Version 22 of deployment

[... explain meaning ...]

Deployment is the work it takes to move from finished application to application working on the end-users desktop/server/other computer to keeping the application up to date.

Issues to be considered include:

on what platforms does the application need to run
will the application and all of its dependencies run on these platforms
where in the end-user's environment does the application and its components reside
how many of the application's dependant components do you need to deploy (your own tcl/tk interpreter? extensions, stand alone additional applications, images, fonts, drivers, libraries, etc.)
when a bug is encountered, how do you ensure that all end-users are updated appropriately
when end-users are updated, how to you ensure that data are properly updated
when end-users are updated, how to you ensure that they can revert to a prior version
how can you determine how many end-users are using the application
do the end-users need to share data, and if so, how do they do this
are there any resource/locking issues
what permissions are required for the application to be installed - some systems require special permissions for registry updates, system wide directories to be updated, etc.
what special hardware needs must be met
what operating system / driver patches must be in place

[Discussions in pages on "VFS", "CriTcl builds C extensions on-the-fly", "MicroTcl for Tcl9", "Jean-Claude Wippler", "James Garrison", "Script to merge C source files", "How can I compile Tcl type scripts into binary code", "COMPANY: Career Demon.com plc", ...]

Bob Techentin wisely observes, "You might consider a 'traditional' tcl/tk installation, complete [with] additional packages, as a component of your application. Take a close look at how TclPro tools get installed, and you'll see that the 'wish' executable is actually a short shell script which sets some environment variables (e.g., LD_LIBRARY_PATH) and then execs the binary shell."

Another option is to use TclKit's starkit [L1 ]. In a few steps:

get TclKit for your platform
get the "SDX" scripted doc utility (platform independent) from [L2 ]
create dirs "myapp.vfs/", "myapp.vfs/bin/", and "myapp.vfs/lib/"
copy your main script to "myapp.vfs/bin/main.tcl"
copy all packages you need as dirs inside "myapp.vfs/lib/"
wrap it all up using "sdx fs2sd myapp" ("file system to scripted doc")
that's it, you have a runnable "myapp"
try it (double-click, or run "./myapp" on Unix)

There are ways to make "main.tcl" work in unpackaged as well as in packaged form, which is useful for debugging. All of this is based on Tcl's Virtual File System or VFS in short. All examples here [L3 ] and here [L4 ] use this same approach, you can unpack them (with "sdx sd2fs ...") to see how they work. - JCW

Also be sure to check out the wondrous offerings at the Starkit Distribution Archive [L5 ]

An interesting academic project in this area: the Software Dock [L6 ].

See also A Poor Boy does Deployment for the ravings (;-)) of Rohan Pall as he struggles to solve various deployment issues. This is a stream of conciousness description to show people that this stuff of putting an application on a desktop is non-trivial.