[olpc-nz] [Testing] Wellington Testing Summary - Saturday 27 February

[Neil Graham]

On Thu, 2010-03-04 at 10:54 -0600, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:
> The one time I ran the newer Speak-12 (it was not on 802B2), it did not
> "call home" - but I assumed that was because all the resources required
> by Speak-12 were available without a need to "call home".  But not too
> long ago I tested a different recent Activity (whose bundle included
> 'zeroinstall', etc.) -- and that Activity *did * call home.
> 
> I've come to believe that the latest 'zeroinstall' facility has a dual
> function -- if any prerequisites (for the Activity being launched) are
> missing in the operating system being run, there are *some* modules
> pre-packaged within that Activity's 'zeroinstall' facility, and can be
> installed without any need to "call home".  The second function -- to
> "call home" for modules -- would be used only if the pre-packaged
> modules were inadequate.  I do NOT know how an user might be able to
> determine (before launch) whether an activity version (that included
> 'zeroinstall') would/would_not need to do any downloading of additional
> files from a remote server.
I'm using ZeroInstall in my Non-Sugar related XO efforts, and I do
wonder if you are seeing a feature as problem unnecessarily.   While
ZeroInstall does have the ability to grab the program from a server if
you don't have it,  the alternative is not having the program.  
There is little difference between this and a download link for a
program.  

Having said that I don't think it is a feature that should be used as a
matter of course, and there may be a temptation to do that.  A shipping
installation should come with a filled ZeroInstall cache.   There should
be a clear demarcation between things you have and things you don't.

There may be already a command in ZeroInstall that can query whether a
0launch is good to go without downloading.  If not It wouldn't be hard
to write (and certainly should exist)

A slightly more complex issue is determining something your friends
have.  I have installed software onto offline machines by transferring
the zeroinstall cache from a system that already had the files.