Thread: Re: ODBC Snapshot Installer (for Dave Page)

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From: pgsql-odbc-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-odbc-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of anthony.caduto@micorp.com
Sent: 06 October 2004 16:59
To: pgsql-odbc@postgresql.org
Subject: [ODBC] ODBC Snapshot Installer (for Dave Page)

Dave,
I have successfully created a ODBC installer and it looks almost identical to the current MSI one.
I looked at the M$  stuff you mentioned and the learning curve is pretty high.
I created this one with Inno Setup 5 and it only took a few minutes and is much easier to use than MSI or that xml msi stuff

Like I said, I would be willing to take over creating the installer if you don't mind switching to Inno Setup.

I could also do the setup for PGAdmin III :-) 
 

Dave,

Unless someone else is willing to step up and do regular msi based updates, I
think it might be worth having Anthony do regular development releases via
inno. Just consider it as an alternative packaging, and when you're ready to
do a stable release you can look into getting the msi installer updated.
While I'm not convinced that inno is any better than msi, unless it is going
to cause trouble for end users, istm the value of taking something off your
already over-crowded plate is something that can't be overlooked.

Robert Treat

On Thursday 07 October 2004 16:16, anthony.caduto@micorp.com wrote:
> Hi Dave,
>
> You can do all that stuff with Inno as well and with much more
> productivity, also Inno is used by many large open source projects as
> their installer of choice on windows.
> Inno also supports C style includes so you can have chunks of your
> installer script reused.
> One example is the Firebird Database project (I know it's the competition
> but it's one of the higher profiles ones I know of)
> I tried the decompiler and you end up with a huge barely readable XML
> file(hundreds of lines), it's not intuitive at all.
> MSI is fine when you use it with Wise and they give you a nice
> interface/IDE.
>
> What do other people on this list think?  Should we be supporting MS by
> using their installer technology?
>
> From what I have seen MSI is NOT superior to Inno, just because it's MS
> own propriatary (supported) solution does not mean it's the best.
>
>
>
> So I guess if you are totally against it I withdraw my offer :-(
>
> Tony Caduto
> Senior Programmer/Analyst
> M&I Trust and Investment Management
>
>
>
> "Dave Page" <dpage@vale-housing.co.uk>
> 10/07/2004 03:02 PM
>
> To
> <anthony.caduto@micorp.com>, <pgsql-odbc@postgresql.org>
> cc
>
> Subject
> RE: [ODBC] ODBC Snapshot Installer (for Dave Page)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: pgsql-odbc-owner@postgresql.org
> [mailto:pgsql-odbc-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of
> anthony.caduto@micorp.com
> Sent: 06 October 2004 16:59
> To: pgsql-odbc@postgresql.org
> Subject: [ODBC] ODBC Snapshot Installer (for Dave Page)
>
>
> Dave,
> I have successfully created a ODBC installer and it looks almost identical
> to the current MSI one.
> I looked at the M$  stuff you mentioned and the learning curve is pretty
> high.
> I created this one with Inno Setup 5 and it only took a few minutes and is
> much easier to use than MSI or that xml msi stuff
>
> Like I said, I would be willing to take over creating the installer if you
> don't mind switching to Inno Setup.
>
> I could also do the setup for PGAdmin III :-)
>
> Hi Tony,
>
> Thanks, however as I said we intentionally use MSI based setup because of
> the benefits of features such as merge modules, custom actions and the
> fact that it's Microsoft's supported installation technique. I realise
> that you dislike supporting them, but there's little sense avoiding using
> their tools when targeting their platform - especially when they do make
> them Open Source.
>
> Feel free to try again with Wix if you like - I think I mentioned that it
> has a decompiler, so porting the installer MSM and then it's MSI files
> should simply be a case of running the decompiler on each of 2 existing
> files, and doing a little cleaning work.
>
> Regards, Dave.

--
Robert Treat
Build A Brighter Lamp :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Treat [mailto:xzilla@users.sourceforge.net]
> Sent: 09 October 2004 05:32
> To: anthony.caduto@micorp.com; Dave Page
> Cc: pgsql-odbc@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [ODBC] ODBC Snapshot Installer (for Dave Page)
>
> Dave,
>
> Unless someone else is willing to step up and do regular msi
> based updates, I think it might be worth having Anthony do
> regular development releases via inno. Just consider it as an
> alternative packaging, and when you're ready to do a stable
> release you can look into getting the msi installer updated.
> While I'm not convinced that inno is any better than msi,
> unless it is going to cause trouble for end users, istm the
> value of taking something off your
> already over-crowded plate is something that can't be overlooked.

Hi Robert,

Building the installer is not an issue - it takes me about 5 minutes to
package a new release for Windows (Unix actually takes a lot longer). I
don't do snapshot builds in installer packages purely because I don't
want it to ever seem like they're supported for mass rollout or general
consumption.

Regards, Dave.

Dave Page wrote:
> Building the installer is not an issue - it takes me about 5 minutes
> to package a new release for Windows (Unix actually takes a lot
> longer).

../configure && make dist takes 5 seconds on my system.  What are you
doing?

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Eisentraut [mailto:peter_e@gmx.net]
> Sent: 10 October 2004 22:01
> To: Dave Page; Robert Treat; anthony.caduto@micorp.com
> Cc: pgsql-odbc@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [ODBC] ODBC Snapshot Installer (for Dave Page)
>
> Dave Page wrote:
> > Building the installer is not an issue - it takes me about
> 5 minutes
> > to package a new release for Windows (Unix actually takes a lot
> > longer).
>
> ../configure && make dist takes 5 seconds on my system.  What
> are you doing?

Getting a PG tree, getting the ODBC source... The box I normally build
it on gets physically hacked about a fair bit. On the plus side, it does
mean that the OS is almost always pretty clean as it gets reinstall
regularly...

Actually, for the latest builds I've been using developer.pgadmin.org
which is far more stable.

Regards, Dave.