From: earnie_boyd AT yahoo DOT com (Earnie Boyd) Subject: RE: To _USE_ or not to use InstallShield? WAS: Re: B19: InstallShield reports: "WinExec failed: return=20" after 99% completion 6 May 1998 17:51:18 -0700 Message-ID: <19980506161157.21068.rocketmail.cygnus.gnu-win32@send1d.yahoomail.com> Reply-To: earnie_boyd AT yahoo DOT com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii To: Zow Terry Brugger Cc: gw32 Correct me if I'm wrong; but, if your only problem is the registry, it gets populated with the initialization defaults upon the first instance of the cygwin???.dll. So the fact that the registry keys aren't found doesn't prevent the use of the cygwin tools. As for the target of users, I think it would be more for the experienced UNIX professional forced to use Win32 than it would be with the casual windows user. If the non-UNIX professional downloads the toolset; he must decide whether he's interested in learning UNIX. If not he's going to throw it away or not use it much. The advantages of the tarball outweigh the disadvantages and the disadvantages of InstallShield outweigh the advantages. I can't even think of an advantage to InstallShield given that you don't have to setup the registry keys prior to executing the tools. ---"\"Zow\" Terry Brugger" wrote: > > Let me throw in my 2 bits in favour of the InstallShield installation (since it seems that someone needs to). There are all sorts of idiosyncrasies with the windows environment that installers must deal with: the registry is a prime example. Sure, these can all be dealt with by hand, but that takes time that I'm sure Cygnus doesn't want to put into a project that they provide at no charge. Now, let me point out that I hate InstallShield: I have blamed them for everything that is wrong with windows (in a letter I wrote to their support department). But they certainly seem to be the lesser of all evils. I strongly object to the tarball idea, as that would involve dl'ing tar, gzip and performing other additional steps. Tarballs work under UNIX b/c one doesn't need to do all that. The reasons for this dichotomy between environments are various, but it boils down to the fact that the two environments come from different backgrounds, different users and different needs. Of course, the only way to make everyone happy would be to provide both. So if Geoff has no objection, I'd say one of you tarball proponents should volunteer to maintain such a beast. > > My 2 bits, > Terry > > == - \\||// ---o0O0--Earnie--0O0o---- --earnie_boyd AT yahoo DOT com-- ------ooo0O--O0ooo------- _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.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".