Improve distribution

[eprovst]

This would greatly improve user experience:

• [x] Distribute on Linux using snap
• [x] Basic Windows installer
• [ ] Windows MSI (blocked upstream)
• [x] Distribute as application bundle for macOS
• [ ] macOS DMG file

[eprovst]

For Windows:

Creating a Installer (specifically on Windows machines) would make much sense. I recommend using NSIS; it's fast & easy to write code for. -- @jschopplich

[eprovst]

Added basic packaging and install instructions for macOS.

[eprovst]

Added a basic Windows installer.

[earthbound19]

I might like a Go module that can be installed like all other Go modules. If it would have to be re-architected to support that, maybe never mind.

[eprovst]

Do you meant go get ..., go install ...? This should already be possible.

[spookyuser]

What about adding this to choco for windows?

[eprovst]

That is definitely something I will consider :smile: However feel free to add any info out of the top of your head!

[rnkn]

Packaging as a macOS app bundle is a bit peculiar as there’s no obvious way for a person to use this. I assumed maybe you had added functionality for dragging and dropping a Fountain file onto the Wrap.app? Alas, this was not to be.

I did see your instructions to symlink to the binary inside the app bundle, but it’s a lot easier to just copy the binary itself into one’s PATH. This is how I’ve seen most Go programs distributed for macOS. This avoids Gatekeeper warnings and having an unnecessary app icon in Launchpad.

[eprovst]

I'm not too familiar with macOS, do you know of any directories which are in the PATH which would make the most sense?

Being able to drop something on the icon and having a dialogue pop-up is a very long term goal (see #17). Given the amount of spare time I currently have a very long term goal unfortunately.

So indeed a better way of distributing on macOS is welcome :slightly_smiling_face:

[rnkn]

If we’re talking the default macOS installation, it’s pretty locked-down, and I think the only directories in PATH are not user-writable, so I would advise against trying to work within those constraints. But it’s almost certain that everyone who is finding Wrap is going to have /usr/local/bin in their PATH and have made it user-writable and/or know how to easily add a home folder to PATH.

I completely understand having the longterm goal of the drag & drop interaction. It sounds cool. I think that the majority of people using Fountain are exporting via a command line tool, which works better for calling from an editor (e.g. Emacs). There are probably still people writing their scripts in TextEdit who would appreciate the drag & drop, but that’ll be the minority, so I think you’d do better to make the CLI the primary goal, and only bother wrap it as an app bundle some point long down the road.

So the easiest way for you and macOS users is just to distribute a binary and say “copy this into your PATH”. I’d be very surprised if this confused anyone. Or, if you want to reach the widest audience, the vast majority of CLI tools get installed on macOS with Homebrew.

[eprovst]

Thanks,

Then the only thing I'll have to figure out is how file type icons can still be provided this way.

I'll also take a look at Homebrew, although, like Chocolatery, I'm not familiar with that tool nor am I able to test it (I mainly work on Linux and have a Windows machine laying around somewhere).

[rnkn]

I’m pretty sure the only way macOS associates a file icon with an application is via the Info.plist inside an app bundle, so it depends on whether you’re distributing as an app or just a binary executable.

If you get a Homebrew formula together I’m quite happy to test each time you want to update it. I would be happy to take a crack at the formula, but I’m banned from the Homebrew repository.