From: weiqigao AT a DOT crl DOT com (Weiqi Gao) Subject: Re: To use or _NOT_ to use InstallShield? 9 May 1998 11:12:00 -0700 Message-ID: <35544849.5D70598.cygnus.gnu-win32@a.crl.com> References: <009C5D2E DOT B3CF97DE DOT 10 AT sternwarte DOT uni-erlangen DOT de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com Bartlee A. Anderson wrote: > > I would like to see a compromise on the installshield issue. > Allow automatic install for those wishing it. > Allow inspection/tinkering with the installable pieces for the more > advanced and or paranoid. > The reg settings, dll's, other changes made to the system should at > least be totally documented. Some people don't want to look behind the > curtain, others must have control. And this could be acomplished by a simple entry in the FAQ (or the release note): What does the InstallShield installation do exactly? The answer would typically tell people what files are installed where, and what registry settings are created, modified, deleted. I don't think the automation done by InstallShield is that different from "make install". On the other hand, some people would want to see the individual files (uncompressed), inspect them, and then install them. This can be accomplished by starting InstallShield, and copy out the temp directory from underneath the $TEMP directory right before you hit the final button that actually copies the files for you. I don't remember if the b19 Installation pauses at that moment, but it can certainly be achieved if we so desire. That said, there's still the phylosophical question of InstallShield being "closed": you cannot decompress files in the archive with anything except the ones Cygnus BOUGHT from InstallShield. You cannot simply grab a copy of InfoZip and hope it will work. If InstallShield the company should die tomorrow and its fortunes inherited by say Ted Kaczynski, who would simply nullify all the outstanding InstallShield licensed out there, then nobody would be able to legally extract anything out of the InstallShield archive. Check the license terms of InstallShield and see if there is a clause that says "This agreement can be terminated by either part at any time." Other logical questions on this topic: Can one write software that extracts all the files from an Installshield archive as well as step by step installation instruction without running any proprietary code? Can one write a free (open-source) InstallShield clone? Can InstallShield be persuaded to release a (open-source) version of their RUN-TIME? -- Weiqi Gao weiqigao AT a DOT crl DOT com - For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "gnu-win32-request AT cygnus DOT com" with one line of text: "help".