The L.A Fox Developer Newsletter

April 1994

Books and Toys (Con't from page 6)

6. Allows you to place lines of text which will

display your company name, any pertinent lines of

text, and the name of the software being installed.

7. It should allow multiple disk fromats (360 K,

1.2

M, 720K, 144M).

8.

It should have some facility for file compres-

sion, such as ZIP or ARC.

9.

It has to have decent documentation and be

easy to use. (Then again, how many commercial

packages can do this?)

10.

The resultant installation disk could be

started by just typing “INSTALL” or an equivalent

command.

While there are a number of other important

criteria, I thought that if I could just find one that

met the above, I’d be doing good.

Some of the programs I downloaded were INST

InstallatIon Software (INST3O.ZIP), Generic Install

Program (GIPV3OI .ZIP), The Finishing Touch

(FINISH2O.ZIP), Install-Pro (IPRO2O.ZIP), Pro-

gram Installer Professional v4.5 (Pl45.ZIP),

Proinstaller vl.05 (PRO.ZIP), Installer 1.2

(INSTLRI2.ZIP), and Doughboy Install

(DOUGH2O.ZIP). Here’s what I found out:

Generic Install Program (GIPV3O1 ZIP) - This

one isn’t bad if you don’t mind the absence of a

compression utility. It takes you through the

building of an installation disk in easy-to-follow

steps. (Fl is always available for help.) It

handles all four disk formats, has a facility for

marking which files get copied to the installation

disk, and will make the default installation direc-

tory. However, there is no compression utility (so

you could end up with a lot of disks to duplicate),

no allowance for alternative directories, and no

mechanism for changing the CONFIG and

AUTOEXEC files. The program is easy to use and

the resultant installation program does have a

fairly professional look to it.

INST Installation Software (INST3O.ZIP) - While

the end result is not as professional looking, this

program offers a few more options. You’re allowed

to change the CONFIG and AUTOEXEC files, add

lines of text, and display your company logo (if it’s

in a .PCX format). This program is a bit unusual in

that it’s one of the few I’ve seen that allow you to

upgrade existing applications. You can also specify

video adapters, base memory, and free disk space. It

also supports self-extracting files, such as those

generated by IhArc, although none are included in the

program.

Install-Pro (IPRO2O9.ZIP) - This is one of the better

installation programs if you like to work from install

“scripts”. However, be prepared for a learning curve.

PICK OF THE LITTER

First Impression (IMPRES25.ZIP) - As the name

implies, program installation routines are the very first

impression the end-user has of your software. Not

only did this one meet or surpass my expectations, it

even looked better than some of the commercial

programs I’ve seen. Outstanding documentation,

options, and ease of use make this program a plea-

sure to use.

Program Installer Professional (PI45.ZIP) - This is

another great piece of work. While not as intuitive as

First Impression, it still offers an intuitive interface

enabling you to make short work of making your

master disks. Automatic file compression (lhArc) is a

unique feature of this software.

MOST INTERESTING

Doughboy Install (DOUG H20.ZIP) - Of the ten pro-

grams I downloaded, this was the only one that ad-

dressed the Windows platform exclusively. The

program was about as automatic as you can get.

Some of the options include being able to use

bitmaps, import icons, etc. The only drawback that

was obvious was that CONFIG and AUTOEXEC files

were not configurable.

Closing Note

As mentioned above, all of these files were down-

loaded from Chips+ Connection in Newport Beach. Of

the many BBS’s I belong to, this one has consistently

high quality programs. Registration is a snap and

membership is free.

(Con't, page 8)

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