Cobra.Lang.dll crasch (Win7/64)

[objarni]

Hi Cobra Language community!

I downloaded, install_from_workspace:d & Hello World:ed but got "File Not Found"-exception for Cobra.Lang.dll.

Just like in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=697&p=3617&hilit=cobra.lang#p3617

Solution 1:

Change message in install script.

Old: "If you are on Windows Vista and you get an error message then
you may need to run with elevated privileges, such as with an
admin account or power user account."

New: "If you are on Windows Vista or 7 and then you may need to run
with elevated privileges, such as with an admin account or power
user account."


Solution 2:

The install script could try to run a Hello-World-similar cobra script to check if it crasches or not.


Solution 3:

The install script could try to find out whether or not the current user account is running in previleged mode.

[Charles]

I think we already made some enhancements in this area. Did you install from the latest source or from the last download? If from a download, can you try the latest source under the same circumstances and verify that you get a better experience?

[objarni]

I downloaded the october .zip file from the Downloads page.

How do I do a clean uninstall so I can do the verification correctly? I didn't find any obvious .bat file in Source. "clean.bat" cleans up the Source directory, not the Cobra installation if I read it right.

I also noted that the "Release notes" link, on the Downloads page, points to the realease notes for Cobra as of april 2010, not october 2010.

[Charles]

I believe the enhancements to the installer were made after the Oct release.

We don't have an uninstall command right now, however, the install program will delete the target installation directory if it exists in order to ensure that no files from an old version interfere with the new one.

I'll look into fixing the the "Release notes" link.

[objarni]

I checked out the source code distribution of Cobra, and re-ran the install_from_workspace batch file.

Output:

==== Verify running as admin user

** ERROR: Please run this executable as an admin user.

Great! Hope this gets into the next release.

Now I'll run-as-admin just to get the latest release built correctly.

Short question: does the installation add stuff to GAC or change the register of my machine? I love Eclipse-like software distributions ("xcopy install") and was hoping Cobra endorsed that idea. I my experience it makes software more robust, in general, because of lowered risk of configuration errors.

[Charles]

Cobra is primarily a copy-type of installation with the single exception that Cobra.Lang.dll is installed in the GAC. That's a .NET thing and I'm not aware of any practical way to avoid it in the context of a programming language.

The GAC is not too far off from Python's "site-packages" which, although it technically can be manipulated from the file system, is always installed with setuptools/disttools/easy_install/whatever. In .NET's case, it's the gacutil.

When distributing your own apps, provided they are not compilers or other specialized tools, you can do a copy-type installation, including the distribution of Cobra.Lang.dll with your .exe (or embedded with "cobra -embed-run-time ...").