Re: GNAT version for Ada training?

["Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)" <yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr>]

Le Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:28:17 +0100, Randy Brukardt <randy@rrsoftware.com>  
a écrit:
> Windows tries hard to discourage installation of any program without
> administrator permissions, especially on Windows XP and more recent. Any
> program that needs to modify the registry is going to have problems -
There are plenty of useful things which can already be done with  
HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Writing to this one, does not requires administrative  
rights.

> and
> "good" Windows programs will write various things into the registry.
The quotes was welcome, as as-the time goes, more people enjoy  
configuration in files instead of the registry: drop-and-run, the same it  
is possible with MacOS. The application reside in its own directory, and  
mostly write only there, optionally in Application Data, except the  
documents it generates. If better OS integration is needed, a *.reg file  
to be merged in the registry may be provided as an option. Some provide  
two options: download classic installer or download zip archive and  
perform optional integration from withing the application (some provide a  
dialog to add file association or misc handlers) or manually and  
optionally.

> I've tried to make this for for Janus/Ada, and it works OK Windows XP if  
> you
> chose restrictive settings (install for current user only, don't install
> Claw).
That's legitimate there. If one want to install for all user, not  
surprising administrative account will be required. For single user  
installation, this should not.

> But I cannot make the installer work on Windows 7 that way, and it
> isn't worth the fight. So the next version of the installer is going to  
> be
> administrator only (presuming I can figure out how to get the manifest  
> set
> properly).
Do not have access to a Windows 7, so I don't know.

> Note that all Windows installers ought to register an uninstaller with
> Windows (requiring registry writes). And a program like AdaGIDE probably
> will want to register extensions like .Ada as well -- that definitely
> requires registry writing only in administrator mode.
No, really (unless I missed something), you can register an uninstaller  
and file extensions, from a user account. MinGW do that for its  
uninstaller.

I may need to say if I avoid using the admin account, this is to disable  
applications to do dangerous things (I believe I am not the only one). And  
when something wants to do administrative things while its purpose does  
not seems to requires so much high level privileged, I feel alarmed (why  
would someone need a knife to go to pick its children at school, looks  
suspect).

May be this would be better to at least display a message to tell the user  
why this need admin account when there is really no other way.


-- 
Si les chats miaulent et font autant de vocalises bizarres, c’est pas pour  
les chiens.

“I am fluent in ASCII” [Warren 2010]