[platform-releng-dev] Re: install info

[Andrew_Cornwall@xxxxxxx]

>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.

Having said that, I think there should probably be some restrictions on 
the XML file for install programs. Specifically, it will make it easier on 
non-XML install writers to specify explicitly that the product, version, 
eclipse version and plugin dir specifiers are all followed by '=' and then 
have the full path/whatever in quotation marks, and also to require that 
each property be on a line of its own. It might even make sense to 
eliminate leading whitespace in the file, so dumb installers like /bin/sh 
could handle it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<redistributor>
organization="XYX Corp"
product="MegaTool"
version="1.0"
<eclipse version="1.0"/>
<plugin dir="E:\Program Files\XYZ\MegaTool 1.0\plugins"/>
</redistributor>

This also means that you can't easily have directories with quotation 
marks in them... but I think that's acceptable. What do you think?

        Andrew Jr.