AutoHotkey Community

[madewokherd]

This is something that I've wanted to make happen for a long time, but I can't make it happen myself.

For anyone not familiar, a package manager is a program that installs, updates, and removes other programs. It fetches dependencies as needed for new programs and warns the user against removing things that will break other things. Unlike normal installations on windows, package managers require minimal intervention; ideally, the user says what he wants to do ("install pidgin", or "update all my software"), the package manager says how it's going to do it (install gtk 2.12.0 and pidgin 2.0.2), the user confirms that it's ok, and the package manager does it.

Package managers get a list of versions of programs and their dependencies from a repository on the Internet, and they use that information to work out dependencies and download size before they install anything. Packages are also typically downloaded from the repository as needed, though most of them allow users to download and install individual packages manually. They're common on Linux.

This would be helpful for two reasons (beyond the convenience of having one program that updates all your software for you):
1. It's currently very difficult to write installers for Windows that handle dependencies. You either have to package the dependencies with the installer (resulting in a large download and a lot of work making your installer set it up), set up the installer to download them as needed (smaller download but even more work), or give the user detailed instructions and expect him to figure it out. This is especially a problem for ports of open-source software to Windows (see http://mail.gnome.org/archives/games-list/2007-June/msg00009.html for an example of this).
2. It could be used by communities to simplify some existing complicated install/update processes needed for software that was released on a CD that can't be updated to correct original problems.

Here's why I can't do it:
1. I don't use Windows. I want this as a platform that I can use to support Windows users (developing packages myself in Wine and having Windows users test them) easily. Right now, it's not worth the hassle of me doing so.
2. At any moment, Winebot will mature to the point where I can begin serious work on that, and I may find that my effort would be more helpful there.

So what I need is someone else who will act as the main developer for this project, defining its direction, making all major decisions, and probably writing most of the code. I would help using the knowledge I have from doing a lot of work on related things in the past and, well, having thought a lot about this sort of thing, and working on whatever small (non-design) tasks would help.

This would be a difficult project, but not because of coding (that part is easy; if you find coding difficult, you are probably not even thinking on the level needed to pull this off). Package managers are complicated beasts; they need to have different components that work together and be well-organized and easy to modify. The design needs to make sense and it needs to actually work. It needs a Windows developer who knows how to design a good program and is as enthusiastic and willing to devote time to this as I am.

The reason I'm asking about this in an AHK forum is that I believe using AHK, at least for writing packages, is essential for a project like this on Windows. Windows packages cannot be a simple list of files; for some things they will need to interact with other programs (including programs that only provide guis), the registry, the filesystem, and maybe even in rare cases users.
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jabber: madewokherd@gmail.com

[Chris]

I seem to remember someone already made such a script, at least one that does some popular apps like 7zip. However, I couldn't find it using a quick search on "Install" or "Unattended".

[Jon]

[madewokherd]

Those might be useful, but they don't seem to want to be package managers. A package manager would need to be able to track dependencies and update or remove software that it has installed.
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jabber: madewokherd@gmail.com