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This time I am taking a bit of a break from doing the Play16 installer example. I wanted to talk abit about the different versions of the Installer. As I mentioned in my second article, two different divisions of Commodore contracted out to Sylvan Technical Arts for the installer. CATS contracted then to do an installer for Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0, while the contract by Engineering was for 2.0 only.
As a result, there are quite a few different versions of the Installer out there. The problem is that they all do not support the same commands. Though 95% of all the Installer scripts you run across will work with just about any version of the Installer binary, it seems that a few of the more complex and bigger PD packages take full advantage of all that it has to offer. This includes using some of the commands that are not supported by some of the different versions of the Installer.
The new X-Windows package for the Amiga, AmiWin, uses the commodore Installer. He uses the BITAND command and this seems not to be supported in many version of the installer. (AmiWin20d.lha on Aminet in gfx/x11) The CyberGraphX installer uses the 'newname' option for a 'copyfiles', this also seems to have problems on some installers.
Here is a list of Installer versions that I have collected over time. If you have a version that I am missing, if you could please uuencode it and email it to me at installer@vgr.com that would be great! To check to see what verison of the installer you are running get into a cli/shell and type: 'version installer full' . If you installer is Imploded with Imploder then you will not be able to get a version string from the cli/shell. You will need to run the installer with a script and select the 'About' button.
Imploder is a program that 'packs' or compress executables and still leaves them in a runable format. The big advantage is that it saves room. When you put together a distribution disk and you are running out of room many people use Imploder to implode the installer binary and cut the size in about half. Imploder can be found on Aminet as: imploder-4.0.lzh in the util/pack directory. Even Commodore sent disks out with the installer binary Imploded.
The imploded sizes in the following table are after using Imploder 4.0 with the default settings.
Version String Size Imploded installer 1.24 ( 1-09-92) 115144 62684 installer_2 2.9 (23-03-92) 111504 60056 installer_2 2.12 (15-05-92) 113224 60936 installer_2 2.15 ( 3-08-92) 113740 61300 installer_2 2.17 (13-02-93) 113532 61236
What version should you use? Well if you can get version 2.17 off an Commodore Install disk that might be best. 2.17 seems to do everything. The next best bet it to grab Installer-1.25.lzh in util/misc of aminet. This archive really has version 1.24 in it. This is what most Commercial programs come with and seems to run just fine. Also 1.24 can be found on Fred Fish 870.
If you do not already have the "Installer" program in your "c:" directory, it would be a good idea to get your Install Disk (the one that comes with the Operating System Disks), and copy the Installer from there to "c:" _or_ at least place it somewhere in your path.
Also pointed out in the last issue by the Editor (something that I should have done) is that you _should not_ hardcode a path to the installer in the tooltypes. Instead just have 'installer' for your 'Default Tool' in the installer script icon.
Well that is about it for this installment ... hoped you learned something!! If you wish to get more detailed information there is an Installer archive in/on the Fred Fish Collection that covers the _older_ 1.24 installer.