Re: [Coapp-developers] CoApp questions

2010-09-26 Thread Olaf van der Spek
On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 4:23 AM, John McNamee wrote: > Does anybody outside of Microsoft really like MSI?  Wouldn’t a package > format based on ZIP archives be a better cultural fit for open source > software?  I know MSI is the supported method for installing SxS > assemblies.  For the sake of di

Re: [Coapp-developers] CoApp questions

2010-09-26 Thread Jernej Simončič
On Sunday, September 26, 2010, 4:23:05, John McNamee wrote: > Does anybody outside of Microsoft really *like* MSI? I think the only ones that don't hate MSI (outside of Microsoft) are sysadmins, since MSI allows fairly simple publishing of programs to domain computers. -- < Jernej Simončič ><><

Re: [Coapp-developers] CoApp questions

2010-09-26 Thread Andreas Schiffler
An MSI file is basically a database containing tables with relationships (reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Aa372860), so that means handling it is more complex than a ZIP. But since the installer (msiexe) is part of the OS it seems like the most natural way to install softwar

Re: [Coapp-developers] CoApp questions

2010-09-26 Thread Garrett Serack
Howdy, (1) Windows Installer / MSI Does anybody outside of Microsoft really like MSI? Wouldn’t a package format based on ZIP archives be a better cultural fit for open source software? I know MSI is the supported method for installing SxS assemblies. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume

Re: [Coapp-developers] CoApp questions

2010-09-26 Thread Eric Schultz
John, I'm heading up mkPackage which creates the actual MSI files for CoApp packages. I will be the first person to tell you MSI is a pain to deal with and I can say much of it from first hand experience dealing with it. I wouldn't want anyone to have to make MSI packages by hand which is the reas

Re: [Coapp-developers] CoApp questions

2010-09-26 Thread John McNamee
I probably should have been more clear on this point. I've been building Windows Installer packages for several years (using WiX). I do understand the concepts. I've also worked with Wise and NSIS, driver installation (INF files), and hand crafted C/C++ installers. My experience with Window

Re: [Coapp-developers] CoApp questions

2010-09-26 Thread John McNamee
Thank you, and the others who responded, for your replies. It definitely helps me understand the rationale for the choices CoApp is making. Original Message Subject: Re: [Coapp-developers] CoApp questions From: Garrett Serack To: John McNamee , coapp-developers@lists.launch