Jochen,
> what do I need to build such a nice msi installation file as we have it for
> Dolphin? Are there special builders available from Microsoft, or do tools
> like InstallShield builöd such files nowadays?
>
> Thanks for any hint :-)
When D4 was released, I _knew_ I was going to switch to MSI. The
Dolphin binaries had merge modules, there was an Automation interface,
etc. After some hacking, I had my first msi file installing. Then came
a few days of deep concern about the details of updates. Then came a
week of random failures, apparently due to timing problems. It had
something to do with which Automation objects had to be open and in what
order. IMHO, all of it stems from MSI's use of databases when a
serializer would have been vastly more appropriate. After two weeks, I
decided that it was too complicated to use; so complicated in fact as to
be dangerous. Besides, exe installers *work*; life's too short to make
things harder than necessary.
So, my sincere advice is: don't do it. The entire system strikes me as
having been designed for the benefit of the installation service itself,
rather than trying to make something that is elegant, safe/idiot-proof
and efficient for authors of installers.
More recently, Microsoft released an XML->MSI converter. If you feel
the need to use MSI, I suggest you start looking here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wix/I can't vouche for it, but it sounds like it has a chance to correct the
problems that I saw.
I strongly recommend InnoSetup I have an evolving system for using
Smalltalk to write InnoSetup scripts, and my goal is to fold that into
an automated build system which is a decendent of SuiteBuilder.
Currently, it is very specific to my working environment, but with some
refactoring, I could move the details to subclasses and release the
generic framework, much as I've tried to do with ViewGenerator and
friends. That will take a little time, but if you or others are
interested, I can file out things that would get you started with a
little work. Of course, InnoSetup can stand on its own, especially with
the help of ISTool.
Have a good one,
Bill
--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]
Locked
