• Creating a simple installer for Windows (and possibly other platforms)

    From Arjen Markus@21:1/5 to All on Sun Oct 17 10:43:22 2021
    Hello,

    I am looking for a simple way to create an installer program. I have seen InstallJammer and that seemed promising (even if it is no longer under active development) but it fails to work - when I start it, I simply get a console window, no GUI to guide me
    through the steps. The tutorial nor the documentation are of any help.

    What I want to do:
    - Create a menu item to star the program
    - Also add the program's installation directory to the path
    - Allow the user to select one or two things

    Very basic, but there you go. What are the options in this day and age? (I used to use a simple script from the Wiki, but that was before the advent of Windows 10)

    Regards,

    Arjen

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Harald Oehlmann@21:1/5 to All on Sun Oct 17 19:56:17 2021
    Am 17.10.2021 um 19:43 schrieb Arjen Markus:
    Hello,

    I am looking for a simple way to create an installer program. I have seen InstallJammer and that seemed promising (even if it is no longer under active development) but it fails to work - when I start it, I simply get a console window, no GUI to guide
    me through the steps. The tutorial nor the documentation are of any help.

    What I want to do:
    - Create a menu item to star the program
    - Also add the program's installation directory to the path
    - Allow the user to select one or two things

    Very basic, but there you go. What are the options in this day and age? (I used to use a simple script from the Wiki, but that was before the advent of Windows 10)

    Regards,

    Arjen

    Hi Arjen,
    for Windows, I use InnoSetup.
    Maybe, Ashok may say what he uses for his TCL install packages.

    Take Care,
    Harald

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Christian Gollwitzer@21:1/5 to All on Sun Oct 17 21:34:08 2021
    Am 17.10.21 um 19:43 schrieb Arjen Markus:
    I am looking for a simple way to create an installer program.

    I'm just responding to the "possibly other platforms". Only on Windows,
    people really want installers. On both Linux and macOS, individual
    installers are regarded as unauthentic.

    On Linux, the best thing is a single executable file or a tar.gz folder.
    For Tcl, a starpack is the best you can do. For desktop icons one can
    create a .desktop file, but usually that's not required. On macOS, the
    typical distribution is a .dmg file (something like a file system image)
    where the application can be copied to the /Applications folder. Xcode
    can create installers, but .dmg is way easier to create and to use.

    Best regards,

    Christian

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Gerhard Reithofer@21:1/5 to Arjen Markus on Mon Oct 18 01:04:07 2021
    Hi Arjen,
    just an idea but my knowledge is almost 20 years old.

    On Sun, 17 Oct 2021, Arjen Markus wrote:

    Hello,

    I am looking for a simple way to create an installer program. I have
    seen InstallJammer and that seemed promising (even if it is no longer
    under active development) but it fails to work - when I start it, I
    simply get a console window, no GUI to guide me through the steps. The tutorial nor the documentation are of any help.

    What I want to do:
    - Create a menu item to star the program
    - Also add the program's installation directory to the path
    - Allow the user to select one or two things

    Very basic, but there you go. What are the options in this day and age? (I used to use a simple script from the Wiki, but that was before the advent of Windows 10)

    There is a modules called Wizard in the BWidgets but there isn't any
    manual for that.
    AFAIR its a simple tool to create continuous dialogs with navigation
    buttons and which allows input fields and callback functions, etc.

    I have seen a documentation a very, very long time ago and finally I did
    not use in for real as for the planned project the installation was
    paid.

    It uses the BWidet's PagesManager and its also the basis for orphaned InstallJammer I think.

    Maybe it's worth to take a look at it.

    Bye,
    Gerhard


    --
    Gerhard Reithofer - Techn. EDV Reithofer - http://www.tech-edv.co.at

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From rene@21:1/5 to arjen.m...@gmail.com on Sun Oct 17 23:55:14 2021
    arjen.m...@gmail.com schrieb am Montag, 18. Oktober 2021 um 08:37:22 UTC+2:
    On Monday, October 18, 2021 at 1:05:50 AM UTC+2, Gerhard Reithofer wrote:
    Hi Arjen,
    just an idea but my knowledge is almost 20 years old.
    On Sun, 17 Oct 2021, Arjen Markus wrote:

    Hello,

    I am looking for a simple way to create an installer program. I have seen InstallJammer and that seemed promising (even if it is no longer under active development) but it fails to work - when I start it, I simply get a console window, no GUI to guide me through the steps. The tutorial nor the documentation are of any help.

    What I want to do:
    - Create a menu item to star the program
    - Also add the program's installation directory to the path
    - Allow the user to select one or two things

    Very basic, but there you go. What are the options in this day and age? (I used to use a simple script from the Wiki, but that was before the advent of Windows 10)
    There is a modules called Wizard in the BWidgets but there isn't any manual for that.
    AFAIR its a simple tool to create continuous dialogs with navigation buttons and which allows input fields and callback functions, etc.

    I have seen a documentation a very, very long time ago and finally I did not use in for real as for the planned project the installation was
    paid.

    It uses the BWidet's PagesManager and its also the basis for orphaned InstallJammer I think.

    Maybe it's worth to take a look at it.

    Bye,
    Gerhard


    --
    Gerhard Reithofer - Techn. EDV Reithofer - http://www.tech-edv.co.at
    Thank you, all, for the responses. I use a starpack to distribute the application, but Windows users are used to installers. Hence my question. (My previous experience with actually setting up such a thing dates from 2010 or thereabout and then you
    could do this via DDE ...)

    I will have a closer look at your suggestions.

    Regards,

    Arjen
    Hello Arjen,

    dde is still working, just call "package req dde"

    HTH
    rene

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Arjen Markus@21:1/5 to Gerhard Reithofer on Sun Oct 17 23:37:19 2021
    On Monday, October 18, 2021 at 1:05:50 AM UTC+2, Gerhard Reithofer wrote:
    Hi Arjen,
    just an idea but my knowledge is almost 20 years old.
    On Sun, 17 Oct 2021, Arjen Markus wrote:

    Hello,

    I am looking for a simple way to create an installer program. I have
    seen InstallJammer and that seemed promising (even if it is no longer under active development) but it fails to work - when I start it, I
    simply get a console window, no GUI to guide me through the steps. The tutorial nor the documentation are of any help.

    What I want to do:
    - Create a menu item to star the program
    - Also add the program's installation directory to the path
    - Allow the user to select one or two things

    Very basic, but there you go. What are the options in this day and age? (I used to use a simple script from the Wiki, but that was before the advent of Windows 10)
    There is a modules called Wizard in the BWidgets but there isn't any
    manual for that.
    AFAIR its a simple tool to create continuous dialogs with navigation
    buttons and which allows input fields and callback functions, etc.

    I have seen a documentation a very, very long time ago and finally I did
    not use in for real as for the planned project the installation was
    paid.

    It uses the BWidet's PagesManager and its also the basis for orphaned InstallJammer I think.

    Maybe it's worth to take a look at it.

    Bye,
    Gerhard


    --
    Gerhard Reithofer - Techn. EDV Reithofer - http://www.tech-edv.co.at

    Thank you, all, for the responses. I use a starpack to distribute the application, but Windows users are used to installers. Hence my question. (My previous experience with actually setting up such a thing dates from 2010 or thereabout and then you could
    do this via DDE ...)

    I will have a closer look at your suggestions.

    Regards,

    Arjen

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Arjen Markus@21:1/5 to rene on Mon Oct 18 00:42:39 2021
    On Monday, October 18, 2021 at 8:55:16 AM UTC+2, rene wrote:

    Hello Arjen,

    dde is still working, just call "package req dde"

    HTH
    rene

    Well, the question really is whether the communication with the Windows OS to add items to the Start menu also still works. I must admit I have not tried it ;). The old way I referrred to is at https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Sample+installation+script.


    Regards,

    Arjen

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ralf Fassel@21:1/5 to All on Mon Oct 18 11:19:59 2021
    * Arjen Markus <arjen.markus895@gmail.com>
    | I am looking for a simple way to create an installer program.

    Simple? It depends. We're using NSIS, once set up, it just works and
    looks like what people expect on Windows.

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/nsis/

    HTH
    R'

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mike Griffiths@21:1/5 to arjen.m...@gmail.com on Mon Oct 18 13:55:50 2021
    On Monday, 18 October 2021 at 08:42:41 UTC+1, arjen.m...@gmail.com wrote:
    On Monday, October 18, 2021 at 8:55:16 AM UTC+2, rene wrote:

    Hello Arjen,

    dde is still working, just call "package req dde"

    HTH
    rene
    Well, the question really is whether the communication with the Windows OS to add items to the Start menu also still works. I must admit I have not tried it ;). The old way I referrred to is at https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/Sample+installation+script.


    Regards,

    Arjen
    https://twapi.magicsplat.com/v4.5/msi.html and https://twapi.magicsplat.com/v4.5/shell.html may or may not be of use/interest?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Peter Dean@21:1/5 to Arjen Markus on Tue Oct 19 09:32:38 2021
    On 18/10/2021 3:43 am, Arjen Markus wrote:
    Hello,

    I am looking for a simple way to create an installer program. I have seen InstallJammer and that seemed promising (even if it is no longer under active development) but it fails to work - when I start it, I simply get a console window, no GUI to guide
    me through the steps. The tutorial nor the documentation are of any help.

    What I want to do:
    - Create a menu item to star the program
    - Also add the program's installation directory to the path
    - Allow the user to select one or two things

    Very basic, but there you go. What are the options in this day and age? (I used to use a simple script from the Wiki, but that was before the advent of Windows 10)

    Regards,

    Arjen


    I still use installjammer occasionally for a couple of inhouse programs,
    so it is still workable.

    I have a batch file to start it

    U:\tcl\installjammer\Binaries\Windows\installkit.exe ^
    U:\tcl\installjammer\installjammer.tcl

    hth
    pd

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Arjen Markus@21:1/5 to Peter Dean on Tue Oct 19 00:39:43 2021
    On Tuesday, October 19, 2021 at 1:32:45 AM UTC+2, Peter Dean wrote:

    I still use installjammer occasionally for a couple of inhouse programs,
    so it is still workable.

    I have a batch file to start it

    U:\tcl\installjammer\Binaries\Windows\installkit.exe ^ U:\tcl\installjammer\installjammer.tcl

    hth
    pd

    I see: I mistook the installkit.exe executable for the entire application, but it is merely the tclkit executable. When I launched it as in your example, it started to work as expected. Thanks. Well, I now have quite a bunch of solutions to choose from.

    Arjen

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ri Ho@21:1/5 to All on Tue Nov 23 11:15:47 2021
    Yes, this response is a little late but..
    I have been successful with innosetup and its companion product. It has been used to install apps that require admin access as well as those that don't. Those installers have been in the form of exe's. Many want\prefer a .msi, thou MS states in their
    docs that both constitute valid forms of install-able code. However, as we have experienced, MS will likely warn the user of impending disaster, etc ... if you don't download code from their store - which will require a certificate.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)