[platform-releng-dev] Re: install info

[Andrew_Cornwall@xxxxxxx]

Chance: I like the idea of using an XML file rather than a plain text 
file. Even a relatively dumb install program can handle that much XML, and 
it gives smart (XML-aware) install programs more options.

Jitu: I don't think it's possible to use the Java standard of '.' as a 
directory separator. If we do, there's no way to distinguish 'myfile/1.0' 
from 'myfile/1/0' except by trying both. Given that most install programs 
are of limited intelligence, I'd rather just take whatever the OS reports 
back. (I'm pretty much assuming that install programs will always be 
different across platforms, so there isn't a big advantage to having a 
common directory format. On Windows, they'll probably be InstallShield 
executables; on Linux, it might be shell scripts. I'm not sure what the 
Mac will use... but it's probably not going to be either of those two :-)

        Andrew Jr.