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Elliotte Harold wrote:
In reality, in Windows, it is more something like: 1. For a windows executable it must be in the path to be executed, for a jar file it must be in the ext dir 2. If a windows executable is not in the path, you must know the path to call it, idem dito for the jar 3. If you don't know the path to the windows executable, it says "Windows cannot find 'xsltproc'. Make sure you type the name correctly, and then try again." 4. To search for it is equally hard as to search for a jar file (Start > Search) 5. To make life easier, add xsltproc path to the Path environment variable. Very few user know how to do this. And which one? Current user? Default User? All Users? It is quite hard and requires fifteen (!) steps: 1) Start 2) Settings 3) Control Panel 4) System 5) (tab) Advanced 6) (button) Environment Variables 7) System Variables (or User Variables???) 8) Find 'Path' and click it, then click Edit 9) Try to figure out the syntax and add the path 10) Click OK 11) Click OK 12) Click OK 13) Close any currently open command windows 14) Open a command window 15) test your setting by typing 'xsltproc' (if you did it wrong, go over it again: 15 steps!) (different windows also require partially different steps, and try Winkey+Break for skipping 1-4) 6. etc. Can I eventually make this work? If you're not a beginner Windows user: yes Is it a pain in the ass? You betcha Should I have to deal with this? That's up to each one him/herself Is this far more complex than a traditional Java jar file? You better believe it ;-) Well, I grew up with Windows 3.0, MS DOS before that etc, so I am lucky to understand why it is so and how to change these settings. But many aren't. I am not saying that things in Java world are easy, but I consider it far from reality to say things are easy in Windows (or Unix) environments. Neither are, and it could be so much easier. For instance, the way Perl deals with CPAN almost automatically, the way you can point and click new plugins, skins etc for Firefox: that is easy. Java, .NET and Windows still have a long way to go. This looks like a traditional "my fav env against your fav env" discussion. I'd rather look at it pragmatically: we are all professionals (well, most of us are) and we will have to deal with this, sometimes across platforms, programming environments and networks. However, it is our task to make it easier for our users, which we should. A user (at least ours) will never have to deal with "where do I place the saxon8.jar file or how do I set the path to the new version of xsltproc", as we do that for them. -- Abel
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