I haven't used any of the open source installers, but I can tell you I don't care for Install Shield. It's very powerful, but takes at least a week to figure out how the hell to use it. To do anything custom in the installer requires a whole lot of InstallScript code and the integration with MSI is confusing as hell. They build this weird wrapper around it that's really a pain to use.
For the recent projects I've been working on I've been using the deployment projects built into Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET. It's only meant for redistributing .NET applications, but it does that well and is integrated with the development environment (which is very handy). It will run Installer classes you build into your assemblies, meaning you can write your custom install code in .NET. So if you're building anything in .NET, that would be my recommendation. :) JD > -----Original Message----- > From: Frank Seesink [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 5:08 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [jdev] Suggestions for Windows installer creators > > I just wanted to ask all the Windows developers out there for > recommendations of installer creator programs. Which one do you use, > why, and do you recommend it? Advantages/disadvantages...all > the usual. > > Any help would be appreciated. My initial goal is to create an > installer for a GPL, open-source project. Specifically, I > hope to make > a Windows installer of Jabberd 1.4.3. Will first try to > build Jabberd > without its current Cygwin dependencies, but failing that, > will try to > at least mimick the older 1.4.2 install. I hope to add in at > least JUD > and MU-C components, possibly xdb_sql and xdb_ldap. Then I plan to > tackle Jabberd2, rinse, repeat. My time is limited > unfortunately (I do > this for fun, not as my main job), and I have no set timeframe, so > please don't ask. I would very much like to get this right > over getting > it out fast but buggy. > > I've found several installer creators out there, from the venerable > InstallShield and VISE installers, to a variety of shareware, > freeware, > and/or open source packages. Some are GUI-driven, others > script-driven, > others are script-based but have 3rd party GUI frontends (like ISTool > for Inno Setup). > > A few that I've seen used by others like various Jabber client > installers and such include > > Inno Setup > http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php > * script-driven, free, open-source, no nag screens > > Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) > http://nsis.sourceforge.net/home/ > * script-driven, free, open-source, no nags > > Installer2Go > http://www.dev4pc.com/installer2go.html > * GUI-driven, not open-source, free version has nags > > InstallBase > http://installbase.sourceforge.net > * GUI-driven, free, open-source, no nags > > InstallAnywhere > http://www.zerog.com/ > * commercial > > Tarma Installer2 > http://www.tarma.com/products/tin/index.htm > * GUI-driven, not open-source, free version has nags > > to name just a few. > > Thoughts/ideas/raves/rants welcome. Thanks in advance for feedback. > _______________________________________________ > jdev mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://jabberstudio.org/mailman/listinfo/jdev > _______________________________________________ jdev mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://jabberstudio.org/mailman/listinfo/jdev
