Installerless installation on OSX?

[Peter T. Evensen]

I'll actually second your comments.  While I understand .dmgs, I was 
initially confused by the shortcut to the Application folder and was 
surprised that it actually worked.  I didn't realize you could create a 
user-independent shortcut like that on a foreign disk.

More naive users, however, may not have my initial distrust of the 
technology LOL.

At 01:19 PM 4/13/2006, you wrote:
>Just FWIW (and an opportunity to be a bit iconoclastic), I have several
>users of one product I make for a client who just don't grasp the concept of
>a .DMG file. They get confused. They don't know what to do with it. They
>double-click it and then they think they've done something wrong.
>
>Mounting virtiual disk drives is apparently a concept that is beyond at
>least some portion of the population. Thus Graham's original idea of just
>providing the app and a couple of folders, unstuffed, naked to the world, no
>.dmg wrapper, makes sense sometimes I think.
>
>And I'd be remiss if I didn't recommend Sweat Technologies' superb Rev-baked
>InstallGadget:
>
>http://www.sweattechnologies.com/InstallGadget/
>
>
>On 4/13/06, Peter T. Evensen <pevensen at siboneylg.com> wrote:
> >
> > A large number of .dmg files that I have downloaded lately have two icons:
> > the app and a folder shortcut to the user's Applications folder, which a
> > background graphic (don't ask me how they do that.. I haven't looked into
> > it) directing them to drag the application to the Applications folder
> > shortcut, which makes it really easy to install, rather than opening
> > another window and navigating.
> >
> > At 10:11 AM 4/13/2006, you wrote:
> > >I want to distribute a structurally simple RR-developed application
> > >to Mac OSX users (it's the standalone itself and a couple of sample
> > >folders). In testing, all I've done is to copy the app (which we all
> > >know is really a folder) to somewhere convenient on the user's hard
> > >disk. The user then double-clicks and that's it. Is there anything
> > >wrong with this strategy? Why do people have installers and .dmg
> > >files if so? I sense that one reason might be that the machine
> > >potentially has many users, all but one of whom won't have
> > >administrator privileges - as I'm not in this situation myself, I
> > >don't really know.
> > >
> > >I want the simplest possible strategy for distribution. Any advice
> > >will be gratefully received, as ever.
> > >
> > >Graham
> >
> > Peter T. Evensen
> > http://www.PetersRoadToHealth.com
> > 314-629-5248 or 888-628-4588

Peter T. Evensen
http://www.PetersRoadToHealth.com
314-629-5248 or 888-628-4588