AbiWord [Grocery Store] Marketing Project

Distribution CD File-System Specification v0.0.1

Document Goals:

The main goal of this document is to encourage discussion over, and eventually finalize a standard for the file-system layout of AbiWord distribution CDs. The standardized file-system layout should make life easier for both the people making CDs and the people trying to use them. If the CD creation process proves overly complex, the procedure for creating an AbiWord distribution CD from scratch will be described in detail (using Linux, other OSs may follow).

CD File-system Goals:

Cram all versions of Abi (Win32, Linux, Mac, etc.) on a single CD in a sensible manner.

Make installation of Abi as simple as possible - regardless of OS.

It would be nice if the entire CD fit on a credit-card CD or small (120Mb?) CD.

Resources:

Listed here are some sites with information about CD creation, formats, etc. I would appreciate more - especially those that deal with multi-session CDs and Macintosh CDs.

PCGuide has some info on CDs at http://www.pcguide.com/ref/cd/index.htm

Linux cd-writing howto at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/CD-Writing-HOWTO.html

CD Layout (“/” = CD Root Directory):

/autorun.inf Win32 Autorun file (is there a Mac equivalent?)

/abiword.ico Win32 CD Icon

/win32 directory containing AbiWord for Win32

/linux directory containing AbiWord for Linux + Readme (see below)

/beos directory containing AbiWord for BeOS

/qnx directory containing AbiWord for QNX

/freebsd directory containing AbiWord for FreeBSD

/netbsd directory containing AbiWord for NetBSD

General Notes:

The distribution CD should use the ISO 9660 Mode 1 standard because Mode 2 omits error detecting and correcting data.

Windows Notes:

Windows provides a mechanism to automatically start an application (setup program) upon the insertion of a CD. This involves the placement of a file named “Autorun.inf” in the root directory of the CD. The autorun.inf file also provides for shell extensions concerning the CD like the CD’s icon and menu entries available to the user when he right-clicks the CD’s icon.

Since there is only one Win32 version of AbiWord, I think that it should be automatically started from the distribution CD. Doing this would allow my grandmother to install AbiWord from a CD she picked up at the supermarket without overly-annoying experienced users.

Linux Notes:

Linux users generally fall into two camps (as far as I can tell)... highly experienced computer users willing to maintain their own system (or people aspiring to that goal), and extremely inexperienced users who’s friend/child/grandchild/neighbor has installed on their computer and pledged to maintain for them. Both equations contain a person experienced in installing software. I suggest that we simply include the available Linux RPMs in a directory on the CD named simply “Linux”. One thing that would simplify things is if someone would author a small readme.txt file containing the differences between the versions of Abi available for Linux. That would make a valuable resource for Linux users new to AbiWord.