Boy do I feel silly! I have had to reformat my hard drive since the last time I downloaded the PDK. So I downloaded the latest version of the PDK (4.1) and the trial license key. Installation was a breeze!

Before I talk about PerlMSI, I thought that I should mention something that they didn't have in the PDK last time I tried it. That is VPM.

What is VPM? It stands for Visual Package Manager. It is a browser based application that allows you to verify, install, upgrade or remove packages. Two words - very cool! It's like CPAN on steroids! Okay, maybe not... but it's close.

I have not had time to thoroughly test out PerlMSI but I did get a chance to try out the Install Wizard that is installed in c:\perl\eg\PDK\PerlMSI\Install_Wizard. I had to edit both _CreateDB.bat and msiwiz.pl so that it would run on Windows 98. (I had to add perl in front of the filenames of the perl scripts.) Other than that, the example was great. Looking through the source for the Install Wizard, I can see how easy it will be to reuse this code.

PerlApp allows you to create stand-alone Perl applications. It has many command line options to configure it. PerlApp gives me an error about not being able to open perl56.dll. Permission error at /PerlApp/PerlApp/Util.pm line 247. But if I run it with the --xclude option all is well. (Just remember to include perl56.dll with your app if you use this option.) One final note about PerlApp, it's not just for Windows!

I do not foresee me using any of the other portions of the Perl Dev Kit but you might... What else comes with the PDK? PerlCOM - embed Perl interpreters in client applications. PerlCTRL - build ActiveX controls in Perl. PerlNET - .NET extensions. PerlSRV - convert your Perl apps into Windows services. Visual Debugger - um, a visual debugger? Could be. ;)

Update: Would I recommend the PDK? Yes. It does everything advertised although the price is a little high for anything but commercial usage. Would I recommend the PDK just for PerlMSI? No, these modules could very well be written by Just Another Perl Hacker. ;)

In reply to PDK mini-review (was Re: PerlMSI - any good?) by Mr. Muskrat
in thread PerlMSI - any good? by John M. Dlugosz

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