On 23 March 2018 at 05:14, C��drick B��ler <cdrick65@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I just saw students and they still have some problem on windows with the launcher.

First, the launcher has to be run in admin mode.

Then, the image download starts but there is an error when uncompressing. Here is the stack.

Any idea on how to fix that ?

FileHandle>>streamError
FileHandle>>writeStream
FileSystem>>writeStreamOn:
FileReference>>writeStream
FileReference(AbstractFileReference)>>writeStreamDo:
ZipFileMember(ZipArchiveMember)>>extractInDirectory:overwrite:

btw, what is the directory here that its trying to write to?

Now I notice...��

the Linux PharoLauncher download is a ZIP file

and the Mac PharoLauncher download is a ZIP file

so... can we make the Windows PharoLauncher download a ZIP file?

Doing that, at least as an interim measure, would *immediately* make PharoLauncher��

usable to students on locked-down Windows machines in University student labs.

I'd expect this will improve the success with this experiment��

to use PharoLauncher as the main user entry point.

The problem with using an "Installer" for the Windows PharoLauncher is the large amount��

of testing required to work *reliably* with *all* the "different ways people work"

under several different versions of Windows introduced different layers of user security intricacies.��

Lets move forward in small steps.�� A ZIP download/extract is simple, and consistent with other platforms.

In the meantime while waiting for that to happen, you can...

1. Download/extract�� http://files.pharo.org/platform/Pharo6.1-win.zip

2. Rename�� Pharo6.1�� folder to�� PharoLauncher

�� Rename�� Pharo6.1.*�� files to�� PharoLauncher1.1.*

3. Metacello new

�� smalltalkhubUser: 'Pharo'

�� project: 'PharoLauncher';

�� configuration: 'PharoLauncher';

�� load.

�� PhLDeploymentScript doAll.

�� PharoLauncher open.

�� Smalltalk snapshot: true�� andQuit: true.

4. Zip up the parent folder, test on another machine and provide a link to your students.

cheers -ben

P.S.�� I was going to suggest also renaming�� Pharo.exe�� to�� PharoLauncher.exe

but with an empty Documents\Pharo\vms

I get... "Error: Cannot detect Pharo executable in C:\Temp\MyPharoLauncher\PharoLauncher"

in PhLVirtualMachine>>initializeOn:��"File @ C:\Temp\MyPharoLauncher\PharoLauncher"

since "executables := aFolder allChildrenMatching: self class executableName."

is empty since "self class executableName" ==> "Pharo.exe"

It would be nice for that to not be hard coded.�� I tried digging further but ran out of time.

I am curious it mattered since using "Pharo.exe" the Launcher went on to download a VM anyway.

P.S.2.

I believe the best path forward for system-wide PharoLauncher installed under "C:\Program Files"

would be to install there only...

* the VM��

* PharoLauncher.ZIP��

* a tiny non-Pharo wrapper program as the shortcut linked from AllUsers > Start Menu > PharoLauncher��

that extracts PharoLauncher.ZIP to the user's data area and then starts that user specific PharoLauncher.��

Then regardless whether:

* they individually download/extract�� PharoLauncher.ZIP

* the system-wide-wrapper��extracts��PharoLauncher.ZIP

its a similar experience for users��which should aid reliability by reducing the number of "different " use cases.