Adobe Director projectors

Danny Kodicek · Post by **Danny Kodicek** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:13 am

Hi there

I'm a complete newbie regarding Linux, but we've got a potential sale of our
software to a large number of Linux computers and I'm trying to find out how
feasible it is, and I'm hoping this is the place to find out!

Our software is made using Adobe Director, and we distribute it either
through a browser using Shockwave, or as a standalone executable
(Projector). I'm hoping that we might be able to run the projector using
Wine, but I don't know if it's likely to work or what problems we might
encounter. Anyone able to give me some advice? In particular:

1) Will it run at all?!
2) If it does, am I likely to experience any particular known problems?
3) We use a number of third-party add-ons (Xtras) which talk to the
operating system in various ways including reading the registry; we also use
the SoftwareKey licencing system Dll. Any possibility these will work?
4) What about things like printing, file formats, file paths (does Wine use
the \ path delimiter?) etc?

Also, in terms of the user experience, is it going to be possible to give
them a CD-ROM that includes both Wine and the software packaged in such a
way that they can just double-click and icon and have it run, or will they
need to install it? And if the latter, once installed will they be able to
double-click something then, or will they have to use the command line?

Sorry for the open-ended questions - I really know very little about this
and need some general impressions before I dive in!

Best
Danny

Erik Hahn · Post by **Erik Hahn** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:40 am

On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 11:13:13AM -0000, Danny Kodicek wrote:

Our software is made using Adobe Director, and we distribute it either
through a browser using Shockwave, or as a standalone executable
(Projector). I'm hoping that we might be able to run the projector using
Wine, but I don't know if it's likely to work or what problems we might
encounter. Anyone able to give me some advice? In particular:

1) Will it run at all?!
2) If it does, am I likely to experience any particular known problems?

The best place to find that out is appdb.winehq.org

3) We use a number of third-party add-ons (Xtras) which talk to the
operating system in various ways including reading the registry; we also use
the SoftwareKey licencing system Dll. Any possibility these will work?
4) What about things like printing, file formats, file paths (does Wine use
the \ path delimiter?) etc?

For an application, Wine looks like Windows. There is a registry and
paths look like Windows paths with drive letters and backslashes.
Printing should work, though I've never tried it myself.

Also, in terms of the user experience, is it going to be possible to give
them a CD-ROM that includes both Wine and the software packaged in such a
way that they can just double-click and icon and have it run, or will they
need to install it? And if the latter, once installed will they be able to
double-click something then, or will they have to use the command line?

That is possible, for example Google has "ported" Picasa that way.

Danny Kodicek · Post by **Danny Kodicek** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:04 am

Ok, following up on this...

I'm pleased (and a little flabbergasted) to say that I now have our software
running on Linux using Wine. Given that we only bought the Linux machine
this morning and I've never run Linux before, this is one hell of a result
(obviously I have a lot of testing to do, but so far it's looking remarkably
good).

So I just need to follow up on my last question: how would I go about
packaging Wine and our software as a single application that can be run
directly from Linux (or at the least installed as such). I'm still fairly
hazy on how the whole package thing works - I get the impression that you
register a piece of software to some central registry or other? But then
would there be some issues with the fact that our software isn't
open-source? Sorry, I'm not entirely sure even how to frame the question
yet...

What strang/ancient distribution does not install a grahical package
manager by default? Maybe you just didn't find it

More than possible. I'm using one of those ultra-cheap PCs that come with
Linux preinstalled (it's Linpus Lite), and I had to search through a lot of
forums to find out what to do. In fairness, getting to this stage in two
hours shows that I didn't find it *that* hard - it just *felt* horrible.

You better should answer to the mailing list, btw. Usually the mail
client takes care of that but wine's list is a bit broken in that
matter.

You're telling me - I'm getting every message through three times, and I
can't reply to the list without entering it manually into the to: field.
Never mind, now I know. Sorry about that.

Thanks for your help
Danny

Post by **dimesio** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:28 am

Danny Kodicek wrote:
So I just need to follow up on my last question: how would I go about
packaging Wine and our software as a single application that can be run
directly from Linux (or at the least installed as such).

Why do you want to package Wine with your app? Most major distros have it in their repositories, and source code is available for those that don't. If your app works fine in Wine, just distribute as a Windows app, and let people know that it also works in Wine.

Danny Kodicek · Post by **Danny Kodicek** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:58 am

So I just need to follow up on my last question: how would
I go about
packaging Wine and our software as a single application
that can be run
directly from Linux (or at the least installed as such).

Why do you want to package Wine with your app? Most major
distros have it in their repositories, and source code is
available for those that don't. If your app works fine in
Wine, just distribute as a Windows app, and let people know
that it also works in Wine.

Well, it's a tricky question. We're aiming at the education market and I
have no idea how clued-up these people are. As a newbie to Linux myself,
working out how to get Wine working was a tricky problem, and I don't know
if it would be the same for others. Can I really expect a student to know
how to run a Windows executable via Wine on Linux?

Danny

Post by **dimesio** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:46 pm

Danny Kodicek wrote: Well, it's a tricky question. We're aiming at the education market and I
have no idea how clued-up these people are. As a newbie to Linux myself,
working out how to get Wine working was a tricky problem, and I don't know
if it would be the same for others. Can I really expect a student to know
how to run a Windows executable via Wine on Linux?

What age group are we talking about? I'm an English teacher, though at the college level.

In general, if an app works in Wine, installing and running it would be exactly the same as in Windows: point and click. Wine normally adds Windows apps to the menu when you install them, and creates desktop links if the installer creates Windows shortcuts. It's only when an app doesn't work out-of-the-box with Wine that it can get tricky.

Gert van den Berg · Post by **Gert van den Berg** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:20 pm

On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 7:46 PM, dimesio <[email protected]> wrote:

In general, if an app works in Wine, installing and running it would be exactly the same as in Windows: point and click. Wine normally adds Windows apps to the menu when you install them, and creates desktop links if the installer creates Windows shortcuts. It's only when an app doesn't work out-of-the-box with Wine that it can get tricky.

Until the occasional regression...

A bundled Wine version has the advantage that you are certain about
the exact configuration that the program runs on... (Although static
linking seem to be the only real way of distributing binaries without
breakages on different distros... (This might have changed from the
previous time I tried...))

Gert

austin987 · Post by **austin987** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:28 pm

On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 2:19 PM, Gert van den Berg <[email protected]> wrote:

On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 7:46 PM, dimesio <[email protected]> wrote:
In general, if an app works in Wine, installing and running it would be exactly the same as in Windows: point and click. Wine normally adds Windows apps to the menu when you install them, and creates desktop links if the installer creates Windows shortcuts. It's only when an app doesn't work out-of-the-box with Wine that it can get tricky.

Until the occasional regression...

A bundled Wine version has the advantage that you are certain about
the exact configuration that the program runs on... (Although static
linking seem to be the only real way of distributing binaries without
breakages on different distros... (This might have changed from the
previous time I tried...))

Gert

That's why you could/should do as Google does with Picasa, and
distribute a tested version of Wine. Install it as
/usr/bin/wine-yourapp/, or /opt/wine-your-app/, etc. You can then use
that version without fear of Wine upgrades breaking it, and the user
can install Wine in /usr/bin/wine, or /usr/local/bin/wine, etc., for
their other applications.

--
-Austin

Danny Kodicek · Post by **Danny Kodicek** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 4:29 am

In general, if an app works in Wine, installing and
running it would be exactly the same as in Windows: point and
click. Wine normally adds Windows apps to the menu when you
install them, and creates desktop links if the installer
creates Windows shortcuts. It's only when an app doesn't work
out-of-the-box with Wine that it can get tricky.
Until the occasional regression...

A bundled Wine version has the advantage that you are certain about
the exact configuration that the program runs on... (Although static
linking seem to be the only real way of distributing
binaries without
breakages on different distros... (This might have changed from the
previous time I tried...))

Gert

That's why you could/should do as Google does with Picasa, and
distribute a tested version of Wine. Install it as
/usr/bin/wine-yourapp/, or /opt/wine-your-app/, etc. You can then use
that version without fear of Wine upgrades breaking it, and the user
can install Wine in /usr/bin/wine, or /usr/local/bin/wine, etc., for
their other applications.

Thanks for all the comments, everyone, this was very helpful.

In our case, the software doesn't actually get installed - users can run it
directly off the CD-ROM or drag it into a folder on their network (this is
one of our big selling points). I found it relatively easy to run it by
using winefile and navigating to the correct location, but it would be
lovely to be able to create a front-end.

However, I'm not too worried about these details - now we know the software
runs, I'm sure we can solve the minor teething problems and get it smooth.
This is a very exciting thing for us, so thanks for the help. Who knows, we
may be able to switch to Linux as a development environment too and escape
from MS hell altogether...

Best
Danny

wineappdb · Post by **wineappdb** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:35 pm

On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:58:21 -0000
"Danny Kodicek" <[email protected]> wrote:

Well, it's a tricky question. We're aiming at the education market and I
have no idea how clued-up these people are. As a newbie to Linux myself,
working out how to get Wine working was a tricky problem, and I don't know
if it would be the same for others. Can I really expect a student to know
how to run a Windows executable via Wine on Linux?

play with "./configure --help" so it installs into its own folder system.

Then use a script to launcher the program. Write the script in Bourne shell.
Then make .*deb *.rpm packages for easy install, note wine will need to be rebuilt for each distribution.
Make sure the script is in "bin" folder.You could make the script check if wine is install then let you use it, If you want. this way anyone who wants to use there own version of wine there can.
if your going to sell your program say "This program can run on wine x.xx.xx" so people know which version wine it was tested on.