We must be able to fix and improve H5s for you in the most efficient way possible. And it has to be balanced with your concerns of being able to stay at the most up-to-date version during your normal run of play while forestalling updates when you've got a critical demo or presentation tomorrow. So here's how we did it using Squirrel.
Checking for Updates
Each time H5s is run, the Innumerus server is checked for new releases. This is done in background immediately after application start, and if you hit the FILE pulldown while the check is being made, you will see ...pending1 suffixed to the exit-and-sync menu item.
- If a new version is found, it is downloaded autonomously without any user initiation or intervention. You cannot prevent H5s from downloading new releases.
- Squirrel is designed to use delta updates so that only the minimum set of changes between the version you are running and the latest available are downloaded. Squirrel computes the delta "distance", and if this is less than simply downloading the complete latest release, it will only download the necessary deltas. This is big win for everyone, as a fix or enhancement that touches only one library won't trigger full downloads across the board.
- Updates are always done at application exit. As you will see in the next section, you have the option of exiting without updating, or updating on exit. Either way, it's one click and it's your call.
Synchronizing your copy
When a new version is available, the FILE pulldown shows the evergreen version2 and provides the opportunity for you to make the upgrade upon exiting the application. A couple of things to consider:
- The version shown has already been downloaded to your machine. You can see the to-be-upgraded-to versions in your %LOCALAPPUSER%\H5s directory.
- Once you upgrade, only the current version and the one previous are kept. All others are removed. Keep in mind though, all previous versions will accumulate until you sync to the latest.
