Support a silent installation

[AnthonyMastrean]

So we can build a package for http://chocolatey.org/

I see that the "installer" is itself an AutoHotkey script, but I don't see any obvious way to make it "silent" (short of writing another ahk script to run this one, whoaaa!)

[fincs]

Supporting silent installations is not planned because the installer:

• Requires AutoHotkey to be already installed
• Uninstalls old pre-release builds
• Downloads the program data itself from the Internet
• Requires the user to make a choice about it becoming the default editor/it dropping shortcuts.

Also, I am not entirely happy with somebody else redistributing the official SciTE4AutoHotkey packages (installer, portable build and instdata.bin) because I cannot guarantee that the end user will have the most up to date version.

[AnthonyMastrean]

Let me explain some of the idioms/benefits of Chocolatey!

Requires AutoHotkey

Chocolatey is a Windows package manager built on the NuGet package spec and fully supports specifying dependencies. I would create this package to depend on the autohotkey package. Just like these packages.

Uninstalls old builds

I'm not really qualified to talk to this point. Are you concerned about how failures would bubble up through a silent install if it does fail? The Chocolatey engine thoroughly checks the exit codes of all installers and you can do anything PowerShell supports (the package is just a convention driven PowerShell script).

Downloads program data from the internet

Chocolatey is built around downloading the installer/portable data from the internet! A Chocolatey package rarely exceeds a few KB. The installer script invokes one of the many built-in web-download/install helper functions.

User choices

Chocolatey targets developers and power users. We could assume then that this user can

• Undo an installer decision (for example, delete a Desktop shortcut)
• Make a decision after (for example, set the Default Program)

Every package is different, but most seem to be more conservative (fewer shortcuts, no default programs, etc).

Redistributing the packages

I use and develop a lot of AutoHotkey scripts and Chocolatey packages. I am actively looking for ways to contribute back. I would happily contribute the package and scripts for creating/publishing the package to the official repo. Is that something you'd be interested in talking about?

We can continue the conversation in this thread, over email, or on jabbr.net

[fincs]

I would create this package to depend on the autohotkey package.

... which is already outdated (the latest version is v1.1.08.01), and this proves my point that it's not a good idea to have 3rd parties redistribute binaries.

I would happily contribute the package and scripts for creating/publishing the package to the official repo. Is that something you'd be interested in talking about?

Ideally I shouldn't need to do anything more when I get to update SciTE4AutoHotkey. Just for your information, there is a file online that tells you the current SciTE4AutoHotkey version (look at the auto-updater's source code for the URL).

[AnthonyMastrean]

... which is already outdated (the latest version is v1.1.08.01), and this proves my point that it's not a good idea to have 3rd parties redistribute binaries.

Yeah, I had uploaded that package incorrectly, using a static URL. I just updated it and fixed the package id to be more accurate.

Ideally I shouldn't need to do anything more when I get to update SciTE4AutoHotkey.

I hope to make this really seamless by using tools like Ketarin and making scripts for automating the whole process.

there is a file online that tells you the current SciTE4AutoHotkey version (look at the auto-updater's source code for the URL).

Thanks for the info. I hope you don't mind if I continue to develop the package. If you hear anything about it, let me know and I'll try to keep it working well.