Development Blog

Is it possible to have 7-Zip LZMA2 Ultra compression for the files in the installer? Maybe in the settings somewhere a command line where you can enter whatever packer command line you want?

No, but thank you for reminding me to add compression. Two minutes of work.

BTW if anyone is interested in UAC and Windows privaleges and such see this thread:

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/5609-how-to-make-exe-request-admin-privaleges/

This is obviously for down the line but I think it's worth considering how patch/expansion/add-on/DLC installations would work. The installer would need to automatically know where the original was installed (registry entry?) and install there without prompting for a folder. It would also need to overwrite files with no prompts.

Registry entries are bad, and not needed at all. They are also not available on real OS, so just use some .ini file instead.

I'm guessing each OS has several ways of handling it. I don't have a preference. Curious how most games do it (I don't think it's INI files in the Windows folder though).

On Mac, we will just create a DMG file, which gets dragged and dropped onto the Applications folder. The fancier way is to distribute through the Mac App Store. On Windows, Steam has an updating system that can handle all that. However, it would be a good idea to add a registry entry for the installation path, for future expansion. It would be something like "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\$COMPANY_NAME\$PROJECT_NAME" with the $tags replaced with the project values, obviously. This would be a string set to the install path, like "C:\Program Files\Doom 5".

Windows supports also .ini files, so use them.

For what?

For all settings.

"Windows supports binary files, so use them."

"For what?"

"For everything."

Make it anyway you like Josh, as long as it works. Which method you ever choose, there will always bee someone questioning it .)

I thought Mika was actually saying something relevant. Was that just a chance to talk about .ini files? What does that even have to do with an installer?

Some installers create registry settings, but it's not necessary as you only need to create a desktop icon (if even that), and a start menu/programs folder/item, and a .ini file to store the settings of the app.

http://www.virtualdub.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=312

The point of entering data in the registry is so that other programs can read it and see where the program is installed. Unless there is some central location for .ini files, you're just talking about parsing text files, for reasons I can't grasp.

The article gamecreator posted describes quite well what the benefits of both approaches are, especially the user comments. I often rearrange harddisks and computers, so for me mobility of programs is most important, because I don't want to reinstall each application each time I move them around, usually even losing data and settings by the uninstall/reinstall. Also the fact that .ini files work on each OS, is a huge benefit when targeting multiple OS in everyting you do.

There was a time a few years back that the Windows registry was getting so bloated that even Microsoft were starting suggest developers might look at using a revolutionary new mechanism called INI files (you have to laugh don't you). However, the Windows Registry is still the recommended solution for application configuration and installation data.

 

People are free to circumvent that if they so desire!

Can anyone tell me whether there is a central location for INI files? The whole point of this discussion is for a program to find and open some data without knowing the installation path of the program that saved that data.

That's what the user's home folder is used for. Many programs save their settings in the %userprofile% directory. You can see there directories which start with a ".", like .gimp, .git, .bash, etc... (yes, on Windows 7, although this is Linux/Unix standard).

Ah, yes, Users/Josh/AppData/Local.

 

Question: If it's a personal computer why does it use multiple accounts? That's the first thing I would get rid of if I were in charge of Windows. X|

 

So the AppData/Local folder is found by querying for CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA.

 

It's very strange that I can just randomly create directories here and delete files. So the program still has full access to screw up all the settings of other programs...Wow, great security, MS.

You can also give the developer the choice, if you want. Something like:

 

The program should look first in it's own directory for the .ini files, then in the %userprofile%, and then maybe even in %allusersprofile%, then in %windir%, if it's still not found, then it should start up with it's default settings and create a new .ini file in the folder it asks from the user (program's directory, user directory, all users, windir).

That's great.

(Perhaps we will have it for Christmas ?)

That's great.

(Perhaps we will have it for Christmas ?)

Probably not. That doesn't leave enough time for testing.