Re: Windows Installer for Emacs-27

[phillip.lord@russet.org.uk (Phillip Lord)]

Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
>>> Then it will be easier to implement something in Emacs to check for
>>> available updates on that platform by looking at that version.
>
> PL> Let me know if you don't have enough.
>
> Anything else we can do from Emacs to help the user would be good:
>
> * check signature of installer (ideally without GnuPG, since installing
>   that on W32 is not easy)

Actually, that's easy since windows does this
automatically. Unfortunately, it needs the binary to be signed. That's
straight-forward enough, although I would need a certificate to do this,
which isn't free (as in beer). The same issue also applies to the
binaries inside the installer (i.e. runemacs, emacs and the rest).

In the ideal world, I would like FSF to do this, after I upload. They
can check the GPG signature, then code sign the installer. But,
runemacs and emacs I would need to sign before packagaing I fear.


> * check what DLLs are out of date and will be updated by the installer

That would be harder, and ultimately would just be a big list of
everything that has changed.


> * look at the release notes for this installer

That I can do from the changelogs; happy to incorporate this when I can.

> I understand this is not necessarily easy, but it would be helpful to
> Emacs users on that platform. None of it is required, though. We can
> already start checking that URL for "the latest" if the user enables it.

Checking for "latest" is a little complex since I need to consider the
correct upgrade paths (so emacs-26 to snapshot is probably
wrong. emacs-27-snapshot to emacs-27 itself is probably
correct. snapshots to pre-releases -- tricky). But yes, can be done.

> Can you just look at that list and consider if any of it is feasible?