between "Search Default Locations" and "Specify custom path".  
On Linux, "default search locatins" would be the bin search paths,  
and on Mac, would be "Application Support" folders of user and system  
levels, and inside the .app application bundle.


Suggested Installation (HuginOSX and enblend)

- Current
HuginOSX: DnD
enblend:  Either using AppleScript (that puts enblend into  
HuginOSX.app), or manual placement with specifying path in preference
- 1x DnD (The best if ok to put enblend inside HuginOSX)
HuginOSX: DnD
enblend: Inside HuginOSX.app (If the user wants to use enblend from  
commandline, download the tools package)
- 2x DnD (still better than current)
HuginOSX: DnD
enblend: DnD to Application Support folder by user
- 1x Installer Pkg
HuginOSX: Installer Pkg
enblend: Installer Pkg

(DnD is Drag and Drop installation, and Installer Pkg is standard OSX  
installer package.)


Suggested Distribution of command line tools

- Current: as a directory, in the same download as HuginOSX+enblend
- separate .tgz to download
- .tgz in the same download as HuginOSX+enblend
- Installer Pkg in the same download as HuginOSX+enblend


What do you think?

Ippei


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