End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4

[NewsArchive]

The following products have already been discontinued and are no longer
sold. There are no bugfixes or other enhancements planned.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Product Name Version Remarks
------------ ------- -------

SetupBuilder Standard 4.x Migration to SetupBuilder 5 Professional
recommended

SetupBuilder Web 4.x Migration to SetupBuilder 5 Developer
recommended

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

Is there a way to migrate SB4 installs to SB5?

Thanks,

--
Carlos Gutiérrez
http://sca.com.mx

[NewsArchive]

Carlos,

SB5 cannot open SB4 files. SB5 has a different philosophy regarding the
project management (and feature set). SB5 is completely "script driven".
SB4.x projects are limited because they are based on a sequential database
driven processing model. Something like the following:

1) Display GUI (Welcome -> Readme -> License -> etc.)
2) Install Files
3) Write Registry/INI Entries
4) Perform Actions
5) Run Programs

In contrast to SB4, the new SB5 is completely script driven. Would you like
to display the License Agreement before your Welcome dialog? No problem.
Or read some values out of the Registry and based on this information
display different sets of wizard dialogs. With SB5 you can do it. SB5
supports IF..THEN..ELSE and LOOP control structures to provide looping and
conditional execution of installation components.

You can now use the *same* script to compile *different* versions of your
installer (e.g. full or upgrade image). The SB5 preprocessor can
conditionally include lines of code within an installer program. The
directives that include code conditionally are defined in such a way that
you can construct a chain of inclusion directives to include exactly the
functions you want.

Of course, you can still use your old SB4 installations (there is nothing
wrong with that). Because SB5 gives you so much more power and flexibility,
it's wise to "rethink" some distribution projects.

If you create new projects, I would consider SB5. It supports Windows 95,
98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.

Does this help?

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

I understand the advantages of SB5. The problem is when you have complex SB4
setup you have been polishing over the years. I would be nice if SB5 could
import file lists with attributes, shortcuts, folders, registry key, delete
file actions, etc. from a SB4 project, even if the resulting SB5 project
wasn't completely functional. Alot of the hard work would be saved. Even an
external unsupported utility would be fine.

Regards,

--
Carlos Gutiérrez
http://sca.com.mx

[NewsArchive]

Friedrich,

What about Setupbuilder for Clarion - you don't mention it in the message.
have I missed a previous announcement ?
ie. have you already dittched support for this

SB4 for Clarion is enough for my limited use

[NewsArchive]

Chriss,

SetupBuilder 5 for Clarion (a major sub-set of SetupBuilder 5 Professional)
will be available within the next few days.

We'll post an End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4 for Clarion soon.

Thanks,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

Carlos,

I agree that a conversion utility to write 'the bones' would be a good idea.
I have a client that upgraded from SB4 to SB5 and I had to rewrite their
install for them - a real PITA. I was quite surprised there wasn't any
conversion utility.

After that effort, I've elected to stay with SB4 since I have a whole lot
more installs than my client that would need to be rewritten and SB4 is
doing everything I need. I'm sure SB5 is a "whole lot of wonderful" but ...

Al

[NewsArchive]

Al,

Unfortunately, it's not possible to develop such a tool :-( There will not
be a conversion utility for SB4.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

Carlos,

If you put so much work into your SB4, then it's "wise" to rethink your
distribution strategy in SB5 because it gives you so much more power and
flexibility.

For example, I think it took more than 2 days to develop the Clarion 5.5 and
Clarion 6.0 installations. With SB5 we were done in 90 minutes. SB5
supports include and exclude wildcards, tons of new functions, compiler
directives (e.g. use one script to compile different installations), new
security features, etc., etc.

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

While I can well understand the announcement of the demise of SB4, I have
just one question.

Having mutually discovered that the SB4 binary patch methodology is
sometimes more efficient than that of SB5, is there now an option to select
the patch method in SB5 Pro, as per earlier emails?

Sim

[NewsArchive]

Hi Sim,

This is only in one out of 1,000,000 cases. For example, using SB4 would
increase the size of a Clarion patch by at least 40%. The file you are
talking about does not work with any patching solution (expect the old SB4
patching method <g>).

Like I said in the previous email, an option to use the previous SB4 LSPatch
technology will not be part of the final 5.00. Perhaps it will be in 5.01.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

Alone, that's a huge feature.

Jeff Slarve

[NewsArchive]

:)

BTW, I'll send you the debug DLL tomorrow. I had to rewrite our web site.

Thanks,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[NewsArchive]

No rush Friedrich. Nice looking site.

Jeff Slarve

[NewsArchive]

Given that, it would be nice to have continued support for SB4. At
least to the extent that if a new Clarion release or a new Windows
service pack breaks SB4-based installers (as has happened in the
past), fixes will be made so we're not out in the cold or forced to
move to SB5.

BTW, I did buy SB5 during the beta, but after difficulty getting it to
work right I back-burnered it and stuck with SB4.

> Al,
>
> Unfortunately, it's not possible to develop such a tool :-( There will not
> be a conversion utility for SB4.
>
> Friedrich
---------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Rothkin
Developer, DJ Manager Software

[NewsArchive]

Steve,

> Given that, it would be nice to have continued support for SB4. At
> least to the extent that if a new Clarion release or a new Windows
> service pack breaks SB4-based installers (as has happened in the
> past), fixes will be made so we're not out in the cold or forced to
> move to SB5.

The last source code modification to SB4 was on 9/3/2004 (more than
one year ago). It fixed a Windows API char(128) problem.

The SB4 IDE is dated 12/4/2003 (nearly two years old).

Unfortunately, it's not possible to port all the new SB51 Clarion 6.1,
Clarion 6.2, Windows Server Family, Windows Vista, 64-bit support, etc.
features back to SB4.

The SB4 installer is simply not powerful enough to handle all the new
Windows features or to detect C6.2, C7, etc. environments. We need
the SetupScript scripting engine to handle all these tasks.

> BTW, I did buy SB5 during the beta, but after difficulty getting it to
> work right I back-burnered it and stuck with SB4.

Did you check out the latest SetupBuilder 5.1?

Thanks,

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[linder]

I'm not looking for support for new OS features. I'm just thinking of
support for when a new OS actually completely breaks an SB4-based
installer. I think this last happened with Windows 2000 SP1 -- the
installers were incorrectly reporting it as an unsupported operating
system (and refusing to permit installation) until you released a fix
for that. If something like that were to happen, I'd want a quick fix.
SB4 is only one version back, so I don't think that's unreasnable.

No I haven't checked 5.1 yet. Given that my SB4-based installer works,
and I have lots of other tasks on my plate, spending time porting to
SB5 isn't high on my list.

[linder]

Steve,

Yes, I understand. But there are new 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions
(Vista, Windows Server Family) available now, and it's not possible to add
support for these OS's to SB4.

We released 40 SetupBuilder 5 beta builds in 14 month to make the transition
as smooth as possible.

SetupBuilder 5.1 already supports .NET and 64-bit installation. It supports
the Windows Server Family and Windows Vista, Clarion 6.2 and (of course)
will support Clarion 7.0. We already have an internal experimental compiler
available to generate .msi files for those who need native Windows Installer
support.

--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[linder]

Friedrich,

Is there a benefit to upgrading from SetupBuilder for Clarion to the
Professional version? I've only done very basic installations thus far, but
who knows what the future holds? Soon I will be upgrading to C6, and
deploying a C6/IPDriver application. Thanks for your comments.

Thanks,

John

[linder]

John,

The SetupBuilder 5 Professional or Developer Editions give you full control
over the installation process. The "SetupBuilder for Clarion" Edition does
not provide access to the underlying script,and can be used to point and
click to an installation program in minutes without writing code.

If you are interested, please visit:
http://www.lindersoft.com/lspsfx10_7.htm

Professional Edition is for developers who need a more sophisticated
installation suite with script writing capability. SetupBuilder Professional
includes a delta patch feature, for creating compact installation patches
to update older versions of applications, and many other advanced features,
including built-in DLL and Windows API calling, and a script editor.

Developer Edition is for professional developers who want complete control
over their installations. In addition to all functions found in
SetupBuilder 5 Professional, the Developer Edition flagship provides
advanced features such as Web Installation and Web Update (live update) for
creating dynamic Internet-based installations (powered by iDeploy), Windows
x64 (64-bit) support, Integrated Visual Debugger, multi-language support,
customizable Uninstaller, MultiVersion file updater (multi-version patch),
Delayed File Install support, Windows Services support, Serial Number
Generator, built-in support for Authenticode Digital Signatures, HTTP Post
and File Downloading functions, AutoUpdate Generator, Online Registration,
Serial Number Generator, Dynamic Scanning, Zip and Unzipping, built-in
installation support for SoftVelocity's IP Data Server (IPDS), MapDrive
and NetShare functions (and more...).

And of course, there is a special upgrade price available if you have
SetupBuilder for Clarion.

Please drop me a line if there is any further question.


--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5

[linder]

Friedrich,

Thanks for the detailed response. Good product.

John Farmer

[linder]

John,

Thank you very much for your kind words!!

Friedrich