On 16.12.2009, at 12:18, Andreas Raab wrote:
> 
> Andreas Raab wrote:
>> Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>>> On 16.12.2009, at 09:23, Andreas Raab wrote:
>>>> Question for the Unix folks: If we know that what you get via package install is most likely very old, would it make sense to check inside Squeak whether a new version is available? I.e., just a simple
>>>> 
>>>> (HTTPSocket httpGet: 'http://www.squeak.org/current_version') = SystemVersion current ifFalse:[self inform: 'A new version of Squeak has become available. Would you like to install it now?'].
>>>> 
>>>> might help get people more accustomed with later developments. Would that be a sensible thing to do?
>>> 
>>> It would be highly unusual in Linux, where version management and updates are provided by the system rather than by individual packages.
>> Never mind then ;-)
> 
> You know, actually I take my original proposal back. What we should probably do is to hook something into the update mechanism that checks whether there is a newer *released* version of Squeak and points people there if so. This would make sense for two reasons: First, it's tied into the update mechanism so telling you that there's a new release is valuable. Second, it would mean you're going to stick with the released versions instead of getting interim development stuff. If you're still on the latest release you just fetch updates (fixes) for this release. If there's a newer one, we tell you (with the option of ignoring that of course). How does that sound as a concept?
> 
> Cheers,
>  - Andreas

Sounds good, but is not exactly specific to *nix :)

OTOH, on the Mac it would be much more comfortable to use John's Sparkle plugin. Sparkle has a nice interface and is used by a lot of Mac software already, so users are familiar with its workings (though they wouldn't even know it's provided by Sparkle, it looks like it's build into the app).

Not sure if something similar exists on Windows.

- Bert -