Hi, I'm not particularly overjoyed with an approach which means the tools to build a release installer are not available in the CVS, as this kind of goes against open source (and more practically, it means I personally can't build test releases). I propose that either: 1) The tools used to make the current installer .msi files make themselves known to the world, along with appropriate documentation and scripts. 2) I (or someone else) writes an MSI file generator, probably using the free Wix toolset. 3) I (or someone else) writes an NSIS installer, which is an .exe installer based on the NSIS toolkit, Google seems to now use this as their preferred installer setup, so it can't be too bad. 4) I (or someone else) writes an installer from the ground up. Its not that much work, as I already have about 98% of the code from writing an installer from the Pingus project. The installer is a simple cat installer.exe data.zip > winhugs.exe installer, so it allows making an easy distribution from a zip file, even under Linux. Obviously 1 would be least work if feasible. If I was going to write an installer for the Windows build, which one would people prefer out of 2, 3 and 4? Does anyone use the large scale deployment options found in a .msi, and are those options even in the WinHugs .msi file? Thanks Neil
On Tue, Sep 20, 2005 at 05:56:45PM +0100, Neil Mitchell wrote:
I propose that either:
1) The tools used to make the current installer .msi files make themselves known to the world, along with appropriate documentation and scripts.
2) I (or someone else) writes an MSI file generator, probably using the free Wix toolset.
3) I (or someone else) writes an NSIS installer, which is an .exe installer based on the NSIS toolkit, Google seems to now use this as their preferred installer setup, so it can't be too bad.
4) I (or someone else) writes an installer from the ground up. Its not that much work, as I already have about 98% of the code from writing an installer from the Pingus project. The installer is a simple cat installer.exe data.zip > winhugs.exe installer, so it allows making an easy distribution from a zip file, even under Linux.
I had a play with NSIS a while ago. It seems to be short on tutorial material, but the basics are fairly simple, except that I couldn't get it to work (failed while installing). NSIS seems do do more than a cat would.
I had a play with NSIS a while ago. It seems to be short on tutorial material, but the basics are fairly simple, except that I couldn't get it to work (failed while installing). NSIS seems do do more than a cat would.
Nope, the cat is infinitely powerful, because you have full control over the initial installer.exe that is run. If anything the cat method plus a custom installer probably has far more power and options than NSIS ever could have. The installer I did for Pingus creates icons in the start menu, but adding a few registry keys is very easy. I would hope to completely destroy the src/winhugs/register directory and move that logic into the installer, which is where it belongs. Thanks Neil
participants (2)
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Neil Mitchell -
Ross Paterson