What is deployment? (was: A Few More Forrester Survey Questions)

[Cameron Laird]

In article <mailman.7863.1179501367.32031.python-list at python.org>,
Jeff Rush  <jeff at taupro.com> wrote:
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>2) How easy is it to install an application written in the language?
>   How is the application deployed?
>
>   I'm having some trouble understanding the difference between
>   "deployment" and "installation".  I suspect those words may
>   have a special meaning to Java developers (who designed the survey)
>   or to Big Corporate IT developers.  Ideas?
>
>   I can tell the story of distutils, python eggs and PyPI, and py2exe
>   and py2mumble for the Mac -- is there more to the story than that?
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Oh, yes.

As someone who often says "deploy", even in mixed company, and even writes
about it <URL: http://phaseit.net/claird/comp.misc/deployment.html > on
occasion, I feel obliged to respond.

Meanings, in order of "frequency", for a sense of frequency I assert I can
articulate:
A.  installation;
B.  installation, but we're trying to sound important,
    and "deployment" has an enterpris-y ring to it;
C.  something seriously different from installation.
What might C. mean?  Say I install a program, but I still have to worry
about how I'm going to configure it within the cluster where I intend to
use it, AND I need to co-ordinate its configuration with the central 
database on which it depends, AND I have to tie it in to our license-
management system, AND there are issues with users sharing data and also
protecting data from each other, AND ...--well, all those things that 
happen after narrow-sense installation are still part of "deployment".

As it happens, I'm scheduled for a meeting Monday whose subject I'm willing
to paraphrase as, "What does 'deployment' mean?".  Let me know after reading
what I've suggested above if you have an appetite for more.