Re: [Hamlib-developer] Windows installer script / code

[Martin C. <mfn...@gm...>]

Hi Nate,

Thanks for both the explanations and the code. Very helpful, and much
appreciated.

Martin.
KD6YAM

On Thu, Nov 6, 2025 at 4:48 AM Nate Bargmann <n0...@n0...> wrote:

> * On 2025 05 Nov 12:05 -0600, Martin Cooper wrote:
> > Hi Nate,
> >
> > I can understand reducing dependencies, for sure.
> >
> > At issue for me, as I mentioned, is knowing exactly what the installer
> > does. A Windows user has a choice - download the installer exe and run
> it,
> > or download the zip file and unzip it. What's the difference? Why would
> the
> > user choose one over the other? Are there additional things that the
> > installer does (e.g. modifying the Windows registry or making other
> system
> > changes) that the user doesn't get if they simply unzip the zip file?
> What
> > exactly is the installer doing to my system?
>
> I've attached both nsis config files.
>
> No registry modification is done as none is needed for Hamlib.  As I see
> it, the advantage is with the installer as different components can be
> installed or omitted with DLLs being a required component.
>
> > Also, if I'm building an application that might call upon Hamlib for some
> > functionality, how do I decide whether I should tell my users to install
> > Hamlib using the installer exe or simply download and unzip the zip file?
> > What would I miss if I told them to just unzip the zip file?
>
> Nothing will be missed, however with the installer I suspect you could
> have your users uncheck all of the optional components and set the path.
>
> > Without either documentation or source code for the installer, neither an
> > end user nor an application developer has a way to know which path to
> > follow and why. Admittedly, making the source code available isn't going
> to
> > help most end users, so perhaps the preferable path would be to fully
> > document the two alternatives and the reasons that someone would choose
> one
> > over the other. Me, I'm used to reading source code to find undocumented
> > information, which is why I went looking for it. :-)
>
> Just an oversight.  Those files will be added to the repository.
>
> Thanks!
>
> 73, Nate
>
> --
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