Paul Reeves wrote:

>There are at least three issues here.
>
>1/ I think the installer should be as simple as possible and accomplish
>the tasks required by 99% of users. Adding configuration screens at
>install time complicates things for most users.
>
>

Well, that's true I guess, but surely it's not /that/ complicated to
select a port to use... The installer could automatically figure out
what the next free port is (starting at 3050) and propose that as the
default.

>2/ I know full well we can add loads more functionality to the installer.
>This comes at the cost of making it harder to maintain.
>
>

I suppose so -- as does any feature. :)

>3/ This sort of functionality should not be in the installer script per
>se. We should be providing it from the command-line tools. This then
>allows users to write their own install script with the installation tool
>of their choice, while at the same time ensuring that all installations
>follow the same rules.
>
>

That's a good point. If a lot of the installation functionality was in
command-line tools, it would be easy to have several alternative installers.

>So, the first step forwards is to look at the command-line tools and make
>sure that they support configuring multiple instances. (There is still a
>little work to do here.)
>
>The one thing that has been holding me back on this is that with the
>advent of Vulcan the whole installation model will change somewhat. It
>supports a much richer configuration file which allows a single install
>to support unlimited configurations on a single server while also
>implementing a gateway to multiple engines. This really changes all the
>rules and I'm reluctant to embark on major changes to the Fb2 installer
>now, knowing that we need to look forwards to the Vulcan way.
>
>

Well, obviously, if Vulcan is going to change everything, I can
understand that you'd be reluctant to make changes now that would be
obselete when Vulcan is merged.

I look forward to FB 3 with Vulcan... :)

--
Best regards,
Jonathan Neve
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