post FOSDEM

[Joel Peshkin]

Dan Wierenga wrote:
>
>  A command-line script is The Way You Install Things on Linux, and you
> wouldn't ship a Linux release with a broken checksetup.pl.  Similarly,
> an installer package (.msi or .exe) is The Way You Install Things on
> Windows, and yet here you're talking about "promptly updating it every
> release".  In other words, there's a Bugzilla release, and then the
> installer would have to be nudged along.
>
>   
The part that hangs me up here is what do we expect a Windows installer 
to do?  Does it need to install Apache and Mysql and ActivState Perl?  
Or does it presume certain things were previously set up before it is run.

Would it be reasonable to provide an installer that does the following....

1) Checks for perl ... if no Perl ...  pop up instructions to install 
Perl first and quit
2) Check for perl modules, if modules are missing, ask PPM to install them.
3) Prompt the user for Mysql connection information.  Test the 
connection, if it doesn't work, pop up instructions to install/configure 
MySQL
4) Offer to start a perl-based Webserver for Bugzilla.