[WiX-devs] [ wix-Feature Requests-931350 ] NAnt interoperability

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Feature Requests item #931350, was opened at 2004-04-07 23:43
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by schuur
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Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Priority: 5
Submitted By: SjoerdVerweij (sjoerdverweij)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: NAnt interoperability

Initial Comment:
Convert? Autodetect & seamless interop? 


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Comment By: Gertjan Schuurmans (schuur)
Date: 2004-04-21 15:15

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Can be done in NAnt -> one or two very simple WiXTasks 
could be added to NAnt which search the system PATH (or 
the install location of WiX: we'll need WiX to package itself) 
for light.exe and candle.exe. No licensing problems either in 
that case.

Beside issues of licensing, very tight integration with NAnt 
(wix-code inside build files, much like the current msi-task in 
nant) is imho useless, because you'll completely loose the 
library/include mechanism. 

Moreover, NAnt is a build tool, not a setup tool; the ongoing 
fuzz about the Nant msi-task: completely refactored twice 
and still quite messy, and the numerous support questions on 
the msi-task alone are, to me, a sign that a build file is not a 
good place to store a complex installer script. Instead, it's the 
right place to call some tool for creating your installer.


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Comment By: Rob Mensching (robmen)
Date: 2004-04-21 09:47

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So, is this feature something that should be done in WiX or 
should it be done in Nant?  As I understand it, Nant is GPL 
code and that makes it very difficult for me to go anywhere 
near it.  Thus, I'm going to tend toward making WiX easy for 
someone else to integrate into Nant.

Suggestions?  Comments?

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Comment By: Gertjan Schuurmans (schuur)
Date: 2004-04-09 18:59

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Converting wix to an integrated nant task (like the current 
msi task in nant-contrib) means the end of the really useful 
wxs -> wixobj and include + library mechanism.

I think it's much better to see wix as just another compiler / 
linker combination and regard your wxs files as regular source 
files in your project. 

In that case a NAnt wix task which detects the presence of 
the wix toolset and executes the compiler and / or linker will 
suffice.

Of course, detecting the presence of wix can be done:

a) really simple: requiring candle.exe and light.exe to be on 
the system PATH. (e.g. the nant msi task requires cabarc.exe 
to be on the path)

b) really hypercorrect: having a wix toolset setup package 
that writes some path information in the registry. (I believe 
that's the way the ndoc task locates the CHM compiler, which 
is part of the HTML Help Workshop)


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