From: andy@... (Andrew Hunt)
Date: 2001-03-06T03:10:02+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:12048] Windows Installer questions


Hi everyone.

I've been busily putting together a new version of the Windows
Installer for Ruby -- adding in Bernard's wonderful Windows Help files
and such -- but I've come across a problem that I'd like to get some
input on.

When I generate an installer, InstallShield assigns it a GUID
(globally unique identifier).  So, suppose I build a 1.6.2 release.
Now I go back and make a few updates -- fix a few bugs, add the
Windows help files, etc.

I've got two choices: I can keep the same GUID or generate a new one.

Keeping the same GUID:
	You download the new installer and run it - but surprise! The old
  installer's maintainence screen comes up instead.  It unfortunately
	offers a "modify" option that looks suspiciously like an upgrade.
  It isn't.  You have to uninstall the old one and reinstall the new
  one.

Generating a new GUID:
	You download the new installer and run it.  You can install it to a
  different location than the old version, and run both, but I can't allow 
  you to install the new version *on top of* the old version (then you'd
  have the same file registered by two different uninstalls :-)

These scenarios are complicated by the fact that an uninstall does not
remove files that it didn't install.  So if you load up your Ruby with
extensions in site_ruby, the uninstall won't remove them, the
installer will detect there is still stuff there, and complain.

I could write code specifically for an upgrade that would
automatically run the uninstall of the old, preserve the site_ruby
additions, and create world peace, but before I embarked on that
journey I thought I'd check with ya'll to see what the expectations
were.  This is the first thing I've ever done with InstallShield, so I 
there might also be an easier way to do it that I'm not aware of.

What sayest the crowd?

/\ndy

--
Andrew Hunt, The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC.
Innovative Object-Oriented Software Development
web:   http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com   email: andy@pragmaticprogrammer.com
--
Books by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas:
    "The Pragmatic Programmer" (Addison-Wesley 2000)
    "Programming Ruby" (Addison-Wesley 2001)
--