Hi Louis, I'm a relatively "new" WiX user (only a month or two) and I was thinking along the same lines when I first took a look at WiX for use in our projects last year. The main thing is that InstallShield doesn't require an understanding of MSI technology to create MSI based installers. WiX does.
The key I found to getting to grips with WiX, was to really wrap my head around the MSI fundamentals before I even considered migrating my project from InstallShield. For a beginner I would highly recommend reading "The Definitive Guide to Windows Installer" (you should be able to find it on Amazon) and then referencing MSI45.chm (from the Windows Installer 4.5 SDK) and WIX.chm (from Wix 3.0) when developing your installation. For informal documentation and specific examples there are some very good blogs out there (search the archives, information from a couple of years ago still provides valid knowledge). Once you understand how InstallShield wraps itself around MSI with your existing project, migrating to WiX isn't really that big of a challenge. If you don't understand MSI internals first, then WiX will be a lot more daunting and confusing :) Cheers, Sascha On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 5:05 AM, Louis elston <louels...@comcast.net> wrote: > >From the tutorial."This toolset requires .NET Framework 1.1 and its Service > Pack", and "does not require any extra framework to be installed on the > target system". Why just framework 1.1, Why not a more recent version? Are > there problems with WiX that might be eliminated if using a higher version > of the .NET Framework? Is it required that .Net Framework 1.1 be installed > on the target system? I may be wrong, but I believe that there are very few > installers written today that do not require .NET Framework 2.0 or higher > (either for the installer requirements, or the product that is being > installed), so why not use the higher version of the .Net Framework? > > > > My experience is with InstallShield, where while some of my questions can be > answered on the forums, not all of them are answered, and, not always in the > time frame that is required to satisfy the requirements of getting my work > done on time, and the product out the door on time. If necessary, with a > support contract, I can usually get any of my questions answered (even if it > is just to tell me that what I want to be done cannot be done). > > > > The tutorial (out of synch with the 2.0 examples), states that "there is a > relatively steep learning curve". It seems to me that (aside from the cost > of the tools such as InstallShield or Wise.and their support contracts), > that until there is the ability to get some kind of support, more current > learning material, books, etc., that if there is any kind of early deadline > as to getting the product and installer out the door, then the third party > tools are the way to go for the time being. > > > > Don't get me wrong, I am going to continue to try to muddle my way through > learning WiX as I believe that it will make me more marketable, but if > Microsoft wants this 'Free' product to take off, they should consider > helping it along a little. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
