I've been using InnoSetup. From a very simple version that I've got a few years ago it has grown to a full blown installation program. It support scripting, is multilangual, and there are aven a lot of design tools especially created for InnoSetup. So it is the obvious choice for me. But maybe there are alternatives.
There is microsoft, with their msi "technology" which is -as usual- very complex wihout much more features. I hate steep learning curves, so after a few tries, I decided not to use it. The concept is good: instead of writing procedural code, you just define what you need installed where, and it does the job for you. But getting rid of a procedural language should make the job EASIER, not HARDER. And there are no real benefits. So goodbye msi.
Then I investigated the "usual suspects": Wise and Installshield, the 2 top commecial installers available. Everybody with experience with both told me to skip installshield and go straigt for wise, because it was superiour. Because I had a legal version of wise 9, I tried it. But even this newest version has a windows 3.1 feeling, that you might get rid of with all kinds of patches and images, but in the end you are still stuck without normal Windows XP controls (like the green progressbar) And the wise "language" made me sick. If this is the commercial state of the art, then forget it and go straight to open source, because innosetup is way way superior over wise.
After this experience, I forgot about installshield. If this is not better than wise, it is not worth to investigate further.
And then there is NSIS. This is also open source, and is derived from the winamp installer. It is a comic farting lama counterpart of inno. It looks reasonalby good, at least as good as the wise installer, but also here you get a windows 3.1 feeling which goes away after a lot of "cosmetic" stuff.
Conclusion: Innosetup lives up to its expectations and is still my number one choice.
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( 3 / 1173 )Changing from one editor to another... wow! An editor is a tool that i'm using so much, that changing from one to another feels like moving to another appartment.
On windows, I'm using homesite 3 for quite some years. Homesite 4 and 5 never attracted me: adding feature after feature to a product seldom makes it better. The new homesites were slower and less stable. So why change?
On unix, i'm using vi. But the reason for that is that its always available, and there are no alternatives, except for emacs, but that doesn't feel good. It has a steep learning curve, and i can't waste time learning an editor. On unix I stick with vi for a while.
But now, homesite 3 feels a bit outdated, and some issues are irritating.
So what are editor knock out criteria for me:
- stability. Losing a text file is not acceptable.
- lean and mean. Speed is essential
- correct tabs/indents. Most editors fail on this, create spaces instead of tabs etc.
- No silly mistakes with arrows and del keys. There are some simple rules that an editor needs to follow: backspace on the beginning of a line adds the line to the previous one, cursoring down may not change column position
- line numbers
- unlimited line length
- I like the homesite explorer-window on the left. It has become natural for me
- Multiple file editing, with one-click (tabbed) file changing
And a few nice to haves:
- ftp integration. Using an ftp-server as if you're working local (this is the reason I want to dismiss homesite3)
- overview/compression mode.
So I downloaded a few editors to see which one had it all. It turned out to be a dificult search:
Notepad++ - feel is good. However, no explorer toolwindow on the left.
Syn - No correct tab/indents. For the rest it seems ok
Jedit - ugly as hell (thanks to java), slow, no explorer window
MED - no correct tab/indents. Not lean and mean. Lot of useless stuff.
TexEdit - silly key mistakes. Does not feel natural. Bad indent/tab
Crimson - Feel is ok. No siilly mistakes. Tab/indent is a bit hidden, but the implementation is ok. It has a nice ftp feature, although not transparantly integrated it works ok. This is an editor that I will try for a while to see if it sticks.
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