Phil: My PM and all the senior engineers who interviewed me, hired me on the
basis of my C# skills. I was the one who started packaging my company's
deployment packages using WIX - all (and I mean ALL) the folks in my company
still use XCopy and batch files. I raised this issue (calling C# .dlls from
WIX) because it is something that seems eminent and invigorating. I like
learning newer technologies and I ended up learning WIX myself, not because
my superiors 'forced it upon me' (they are least interested in such issues
anyway :)) or because it was a core requirement. I just like my packages to
be deployed in an 'orderly' manner and what better than WIX to do such
things!!
That being said, I am not complaining that WIX doesn't support .NET .dlls -
I am merely raising an issue that will be raised by others as more people
start adopting WIX. I have coded in ANSI C (in college, not exaggerating)
for a semester, because I was forced to. Personally I felt it was horrible,
but then I also believed that I couldn't be a programmer unless I started
from the ground up. Of course I could learn C++, and who knows someday I
will, but at this point in time I see myself as a hardcore C# enthusiast (of
course a newbie as far as my programming skills go!).
Anyway, I just wanted to find out the reasons why this can't happen (at
least for now), and I think Richard made some good points. I completely
overlooked the issue of 'undoing' a custom action, but I was thinking more
on the lines of 'if it is doable in C++, it must be a breeze to redo it in
C#'.
Thanks for all the replies (the issue surely raised a few eyebrows.. hehe).
On 3/19/07, Levi Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
And C++ will NEVER die.
On 3/19/07, Danish Waheed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I think one of the reasons why Windows Installer does not have lots of
> fancy
> actions is because they are not generally related to installation and
> hence
> the support for Custom Actions. You cannot include all the possible
> actions
> as there are so many types of software and so many configuration/changes
> required, that it is better to leave them to the developer to write
> custom
> actions for their needs.
>
> Now for .NET Custom Actions, I think it will be cool to have support for
>
> that, but at the same time, I think vbScript and Jscript are very easy
> to
> use and learn compared to C++, in case someone does not want to spend
> time
> on C++. Besides, if you know Object Oriented Programming, like C#,
> learning
> C++ is not that difficult especially if it is just for Custom
> Actions. It
> may take a bit extra time for you to write a DLL in the beginning, but
> once
> it is done, adding more functions to it is very easy. There are so many
>
> tutorials out there that you can learn from.
>
> I am not a C++ programmer by any means and most of my coding has been in
> C#
> and Java so I understand where Dhaval is coming from. But I had to
> write
> custom actions in C++ as it was not an option at several places I worked
> at.
> So if you like being a setup developer for Windows, learning C++ will
> definitely help you in the longer run.
>
> Now one must avoid using Custom Actions unless it is really required and
> is
> something that Windows Installer cannot do. But can you avoid it or not
>
> depends on the software you are writing setup for, I have seen a lot of
> products with more than 50 Custom Actions and all of them doing
> something
> that Windows Installer cannot do. Once you start working on complex
> software setup, things get messy very easily and the best way to handle
> those Custom Actions is to write Custom Action dll in C++.
>
> Just my two cents.
>
> Thanks
>
> Danish Waheed
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ] On Behalf Of
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 11:44 AM
> To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] C# .dll
>
> One other concern in making custom actions in C# (or anything else) is
> that as Rob regularly observes, custom actions are very difficult to get
> right - especially when considering installation failure (rollback) and
> appropriate uninstall operation. Speaking for myself, I try to avoid
> them whenever possible. In fact I think the only custom actions I
> currently have in any of the installations I have generated relate to
> the verification at installation time of a customer entered license key.
>
>
> Many people seem to look at custom actions as a way to do things that
> aren't supported by Microsoft Installer itself. While true, it is also
> often true that there is a reason why Microsoft Installer doesn't
> currently contain built-in support for that specific action.
>
> Regards,
> Richard
>
> --- Original message follows ---
>
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dhaval
> Patel
> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 10:45 AM
> To: Rob Mensching
> Cc: Joe Kaplan; wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] C# .dll
>
>
> "Folks like me," meaning people who have minuscule experience
> programming in VBScript or C++. I pretty much started learning to
> program in C# back in 2002, graduated last year, and am currently
> working as a C#/ASP.NET developer. Of course I could embark on a journey
> to learn C++, but I think the rest of the world is moving to .NET,
> especially with the advent of C# 3.0 (LINQ), CLR 3.5, etc. I rather
> spend time on exploring new features of C# 3.0 and CLR 3.5.
>
> I am still a WIX newbie by any means - I hope I didn't offend you by
> saying 'people like me' :) In essence what I was trying to say is that
> folks who excel in C# will be able to exploit WIX's features to a
> greater extent. Plus I think if this happens, many developers will start
> adopting WIX right away. I still have a few colleagues who don't want to
>
> use just because they can't pass values read from a WIX User dialog to a
> C# .dll. One (hypothetical) example most people would put this
> functionality to use is writing their own custom SQL connection strings
> using the SqlConnectionStringBuilder.
>
>
> --- Remainder of message history trimmed ---
>
>
>
> * C O N F I D E N T I A L I T Y N O T I C E *
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> The content of this e-mail is intended solely for the use of the
> individual
> or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this
> communication
> in error, be aware that forwarding it, copying it, or in any way
> disclosing
> its content to any other person, is strictly prohibited. Peek Traffic
> Corporation is neither liable for the contents, nor for the proper,
> complete
> and timely transmission of (the information contained in) this
> communication. If you have received this communication in error, please
> notify the author by replying to this e-mail immediately and delete the
> material from any computer.
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
> Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share
> your
> opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash
>
> http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV
> _______________________________________________
> WiX-users mailing list
> WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
> Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share
> your
> opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash
> http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV
>
> _______________________________________________
> WiX-users mailing list
> WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share
your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV
_______________________________________________
WiX-users mailing list
WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV
_______________________________________________
WiX-users mailing list
WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
