Ulrich Moeller / WarpIN

 


V0.9.6

 

Note! Please do not link to this page any more. This page will disappear in the future. Instead, link to warpin.netlabs.org, which will always contain a correct link to my most current pages. Thank you.

Introduction. WarpIN is intended to become the new general-purpose installer for OS/2 to overcome the current lack of a both flexible and user-friendly installer. This thing is available to any programmer, commercial, shareware, freeware or GPL, for free use.

There are two reasons why you would want to use WarpIN:

In both cases, just download WarpIN from the links below. It contains all you need to install other peoples' archives and to create archives yourself for other people to use.

WarpIN itself is released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL). But since the GPL does not restrict usage, and "usage" with WarpIN is creating and installing archives, you can use it to distribute anything you like – even commercial software.

WarpIN is a Netlabs project started in a joint development effort by Jens Bäckman and myself. By now more programmers have joined, so WarpIN is improving at rapid speed.

The concept is to install WarpIN once and never remove it again. WarpIN is designed to become an integral part of the operating system, maintaining a global database of installed packages and therefore being able to de-install everything that has ever been installed without leaving any trace. This also has the advantage that users don't have to download an installer for every package, which should reduce package sizes.

WarpIN can automatically update CONFIG.SYS, register WPS classes, and create WPS objects. Even better, when a package is de-installed, it can undo all these changes again. All this happens without the user having to bother with the details.

Unfortunately, this required us to develop a proprietary archive format. So there's no ZIP or ARJ or RAR here, sorry. But this will be totally transparent to the user; currently, we are using archives with a ".WPI" extension. The user can simply download such a file, double-click on it, and installation will begin. There will be only one such ".WPI" file to download, unless the developer decides to split his software into several archives to allow for selective installs. No more unzipping to get the install program, no more README's about how to install.

Current status (November 25, 2000). WarpIN 0.9.6 is out now. This version fixes a few more bugs. Besides, WIC.EXE supports command-line extraction of archives now.

A source snapshot for this version is available below also. The most current WarpIN source code can always be found on the Netlabs CVS server and is constantly being developed. So if you're interested in the latest news about WarpIN, get the Netlabs Open Source Archive Client (NOSAC), and check out the WarpIN sources. You will need either EMX or IBM Visual Age C++ 3.08 to compile.

Downloads. All these things are ZIP files. If you just need WarpIN to install WPI archives (for example, XWorkplace), download the latest binary package and unzip it into a directory. Instructions are in the package.

Version Binaries Sources
0.9.6
(November 25, 2000)
750 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany)
www.kirk.de (HTTP, Germany)
WarpIN sources (1133 KB, ZIP):
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany). These are the sources V0.9.6 was built from.

XWorkplace helpers sources -- these are shared with XWorkplace and are also required (564 KB, ZIP):
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany). This is the same file as on the XWorkplace page.

Check ftp.netlabs.org/pub/snapshots/warpin for the latest snapshots taken automatically from the CVS server code.

0.9.5
(October 7, 2000)
730 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany)
www.kirk.de (HTTP, Germany)
1594 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany). These are the sources V0.9.5 was built from.

Check ftp.netlabs.org/pub/snapshots/warpin for the latest snapshots taken automatically from the CVS server code.

0.9.4
(July 28, 2000)
905 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany)
www.kirk.de (HTTP, Germany)
Note: If you have downloaded V0.9.4 before July 28, please download it again from the above links because I managed to add a last-minute bug.
1486 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany). These are the sources V0.9.4 was built from.
Update for the bugfix: ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany). Replace src/frontend/warpin.cpp from the above sources package with this update.

Check ftp.netlabs.org/pub/snapshots/warpin for the latest snapshots taken automatically from the CVS server code.

0.9.3
(June 7, 2000)
873 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany)
1830 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany). These are the sources V0.9.3 was built from.
0.9.2
(March 26, 2000)
756 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany)
1129 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany). These are the sources V0.9.2 was built from.
0.9.1
(Feb 18, 2000)
683 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany)
ftp.netlabs.org (FTP, Switzerland)
Please try the above first because Netlabs will get really loaded otherwise.
1219 KB ZIP
ftp.os2.org (FTP, Germany)
ftp.netlabs.org (FTP, Switzerland)
0.9.0
(Jan 4, 2000)
446 KB ZIP
ftp.netlabs.org (FTP, Switzerland)
N/A
Alpha #4
(March 3, 1999)
777 KB ZIP
ftp.netlabs.org (FTP, Switzerland)
(includes sources)

Contact. We have created two mailing lists at egroups.com for contact. Please do not contact the authors directly, we are all reading these mailing lists instead.

These are the mailing lists:

  • warpin-user@egroups.com: this is for WarpIN users. Use this for bug reports, feature suggestions and any other sort of messages.

  • warpin-dev@egroups.com: this is those who are familiar with the source code or have at least taken a look at it. The developers use this channel for discussion also.


Here's a long joke, but a good one.

Top 10 reasons computers are male

  1. They have a lot of data but are still clueless.
  2. A better model is always just around the corner.
  3. They look nice and shiny until you bring them home.
  4. It is always necessary to have a backup.
  5. They'll do whatever you say if you push the right buttons.
  6. The best part of having either one is the games you can play.
  7. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.
  8. The lights are on but nobody's home.
  9. Big power surges knock them out for the night.
  10. Size does matter.
Top 10 reasons compilers must be female
  1. Picky, picky, picky.
  2. They hear what you say, but not what you mean.
  3. Beauty is only shell deep.
  4. When you ask what's wrong, they say "nothing".
  5. Can produce incorrect results with alarming speed.
  6. Always turning simple statements into big productions.
  7. Smalltalk is important.
  8. You do the same thing for years, and suddenly it's wrong.
  9. They make you take the garbage out.
  10. Miss a period and they go wild.

Found at "ZoomZone"

this page last updated november 25, 2000
contact: ulrich.moeller@rz.hu-berlin.de
pgp-key