doc on CD-ROM

[Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- FS -dot- COM -dot- AU>]

Janet Valade asked about distributing doc files and executables on CD:
> I would put the docs on in PDF and possibly HTML.  We also distribute
> Windows executables and UNIX executables.  This includes drivers for
> various flavors of UNIX.
>
> Does anyone know if we can write all these different types of files
> onto the same CD? ... One vendor HyCD states that you can put PC,
> UNIX, and Mac files together on one CD, but I can't seem to understand
> how to do this, and neither could he.  If you have the HyCD software
> on Windows, do you FTP your UNIX executables down to your Windows box?
> Is it still a UNIX file?  If you then copy it, as is, onto the CD,
> will UNIX boxes be able to read the file from the CD?  All flavors of
> UNIX?  SCO, Solaris, UnixWare?

Adobe does this nicely. For example, the Acrobat Reader CD contains
the full distributions for Mac, PowerMac, Windows NT/95/3.1, OS/2,
and seven flavours of Unix.

I don't know the mechanics of it, but you just open the 'Reader' folder/
directory on whatever platform you're on then follow the instructions in
the ReadMe file. On Unix it looks like a Unix CD. On Windows it looks
like a Windows CD, and that's how it should be.

Personally I don't like installation docs and procedures that are
obviously designed with one platform in mind, where users on other
platforms are expected to mess with FTP or conversion routines. If you
sold me software for Platform Bazootie, I expect it to work properly
on Platform Bazootie. (Of course as the youngest of four boys, I hate
hand-me-downs.)

So I think you're right to want to make the process as seamless as
possible.

There is a 'CD Publishing' FAQ on the Web. It looks terrific -- very
comprehensive and useful.

  "The HTML form of this FAQ is available from the CD Information Center:
     http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/FAQ.html

   The text version of this FAQ is available from:
     ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/comp.publish.cdrom.hardware/

   (If you) want to check out the newsgroups (which have maintained a
   moderate signal-to-noise ratio), see:

     news:comp.publish.cdrom.hardware
     news:comp.publish.cdrom.software
     news:comp.publish.cdrom.multimedia";

Regards
---
Stuart Burnfield
Team Bazootie
mailto:slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au