Subject: Re: To use or _NOT_ to use InstallShield?
From: [email-masked] (Weiqi Gao)

9 May 1998 11:12:00 -0700
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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
[email-masked]
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