Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

internetworkers - [internetworkers] Re: InterNetWorkers Digest, Vol 8, Issue 3

internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Jim Allman <jim AT ibang.com>
  • To: drua AT fullseven.com
  • Cc: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [internetworkers] Re: InterNetWorkers Digest, Vol 8, Issue 3
  • Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 17:24:55 -0400

On Thursday, September 4, 2003, at 12:03 PM, Don Rua wrote:
I'm looking for someone who can answer questions regarding desktop software install packages, pros and cons. We are currently using Windows installer, but are interested in moving to InstallShield or WISE. Our lead developer would love to talk with someone that has experience with install issues/packages for desktop software, (for Windows user machines). If anyone can help personally, or point to good resources, please let me or John Ramsey know.

Don,

I just found this old-ish message on the INW mailing list. Are you still looking for opinions on these installer packages? I haven't used them in quite a while (I'm building web apps these days), but I used both systems a few years ago, and they had some interesting differences.

My general impressions at that time were:

Both products were quite mature and had fiercely loyal users. Both were quite capable of doing sophisticated and flexible installations, with optional packages, system checks, etc. Last time I checked, both were aggressively adding features for online software distribution.

InstallShield had a two-fold product strategy, with a low-end product (InstallShield Express?) that was very simple but very limiting. It used a GUI for everything (kind of a "wizard" interface) and was good for only the most basic installations. On the other hand, the full version of InstallShield was basically a mini-IDE with its own scripting language -- *very* deep and powerful, but not at all beginner-friendly, and not what I would call a beautiful language, for what it's worth.

WISE Installer was built on a different philosophy, with a GUI environment that would take you pretty far, and direct access (on demand) to the underlying scripts that you were creating. This made for a much smoother learning curve IMO, and I chose WISE for my projects when possible. They also had great support. My biggest beef with WISE was that they were constantly pushing newer, bigger, badder versions that were overkill for 90% of all projects, but you had to scrutinize the specs pretty hard to know for sure.

Another interesting feature of WISE (and probably InstallShield): It made a great authoring tool for building quick-and-dirty support utilities for multimedia CDs. Easy to knock out a program to test for and install Acrobat Viewer, or set up Registry keys, or other system stuff that usually isn't directly possible in Flash, Director, etc. Windows only, YMMV, etc. etc.

I hope this helps, and I'd be curious to hear more recent opinions about installer solutions.

=jimA=





  • [internetworkers] Re: InterNetWorkers Digest, Vol 8, Issue 3, Jim Allman, 09/15/2003

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page