Version 9 of InstallJammer

Updated 2006-03-17 19:58:24 by escargo

InstallJammer is a multi-platform GUI installer written in Tcl/Tk and designed to work on Windows, Mac and virtually any flavor of UNIX / Linux.

Current release is 1.0b1, Feb 12th, 2006.

It features:

  • A full-featured install builder.
  • Installs are packaged in single binary executables for each platform making web distribution easy.
  • Features specific to Tcl/Tk software and programs.
  • Support for multiple install themes.
  • Default install themes that resemble popular, commercial installers.
  • A high level of configurability. Install panes can actually be modified right down to the Tcl/Tk code.
  • Built-in support for Windows install conventions.
  • Automatic creation of an uninstaller.
  • Currently supported platforms are Windows and Linux.

Downloads are available on SourceForge at:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=148203

Documentation is online at:

http://www.installjammer.com/docs/

[ Location: http://www.installjammer.com/

Author: Damon Courtney ]

Kevin Walzer InstallJammer is a very nice tool, with a shallow learning curve. I've used it for the Windows and Linux versions of iReveal. As far as I know, it is unique among open-source install tools in supporting both Windows and Linux.

APN Windows Inspection Tool Set is planning on using InstallJammer. I checked out other open source installers as well - WiX[L1 ], INSO and NSIS[L2 ] (I'm only interested in Windows). WiX was the only other one in serious contention. It is more tightly integrated with Windows (no surprise given it comes from Microsoft) and has a lot of ongoing support and a large user community. I went with InstallJammer because (a) it is much easier to get started with, (b) is Tcl based, and (c) all other things being equal, might as well pick a cross-platform tool. As Kevin said, it is a very nice tool.

escargo 17 Mar 2006 - I was able to identify information about WiX and Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS), but I couldn't find anything useful about INSO. Do you have a link for it?

APN Some questions/issues with InstallJammer (this is all on Windows):

  • New lines in text widgets show up as \n. This is true for the built in defaults as well.
  • Text widgets should be set to wrap at word boundaries, not at arbitrary characters
  • Running an install on a system where it is already installed does not behave like the standard Windows Installer. InstallJammer seems to go ahead and overwrite the existing install. Windows installer or WiX detect that the product is installed already and offer to modify/repair/remove the product.
  • Does InstallJammer take care of upgrades (version checking etc.) ?
  • There was mention of a choice of install themes somewhere in the docs. Where is this selection made? I couldn't see any place to pick the install theme.

As an aside, where is the code for the install runtime? I could not find it in the InstallJammer directory. I wanted to see if I could fix up some of the above issues.

Category Application | Category Deployment