Get Iplayer for Windows

[dinkypumpkin]

On 21/09/2011 23:52, Christopher Woods (CustomMade) wrote:
> (I am pragmatic though, I understand the complexities of maintaing a win32
> build.) When it boils down to the essentials, what's needed for an update?

With the current installer, updating helper applications requires 
posting a small configuration file to infradead.org and swapping a 
symbolic link to point to it.  Whenever the installer runs, it downloads 
that file, looks for changes, and selects any updated components for 
re-install (the user can opt not to upgrade, of course).  Updating 
get_iplayer itself requires running some scripts at infradead.org to cut 
a new release from the git repo and post the release snapshot on the web 
site.  Once that is done, the process is similar to that for helper 
apps.  When the installer runs, it downloads a small version file from 
the web site, checks for a new version, and selects the get_iplayer 
component for reinstall if indicated.  So, with that infrastructure in 
place, the update process isn't too bad.

One wrinkle is the bundled version of Perl.  Right now, it can't be 
updated separately.  It must be included in the installer, though it 
would be easy to make it a separately-updated component so long as there 
was a place to host the archive.  OTOH, it shouldn't need to be updated 
again for quite a while.

> Could a base install be provided then, for updates, various binaries just be
> bundled together in one NSIS / ZIP and provided to users along with the core
> get_iplayer.pl?

I think it might be simpler to just have a standalone installer, rebuilt 
as needed, rather than separate updaters.  There are only seven 
installable components, none of which are especially volatile. The only 
helper app likely to warrant an upgrade in the next 6 months is 
RTMPDump, when and if its developers produce a final version 2.4.

FWIW, I implemented the capability for building standalone installers in 
the current code.  The addition of all the helper apps makes for a much 
heftier payload, but an all-in-one bundle has the virtue of simplicity. 
  A big chunk of the installer code is devoted to dealing with 
installation of the helper apps.  Most of that could go away if you 
bundled everything together in the installer binary.  In the end, I 
decided it was a step too far for this release, but it's there if 
someone wants to take it in that direction.

If you wanted to slim down a standalone installer, you could dump LAME 
and VLC. With no more RealAudio streams, LAME is never used, as far as I 
know. VLC is only invoked for 3gp/n95 streams (do many people use 
that?), and I'm sure a lot of people don't need it for Web PVR playback. 
  You could supply instructions for those users in lieu of the whole VLC 
package.  It's easy enough to download and install.  You might also be 
able to dump MPlayer and replace it with instructions for those users 
who really want WMA streams.  However, I don't think it has ever been 
resolved whether FFmpeg can adequately replace MPlayer for flashaudio 
streams.  It seems to work OK for me, but warning messages are still 
generated.  And you could simplify things yet further by dumping the 
custom distribution of Perl in favour of instructions for Strawberry 
Perl installation.  But that would probably be on excision too far since 
it makes extra work for every Windows user.