On 22/01/16 07:41, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 04:57:28PM +0100, Didier Kryn wrote:
>> Le 21/01/2016 12:33, Hendrik Boom a écrit :

> I suspect that zeroinstall is the native, cross-platform package
> installer that Rox uses, and quite possibly that a lot of the
> file-type handlers for the rox file manager are available as
> zero-install packages. Stll, I'd like to *know* that instead of just
> suspecting it.
>
> Zeroinstall can apparently allow users to install packages without
> requiring them to have administrative privileges, can ensure that
> when the same version of the same package is installed by different
> users, only one copy occupies disk space, keep track of which
> users belong with which packages (so they don't get their stuff mixed
> up) and install multiple different versions of one package in case
> users have different constraints because of the curse of
> compatibility.
>
> Annd, to my surprise, the current zeroinstall is written in OCaml, a
> language that's a pretty good tool for writing reliable software. The
> previous version was apparently written in python.

Rox as an environment seems little maintained and quite old, the website says it
is "RISC OS for X". They had an application-as-folder system and Rox-filer would
still deal with these if you used them, they called this system zeroinstall
since it just required copying the self-contained application folder. Probably
has the same ultimate ancestry as Apple's application folder system.


Simon