What is the minimal install process?

[Alex Rice]

On Sunday, March 23, 2003, at 03:48  PM, Graham Samuel wrote:

> Is anyone on the list publishing programs with any kind of installer 
> who would care to share their techniques with the rest of us?

For Mac OS <=9. Donnow. MindVision has some nice installer tools.

For OS X, I would recommend distribution of a .dmg disk image with an 
app bundle in it. To perform the installation, the user drags the app 
bundle to their Applications folder. Because app bundles are 
self-contained, it's that easy. It makes an actual installer program 
annoying and unnecessary. I like DropDMG 
http://www.c-command.com/dropdmg/ but there are some other more 
expensive tools. Or you can do it from the command line (create the dmg 
disk image that is)

For Windows, I highly recommend Inno Setup: 
http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php . It's a great program that does 
most of the stuff InstallShield does, but at a tiny fraction of the 
cost.

I'm not sure what you mean about Multiplatform Installer. Each OS has 
different installation requirements so shouldn't you use an 
installation technique appropriate for that platform?

In general you should allow the user to install the software to 
wherever they want, by overriding the default.

Alex Rice, Software Developer
Architectural Research Consultants, Inc.
alrice at ARCplanning.com
alrice at swcp.com