PlanetSquires Forums

Support Forums => Other Software and Code => Topic started by: Paul D. Elliott on March 19, 2007, 12:08:54 PM

Title: ? on install
Post by: Paul D. Elliott on March 19, 2007, 12:08:54 PM
I'm still running W2K and will be for at least a year or so. Can I install the update to the same
directory structure that I use now? I've got it on D:\PB\FireFly and the samples & all under that.
Admittedly I could download & try it to find out  but don't want to mess up a perfectly good installation
when a simple answer could prevent it.

Thanks.
Title: Re: ? on install
Post by: TechSupport on March 19, 2007, 01:25:47 PM
Hi Paul,

Better wait until later tonight to see if I can get this long path name problem fixed (it is looking like I won't be able to). I intend to upload a small update to the exe anyway because of a minor cosmetic problem in the designer.

FYI, you can specify the install directory during the setup. The samples will be copied to the applicable shared AppData folder. You would need to copy those sub directories back under your original FireFly install.

Actually, the easiest thing would be to do a normal FireFly install using the default paths and then manually copy the files from the resulting install over your existing FireFly installation. You could then delete the new FireFly installation from "\Program Files\", etc...

There is nothing earth shattering about this update other than the attempt to play fair with the Windows security model. Looks like the 16-bit PB compiler is making that hard to do.  :)

Title: Re: ? on install
Post by: Paul D. Elliott on March 19, 2007, 01:49:28 PM
Ok, I can wait. I wasn't sure if you updated the registry with install paths that would then need fixin.
Any way you can get the samples directory to be selectable/editable?

Just saw the msg on the PB forums about command line length. That limitation has been around since
the DOS days ( I believe ). Hopefully sometime soon, Bob will get everything re-written into 32-bit
programs ( or at least the Windows programs ... no sense doing the DOS programs ).

No need to rush this. Please take your time and do it right. I have faith in you.

Title: Re: ? on install
Post by: Paul D. Elliott on March 20, 2007, 01:59:34 PM
Just another of my 2 cents.

If you are going to "force" us to install part of your software to another directory then

PLEASE give us at least an editable choice.   >:(

This bit of having to manually hunt down where-ever the other part(s) got installed/updated and
then manually copying/updating back to the correct directory   IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Plus where are you putting FireFly.ini ?

Sorry but I'm starting to get pissed at being forced to accept some change that just makes more
work for me when it only benefits a very few people. And quite frankly from what I've seen here and
on the PB forums, no matter what,  the current version of the PB software won't compile the samples
without the user manually moving them to another directory. So I'm for keeping the install the
way it was and doing an entirely different install only for the Vista users. seems like it would be a whole
lot less headaches for the majority of users.

As usual, just my opinion.
Title: Re: ? on install
Post by: TechSupport on March 20, 2007, 03:57:44 PM
Quote from: Paul D. Elliott on March 20, 2007, 01:59:34 PM
...So I'm for keeping the install the way it was and doing an entirely different install only for the Vista users. seems like it would be a whole
lot less headaches for the majority of users.
I agree 100% and that is what I am going to do. I will upload two different installs this evening.

The 'problem' with Vista security is that if I leave the samples and ini in the Program Files folder then they automagically get moved to a 'virtualization' folder whenever those files are accessed. If the user wants to find the ini or compiled exe's then they still need to hunt around the hard drive for them. Doing it the Vista way (and WinXP way for that matter) entails installing the program in Program Files and the associated data files under the user's profile AppData directory. Actually, this works quite well except for the nastiness that I encountered when trying to use PB's 16-bit compiler - as you have probably read on the PB forum http://www.powerbasic.com/support/forums/Forum4/HTML/014257.html

Nonetheless, everything should be back to normal tonight  :D
Title: Re: ? on install
Post by: TechSupport on March 20, 2007, 04:12:28 PM
Actually, I am using Inno Setup so I am pretty sure that I can make the script to respond different ways depending on whether Vista is installed. Hopefully I can squeeze both types of installs into the one setup. Should be fun learning how to do this (e.g. OnlyBelowVersion parameter).
Title: Re: ? on install
Post by: TechSupport on March 20, 2007, 05:19:08 PM
Version 2.80 can now be downloaded from the PlanetSquires site.

The install program will detect whether Windows Vista is active
and will copy the sample/ini files to the correct location (\AppData)

If the operating system is less than Vista then the sample/ini files
are installed to the application directory (by default this
is "\Program Files\FireFly Visual Designer")

If you encounter any problems, please let me know.