I have used the Nullsoft installer (nsis.sourceforge.net) -- and it's very very powerful. I have an installer now that lays down a driver, updates the registry, copies some files, all with a shiny GUI -- there are quite a few examples that will be installed with NSIS, it basically is a mini (if not weak) programming language, unlike InstallShield -- which is a n evil GUI clickfest.
Anyhow, I love NSIS -- my script to build this one particular installer is a 163-line Ruby program, and that includes the installer source skeleton in the data segment. I also have another installer builder that is written in Perl, and that module, with absolutely no DATA segment cheating, is 300 lines.
I don't want to make Perl/Ruby comparisions -- the one I did in Perl was for a product that was a lot harder to install. But anyway, my point -- building an installer by writing code rocks, and it's almost as cool as building a tarball :)
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I have packaged apps up using Inno Setup before and highly recommend it. It is a straightforward tool and is much simpler to use if you also use ISTool (http://www.istool.org/). ISTool gives you a GUI for writing the Inno Setup installation scripts. This gets you up and running right away without having to learn the details of the installer's script syntax. You can literally put together your basic installer in 10 minutes.
The Nullsoft tools are powerful but they use a custom mini-language. If you are willing to learn how to use that or learn how to plug other languages into the system then they may be good choice. However, unless you need some fancy data munging or processing during your install I would recommend Inno Setup and ISTool as a much faster way to build a Windows installer.
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Your links point to the same page. | [reply] |