[Ohrrpgce] .dmg format for Distribute Game on Mac

Wed Jul 8 17:35:13 PDT 2015

On Wednesday, July 8, 2015, Keith Gable <ziggythehamster at outlook.com> wrote:

> As a Mac user and developer who uses OS X exclusively, I almost never use
> the Mac App Store.
>
> Here’s what I’d find acceptable:
>
> 1. A ZIP file with an .app inside it. Drag the .app to Applications on
> your own. I believe GitHub.app is distributed this way.
> 2. A DMG with an .app inside it. Also include a symlink to /Applications
> so you do less work to install.
> 3. A .pkg either inside a DMG or not.
>

Good to know.

This morning is switched it from .app inside a tarball to .app inside a .zip

Sounds like we are already in good shape :)

>
> It would be weird if you put a DMG or ISO in a .ZIP file. I would think
> whoever is distributing this package doesn’t know what they’re doing.
>
> Knowing some of the historical bits of the OHRRPGCE, I think making an
> Installer package would be the better way to go, as you could make the
> Installer package keep the engine in a shared location so the .apps
> themselves are smaller or less complicated. ~/Library/Application
> Support/OHRRPGCE/Engines/version for example. I also don’t know if the
> OHRRPGCE generates .apps or not. If not, then start there.
>
> Nah, the "Distribute Game" menu exports a standalone .app of the game. I
would not want to mess with shared engine files. That is a lot more work
for no big benefit.

> It’s totally acceptable to generate a .app and then ZIP that up…but if
> you’re expecting me to double-click a shell script to launch the game,
> that’s not right. :)
>
>
Yeah, a shell script on a Mac would be crazy for game distribution

>
> From: Michael Kidder
> Reply-To: <ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org');>>
> Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 2:27 AM
> To: <ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org');>>
> Subject: Re: [Ohrrpgce] .dmg format for Distribute Game on Mac
>
> clarification: meant Mac Pro, I still keep calling them all Power Macs
>
> On Wed, Jul 8, 2015 at 4:21 AM, Michael Kidder <mkidder at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','mkidder at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
>>
>> http://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/os-x-market-share-statistics-1-in-5-macs-still-unsupported/
>>
>> It looks like 10.4 is a vanishingly small userbase. My developer buddy
>> runs one of the earlier Intel PowerMacs that came with 10.4 and even he can
>> get up to 10.7
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 8, 2015 at 12:03 AM, Ralph Versteegen <teeemcee at gmail.com
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','teeemcee at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>
>>> .pkg might be a good option. However it is OS 10.5+ only, while we
>>> support 10.4 too (hopefully; I don't know whether anyone has ever tested
>>> it). However dropping support for 10.4 seems acceptable, since a veeeery
>>> tiny number of OSX Intel users will stubbornly remain on 10.4. I have seen
>>> websites with software like firefox compiled or backported to those old
>>> versions, but I think it is mainly for PPC users.
>>>
>>> However the improvement of .pkg over .zip seems so small that it's not
>>> worth the trouble. Though I don't know what Installer can do; I don't think
>>> I've ever used it.
>>>
>>> The Mac app store is still very new, I would think there are very few
>>> Mac users out there who don't know what a .dmg file is. Is the app store
>>> actually that popular? I thought that there were extra limitations on
>>> programs in the app store, similar to iOS or the Windows Store, so that not
>>> all software can be distributed through it.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 8 July 2015 at 04:22, James Paige <Bob at hamsterrepublic.com
>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Bob at hamsterrepublic.com');>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I was concerned that .zip would not work because it discards the
>>>> executable bit... however, I just did a test, and it looks like I can
>>>> export a game as a Mac .app on Windows, zip it up, and copy it over to my
>>>> Mac, and it extracts and runs just fine. Apparently unzipping on Mac just
>>>> sets the executable bit on every dang file, so the .app still works just
>>>> fine.
>>>>
>>>> So maybe just zipping the .app up is the simplest thing we should do.
>>>>
>>>> My focusing in .dmg is because that is what I have come to expect for
>>>> Mac apps, but that is based on experience that is many years old now. These
>>>> days Mac users expect their apps to be in the Mac app store, so I imagine
>>>> that the average Mac user hardly ever sees .dmg files anyway.
>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>> James
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jul 7, 2015 at 8:52 AM, Ralph Versteegen <teeemcee at gmail.com
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','teeemcee at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I had actually forgotten about the compression, so I've been looking
>>>>> into it.
>>>>>
>>>>> I was surprised to see on the man page for mkisofs that it can create
>>>>> HFS (not HFS+) file system images, because those are used by Apple for CDs.
>>>>> The .dmg file format is called UDIF, which is a wrapper around a file
>>>>> system image which may be HFS/HFS+, FAT, and so on. The HFS+ file system
>>>>> itself seems to be fairly well supported in Linux. Unfortunately the
>>>>> compression of an .dmg is added by UDIF, not HFS (though HFS also supports
>>>>> compression). And UDIF is undocumented and there are almost no 3rd party
>>>>> tools for dealing with it (I only saw ones for reading, not writing); the
>>>>> best I could find was http://newosxbook.com/DMG.html
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't think .dmg.zip would make much sense (Why not just use .zip?)
>>>>> even if it were true that OSX magically accepts .isos.
>>>>>
>>>>> On 8 July 2015 at 03:17, <ziggythehamster at outlook.com
>>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ziggythehamster at outlook.com');>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> MacOS X doesn't primarily rely on file extensions. Renaming an ISO to
>>>>>> DMG doesn't do anything. You could rename it .jpg and it'll still be an ISO
>>>>>> disk image.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You pretty much have to use hdiutil on a Mac to make DMGs. You would
>>>>>> have better luck making a .pkg (really, the gzipped variant) that installs
>>>>>> to /Applications. I believe all you need to make a .pkg is gzip, cpio, and
>>>>>> an XML plist creator. All of which work on every platform.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Tue, Jul 7, 2015 at 7:26 AM -0700, "James Paige" <
>>>>>> Bob at HamsterRepublic.com
>>>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Bob at HamsterRepublic.com');>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Annd. I remembered why that wouldn't work. No compression. I feel
>>>>>> like TMC discovered all of this years ago, and I am just now remember what
>>>>>> he said and thinking that I am figuring it out myself ;P
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Would a zipped dmg be more or less confusing than a tar.gz?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Also, is anybody even getting these mailing list posts? I never get
>>>>>> copies of my own, so I don't even know if the list server is working right
>>>>>> now.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ---
>>>>>> James
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 3:01 PM, James Paige <Bob at hamsterrepublic.com
>>>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','Bob at hamsterrepublic.com');>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I just discovered/remembered something really nifty.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So the reason we went with .tar.gz on Mac was because we couldn't
>>>>>> figure out how to create .dmg files.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> .dmg files are normally Disk images formatted as HSF+ and although
>>>>>> tools for formatting as HSF+ exist on Windows and Linux, we could not find
>>>>>> any good simple ones that we could redistribute.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Turns out that the important thing about a .dmg file is that it is a
>>>>>> disk image. HFS+ happens to be the preffered format, but any format
>>>>>> supported by Macs should work.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In particular, .iso works.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I tried building a .iso image, renamed it to .dmg, and my Mac was
>>>>>> able to open it smoothly with no problems at all.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Tools to generate .iso images are far more ubiquitous, so maybe we
>>>>>> can find one that we can redistribute and we can use it to build .dmg files
>>>>>> directly from the Export Games menu :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ---
>>>>>> James
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Ohrrpgce mailing list
>>>>>> ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org
>>>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org');>
>>>>>> http://lists.motherhamster.org/listinfo.cgi/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Ohrrpgce mailing list
>>>>> ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org
>>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org');>
>>>>> http://lists.motherhamster.org/listinfo.cgi/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Ohrrpgce mailing list
>>>> ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org
>>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org');>
>>>> http://lists.motherhamster.org/listinfo.cgi/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Ohrrpgce mailing list
>>> ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org
>>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org');>
>>> http://lists.motherhamster.org/listinfo.cgi/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org
>>>
>>>
>>
> _______________________________________________ Ohrrpgce mailing list
> ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org');>
> http://lists.motherhamster.org/listinfo.cgi/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ohrrpgce mailing list
> ohrrpgce at lists.motherhamster.org <javascript:;>
> http://lists.motherhamster.org/listinfo.cgi/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.motherhamster.org/pipermail/ohrrpgce-motherhamster.org/attachments/20150708/d27e96f5/attachment-0001.htm>