Feature request for Mac [OSCAR installation]

[Jeff8356]

Hello OSCAR developers!  Thanks for all your hard work!!!

Currently when Mac users download OSCAR they get the *.dmg file.  When that is opened/mounted they get the usual finder window showing the OSCAR.app and nothing else.
Some users intuitively know to drag a *.app to their /Applications folder.  But others may not.  Many former Windows users are accustomed to double clicking a *.exe file they just downloaded and the program is installed.   
And, yes, there are install instructions on a wiki page.  But they are not included in the *.dmg file.

My suggestion is to, at least, include a "README" file in the *.dmg which gives basic install instructions and points to the Mac install instructions in the wiki. 

Ideally, a simple bash script that would copy OSCAR.app to the /Applications folder would be great!  But maybe asking for too much

Again, Thanks for making such a great program!!!

[Osiris357]

I just happened to notice it wasn’t in my applications folder so I dragged it over. If I didn’t I probably would’ve ran into the same problem as Plmnb. I don’t have but 2 or 3 applications outside of the Mac store so I would’ve been banging my head also

[Jeff8356]

Just a quick note to any Mac users wondering....
Here are the install instructions from the wiki:

http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php..._Apple_Mac

[pholynyk]

Thanks for pointing that out, Jeff. I'm sure we can do something along those lines.

[sawinglogz]

We can work on this for next release. Adding a README is probably the likeliest approach in the very short term.

In the longer term I could imagine what I've seen some applications do, where they say "You're not running this program from your Applications folder. Would you like to install it there now?" But that's not trivial to code and to get right, so I don't think it'll make the next major release.

[Jeff8356]

If you don't mind my ramblings.....

My imagination for a long term solution went as follows:
User downloads the current *.dmg and double clicks it.
Finder window opens with "Install-OSCAR" file visible
User double clicks "Install-OSCAR" and the typical window opens saying "This will install OSCAR in your /Applications folder" with the obligatory "OK - Cancel" buttons. You know the rest....

Admittedly, I am not a programmer. I know just enough to get myself into trouble (and sometimes out of it). But I've been around long enough to know it's never that easy!

[Osiris357]

Just a heads up if everyone isn’t aware. When I updated my Mac to the current OS (don’t know the version number of the top of my head) it disappeared from my desktop and I had to click the dmg file in my applications folder. Then everything was back to normal.

It didn’t install again it just reappeared

[Jeff8356]

Just a heads up if everyone isn’t aware. When I updated my Mac to the current OS (don’t know the version number of the top of my head) it disappeared from my desktop and I had to click the dmg file in my applications folder. Then everything was back to normal.

It didn’t install again it just reappeared

I'm a bit confused!  You have the dmg file in your /Applications folder????  It should be the OSCAR.app that is located in /Applications.
The dmg is what you downloaded.  When you double click the dmg your Mac mounts it like a removable drive (similar to your xPAP SD card).  Then you would drag the contents of the dmg file (in this case OSCAR.app) to your /Applications folder.  (This example is OSCAR specific and may not apply to other programs).
If you are running it from inside the dmg then every time you logout/shutdown/restart it will dismount the dmg.  In essence, making it look like it disappeared.  All your data will still be stored in /Documents/OSCAR_Data though

So if you drag the OSCAR.app (located inside the dmg file) to your /Applications folder you should solve the problem of the disappearing icon.

[Osiris357]

I’m as confused as you are. I don’t remember where I found Oscar in my folders but I just dragged it from there to the applications folder. Nothing else. The dmg is sitting right next to Oscar. 

My downloads go into the download folder. I clicked on that to install Oscar. Went through the usual and out of curiosity I did the 3 finger gesture to show all the apps on screen to see if the icon was there. It was not. So I went looking and couldn’t find it so I opened the folder with all the apps and dragged the icon from the desktop into it. And it’s been fine this whole time and I’m not sure if I rebooted it before I updated the OS. 

So when I went to use Oscar yesterday morning after it installed the update overnight the icon was gone. So I went into the applications folder and clicked Oscar and everything was gone with it saying this application does not exist. So for the heck of it I clicked the dmg file which was sitting right next to Oscar and bang Oscar is up and running with my daily from the day before on screen with everything else there also. So I minimized it to check the desktop and the icon is back. So I closed Oscar and clicked the icon to make sure everything worked and it does like nothing happened. Weird right?

[Osiris357]

If I was home I’d take a screenshot of the dmg next to Oscar