CD update...

[Shari]

>Shari,
>
>I once made a mac version of a CD for PC in HC. It was hell on wheels too.
>For the mac version we made a Mac specific session on a multisession cd.
>Thus the PC didn't see the mac and viceversa...
>
>on the PC you can also use an autorun.ini file to launch a beatiful 
>installer -
>much less messy than having the user open folders on the cd...
>
>The other solution (simpler) is to make 2 separate folders, one for mac and
>one for PC. Beats the purpose of having multi-platform engines though.
>
>One last solution for you to use the cd in a protected manner as you wish:
>Put a 300MB semi-random file on your cd and read a part of it with known
>data. Users wont copy that file onto their drives and it ensures the 
>cd is there.
>
>cheers
>Xavier

CD's are fun, yup.  This one has 12 different programs on it, two 
programs compiled for 3 platforms, times 2 special versions of the 
programs.

And both programs had just been updated.  Which means 12 programs to 
compile in Metacard, and stuff, and get the CD to be happy with. 
This spells 12 files to break.

The most difficult part is getting them stuffed/zipped without an 
error creeping in.  I used to have a bad time with Stuffit until I 
bought a paid version.  Their free download was buggy, and I could 
stuff a file, but half the world couldn't unstuff it.

Now the trouble is zip files.  I can zip a file, but in the 
unzipping, it finds an error.  I discovered that half the errors 
crept in during the Metacard compile.  And that going back into 
Metacard and recompiling, sometimes solves the error that WinZip 
throws out.  The other half of the errors occurred while actually 
zipping the file.  I tried zipping with WinZip on Windows, and 
Aladdin DropZip on Mac.  I musta zipped, unzipped about 40 times, and 
WinZip's free trial ran out 2 days before the big trip.  WinZip just 
kept saying there were errors in the file.  Well if a program is not 
functioning well during the trial, I sure don't want to pay for it. 
So I abandoned the idea of zipping the files, and tried creating 
self-extracting archives with Aladdin Stuffit on Mac, for Windows. 
And lo and behold, this worked like a charm.

Aladdin Stuffit turned out to be well worth its purchase.  It came 
with a PPC and OSX version on the disk, and seems to work better than 
WinZip in creating files for Windows.  Though even it could not zip a 
file that WinZip would unzip.  So all three platforms are covered. 
Nice!

Leaving tomorrow for Rochester... to visit the family and attend the 
Shareware Industry Conference.  The goal is to have promo CD's to 
hand out, in case I meet any reviewers, editors, etc. that might 
write an article or review.  This batch of CD's is not satisfactory, 
I don't know how to get the image for the folder background on all 
three platforms.  I'd settle for the CD to have a background image. 
I made such a nice one.  And I had to come up with an alternative for 
the program looking for the CD.  The promo version isn't really a 
promo version after all, just a better downloadable version.  I had 
intended to make a truly functional version for reviewers, but it 
would have HAD to look for a specific serial number that only THAT CD 
would have, built into the CD during manufacturing.  Something that 
could not have been copied.  I would have individually coded each 
program to a CD serial number for this.  Ah well.

When I return I plan to mail out more CD's to magazines.  Hopefully 
some of the suggestions that came in last night will let me do these 
CD's the way they should be done.  Or at least in a way that 
satisfies what I believe the reviewers will expect.

Who woulda thunk that a few CD's would be such a big hairy deal??

!!

Shari C
Gearing up for a big week :-)



-- 
--Shareware Games for the Mac--
http://www.gypsyware.com