Published by Mircea on 22 Oct 2005 at 08:38 pm
A new version of the Windows Installer
I spent a large part of this day updating the Psi Windows Installer, getting it ready for Psi 0.10 release.
If you don’t know, the Windows Installer has been moved to the Psi Darcs Repository (since Psi also switched from CVS to Darcs). The sources can be found here.
For a quick preview on how the new installer will look like, have a look over Psi Wiki: Windows Installer Guide. Graphics were created by our Psi web designer - MRAY - lots of thanks once again for the wonderful contribution.
The installer reached Version 2. The version bump was caused by some implementation improvements I’ve added recently, easing up the work required to package future versions. These 2 improvements include:
- script for building the file list with everything that needs to be installed - NSIS has its own way of defining what files should be installed where; this script takes a Psi archive, unzips it and creates install/uninstall file lists to be used directly by the installer
- script for creating language pack sections - as you probably know, you can include Psi language packs with the installer. The Windows Installer has a feature which makes it particularly interesting: if you select a language for the installer interface, it will be automatically selected from the language pack list - not an exquisite feature, but useful. This script looks in the directory with Psi language packs and automatically generates sections for the language packs in the installer (install/uninstall file lists) and setup functions (for autoselecting the language packs depending on the installer language)
One thing to notice: I wasn’t able to compile the installer script properly with the latest NSIS compiller(v2.10) and I used an older version (v2.03). There a strange incompatibility between the two versions, when it comes to displaying variables put in the Installer section names.
The new version of the Windows Installer will be used by Psi when 0.10 is released.
2 Responses to “A new version of the Windows Installer”
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Andrei Maxim on 24 Oct 2005 at 3:22 pm #
Why aren’t you using Windows Installer with WiX for such tasks?
It will make your life a little bit easier.
Mircea on 25 Oct 2005 at 9:33 pm #
I didn’t know WiX until your comment. I have only used NSIS in my entire life. It is indeed a new programming experience, but it works. The experience this compiler (I could name it) has is a good proof of how solid this is. There’s also a huge number of applications using it.
I have taken a look over it (and it’s features/bugs database). What I’ve noticed from a quick glance are the following:
These are my first thoughts… I’ll keep an eye on it.