Welcome to the Lounge

Nand3221-Apr-20 5:03

21-Apr-20 5:03

Thank you very much! Cool | :cool:

MadGerbil20-Apr-20 1:38

MadGerbil

20-Apr-20 1:38

I'm most of the way through this tutorial.
It has a separate section for the DOM.

It is amazeballs: https://javascript.info/[^]

Nand3221-Apr-20 5:04

21-Apr-20 5:04

I have started using this myself. Awesome resource. thanks a lot mate . Cool | :cool:

DavidBro6320-Apr-20 4:05

DavidBro63

20-Apr-20 4:05

I've found the series by Kyle Simpson https://www.amazon.com/s?k=kyle+simpson+javascript[^] to be very detailed and covering a lot of the fine detail of JavaScript.

Nand3221-Apr-20 5:04

21-Apr-20 5:04

Sure thanks for the reference. I'll get one Smile | :)

loctrice20-Apr-20 3:46

loctrice

20-Apr-20 3:46

Pretty sure they have something on freecodecamp.org but I'm not sure how good it is.

Elephant elephant elephant, sunshine sunshine sunshine

Nand3221-Apr-20 5:06

21-Apr-20 5:06

I'll check it out! thanks

Martin ISDN21-Apr-20 1:05

Martin ISDN

21-Apr-20 1:05

I know exactly what you mean and please without jQuery, God forbid React and Angular.

This book wold be a nice start. Get the basics of the language (no web).

The Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript: Zakas, Nicholas C.: 9781593275402: Amazon.com: Books And don't worry about the "Object-Oriented" in the title.

Reintroducing JavaScript, a free chapter from a book: Appendix D. Reintroducing JavaScript · Getting MEAN with Mongo, Express, Angular, and Node Livebook

Learn JavaScript: The Hard Parts -- Dive Deep into JavaScript to Solve Complex Challenges

bind and this - Object Creation in JavaScript P1 - FunFunFunction #43 - YouTube

Higher-order functions - Part 1 of Functional Programming in JavaScript - YouTube And don't worry about the "Functional" in the title.

On the net search for articles by this guy https://tylermcginnis.com/ultimate-guide-to-execution-contexts-hoisting-scopes-and-closures-in-javascript/ He has the ability to discuss technical matters without throwing hipster abbreviations at you.

greetings

Nand3221-Apr-20 5:06

21-Apr-20 5:06

Awesome. I'm bookmarking your reply. Cool | :cool:

Installers

Richard Andrew x6417-Apr-20 15:57

Richard Andrew x64

17-Apr-20 15:57

I'm ready to upgrade from an old, old version of InstallShield Express and I was wondering if anyone has any stories, good or bad about InstallAware, a cheaper competitor?

The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.

RickZeeland17-Apr-20 19:36

RickZeeland

17-Apr-20 19:36

Seems relatively unknown, I added it to the list of installers here: https://www.slant.co/topics/4794/~installers-for-windows-programs[^]
Maybe users will add their recommendation or comments (can take a while $Shucks | :-\$ )

simchedovid20-Apr-20 2:07

simchedovid

20-Apr-20 2:07

Not in this list, but I readily recommend SetupBuilder from https://www.lindersoft.com. I have been using this product but for many years. Easy to configure and their tech support is phenominal.

Sim

RickZeeland20-Apr-20 4:04

RickZeeland

20-Apr-20 4:04

Thanks! I will add it to the list $Shucks | :-\$

Jacquers17-Apr-20 20:47

Jacquers

17-Apr-20 20:47

I've used Inno Setup before. It's free and worked well for what I needed it to do.

Johnny J.17-Apr-20 22:49

Johnny J.

17-Apr-20 22:49

I've used both Installshield and Wise and found both quite hard to deal with.

Now I use Nullsoft's installer. It does everything I need, for free. Only problem is that you have to create a script, it doesn't have a real UI, but I don't care much about that.

For .NET projects, I use WiX which integrates perfectly with Visual Studio.

Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant
Anonymous
-
The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine
Winston Churchill, 1944
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Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.
Mark Twain

Cp-Coder18-Apr-20 2:01

Cp-Coder

18-Apr-20 2:01

Years ago I tried InstallShield but found it very difficult to work with. Then I discovered Wix. (German members may stop sniggering now.) It integrates well into Visual Studio, is free and easy to use.

Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

Richard Andrew x6418-Apr-20 4:52

Richard Andrew x64

18-Apr-20 4:52

Thank you for your comment. Does Wix have a UI now?

The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.

Cp-Coder18-Apr-20 5:25

Cp-Coder

18-Apr-20 5:25

Wix integrates into Visual Studio. Haven't used it recently, but a couple of years ago, as far as I can remember, you added a Wix project to your solution. In the Wix project you defined your install needs in a xml fie. When you build the solution, the Wix project produces the installer for you. At least, that is how I remember it.
The 2019 version of Wix may be slightly more involved than this.

Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

kalberts18-Apr-20 8:05

kalberts

18-Apr-20 8:05

Don't use that phrasing when talking with Linux affectionados! As if a command line interface is not a "user interface" Smile | :)

You still edit the .wxs file (the main input file, identifying files and components and all the other stuff describing which pieces to put together in which way, and other red tape such as which user dialog style to user, product IDs etc.) in a textual format (XML), but all the rest is usually handled well by Visual Studio. You don't have to care about that crowd of individual Wix tools; when you build your solution, VS will take care of the building steps of Wix as well. There is no sort of graphic interface for putting your system together like with Lego blocks (if that is what you were hoping for).

I was an active Wix user several years ago, subscribing to the mailing lists and eagerly reading the blogs of the developers (at WiX Toolset[^]).
I see only two issues with WiX: First, it has got (almost) all the functionality you could dream of, but does it really have to be that complex? You've got two options, either the very naive, simplistic use where VS handles everything for you, or you have to accept the full complexity with a crowd of individual tools and a hundred call line options, "Linux style" in the worst possible sense. You just got to keep that 450 page book handy at all times... (and be aware in which parts the book is outdated).

Second, and this is a non-issue if you think it is perfectly OK to fill up your machine with all sorts of obsolete software. Between three and four years ago, I did a major cleanup of about twenty build agents, installing only tools in actual use, updating tools to new versions, to clean out .NET 2.x and 3.x (and a lot of other obsolete stuff). WiX 3.x requires .NET 3.x, which pulls 2.x along, so we decided to go for WiX 4, based on .NET 4, even though it was not yet released, and no VS integration was available. Sure, WiX 4 itself does not need obsolete .NET versions, but the installer package for WiX 4 itself (probably made with WiX 3) needs it! The WiX development team didn't believe me when I reported this, not until I mailed a full log from everything from Windows reinstallation on a newly formatted disk to the WiX installer complaints.

So I was promised a new release that would fix this. It didn't. Nor did the second attempt. Then I gave up, accepted that I had to maintain a .NET version released in 2006 for a single reason: To install WiX. Then we might as well use WiX 3, first released in 2009 (the Windows XP days), to keeping the VS integration intact, while waiting for WiX 4.

Six years after WiX 4 development started, it still is in the "real soon now" stage - but you can no longer download any pre-release from the web site. It states "WiX Toolset v4.x reference manual (coming soon)", but who would trust that after six years of ... nothing useful. The WiX blog of the main developer, Rob Mensching, has had a single entry for more than a year, where he states: "Completing WiX v4 is at the top of my list." Yeah, I guess that is true, but it no longer matters to me. I'm no longer waiting for Godot. I consider WiX dead software, just like .NET 2.x - you have to keep it on your machine because someone needs it.

Maybe WiX 4 will come one day, 12-15 years after WiX 3 was released. In that time span, software development has changed so much that I expect WiX 4 to be like a completely new product, not a simple version upgrade. It is guaranteed to have incompatibilities, and many fancy new possibilities that it takes a lot of resources to learn to use. Switching to WiX 4 must be judged against switching to any other installer generator - at some time into the future when it arrives. You can't even read the documentation for it today.

So, go ahead and used WiX 3.11 (the current stable version) with VS integration. But consider it stale software, dead, with no bright future ahead. If any WiX has a future, it is WiX 4. But that's another, future product that is not available today.

Richard Andrew x6418-Apr-20 8:16

Richard Andrew x64

18-Apr-20 8:16

Thank you for that informative post.

The first time I looked into WiX I thought it was the greatest thing, but I wasn't prepared for the steep learning curve. It was then that I purchased InstallShield. Smile | :)

The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.

englebart20-Apr-20 5:25

englebart

20-Apr-20 5:25

Rule #1 of using third party packages.
1. You must make it work with what is currently supported
-because-
2. Never trust anyone else's "ship date"

Flashback to a module I used during the 16bit to 32bit transitions.
I had to write a 16bit service to process requests from 32bit applications.
It seemed backwards to me, but that was the only way the APIs would let you do it.

The promised 32bit version never shipped over a 1 year span of promises!
Maybe it shipped after I left that position.

Thank goodness the 16bit Intel architecture is no longer relevant to Windows.
There are probably similar problems with 32bit and 64bit, but I have not had to dive into anything like that for a long time.

Doug Huras20-Apr-20 2:03

Doug Huras

20-Apr-20 2:03

I've used WixSharp in the past. It's a C# like overlay to create a Wix installer.

GitHub - oleg-shilo/wixsharp: Framework for building a complete MSI or WiX source code by using script files written with the C# syntax.[^]

Private Dobbs19-Apr-20 21:20

Private Dobbs

19-Apr-20 21:20

Yes, I have used it (and paid for it regrettably). Didn't like the product or the company. I settled on WiX Toolset, it takes a little extra effort to learn but your installer can then be pure "you" when you create your own bootstrapper.

Rosacek19-Apr-20 22:54

Rosacek

19-Apr-20 22:54

Hi,
I moved to Advanced Installer.
After few years have to say it works, no feature is missing and their support works as well.