Compiler/shrinker?

[Fred]

Hi,

I'm just about to get started with VB.Net, and am currently looking at
the different tools.

I came accross Thinstall (http://thinstall.com) and Salamander
(http://www.remotesoft.com) that purpose to generate a self-sufficient
EXE, ie. ready to be handed to users who don't have the .Net framework
installed yet.

Does someone recommend those tools? Are there alternatives I should
look at? Other must-haves when developing in VB.Net?

Thank you
Fred.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

I'm just about to get started with VB.Net, and am currently looking at
the different tools.

I came accross Thinstall (http://thinstall.com) and Salamander
(http://www.remotesoft.com) that purpose to generate a self-sufficient
EXE, ie. ready to be handed to users who don't have the .Net framework
installed yet.

Does someone recommend those tools? Are there alternatives I should
look at? Other must-haves when developing in VB.Net?

I don't think that the tools mentioned above are must-haves. Both tools
are very specialized and there are only rare cases where using these
tools is useful. The simplest and best way is to install the complete
..NET Framework.

 

[Mythran]

I rather like using the package utility Inno Setup for creating setup files.
There is a UI for it that makes it very easy to use, but still it's a little more
than complex to learn. But, once you learn how to use it, it can do most of
every install task that you want to do from an installer, and also some things
you probably wouldn't want to do

Anywho, give it a try. Note, it does not use Windows Installer, and is not .Net
specific. It does NOT support installing into the GAC, which is ok because you
can write a utility that can install files into the gac after the install is
complete. We had to and it works wonderfully (basically wrote our own gacutil
application). Only problem was there is no documentation for the namespace we
found that allows installing into the gac (and it's a Microsoft namespace that
comes with the .Net framework...go figure, UNDOCUMENTED code in .Net?!? )

Hope this helps ya a little

Mythran

 

[Fred]

I rather like using the package utility Inno Setup for creating setup files.

Thx, but although I already use its alternative NSIS, the issue I'd
like to solve is not having to package the 20MB .Net framework if I
can avoid it.

Note, it does not use Windows Installer, and is not .Net specific. It does NOT support installing into the GAC,
which is ok because you can write a utility that can install files into the gac after the install is
complete

I don't know what the GAC is yet, but I'll keep that in mind

Thx again
Fred.