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when setup isn't just xcopy

WiX v3 toolset end of the Beta imminent.

Last week Bob pushed the latest WiX v3 release to SourceForge. The original intention was to declare that drop as the final Beta build for WiX v3. However, I changed my mind for two reasons.

First, I know a lot people don't pick up weekly releases, only SourceForge drops. Sad but true. Since it had been a while since the last SourceForge drop and I wanted to make the drop then watch to see if anything new came up. Nothing has.

Second, we were very close to zero bugs on the core toolset and had a couple extension bugs that could be considered blockers. With an extra two weeks I was pretty certain that we could knock out a few more of those. Bob and I have made good progress through those this week (holidays can be good for the volunteer hours).

That means it is very likely that next week's release will be pushed as the "official WiX v3 Beta release".

You might wonder what it means for a project already called "beta" to have an official Beta release. In this case the Beta release marks the turning point where all of the major features for this release are finished and the bug flow such is under control and on a solid downward trend.

The goal is to provide a build and encourage all WiX v3 users to upgrade. That way we focus our efforts on finding all of the remaining bugs and figure out what bugs get fixed in WiX v3 and what gets moved to WiX v4. If you've found a bug in the WiX toolset get it filed soon.

Bob Arnson is actually the architect of this plan for finishing WiX v3 in 2009 so look for more details on Bob's blog over the next nine months.

 

MSI SDK

The MSI SDK (also known as the Windows Installer SDK) is here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc185688.aspx. For some reason the major search engines don't rank it highly.

You can also download the MSI SDK (which gets you the documentation in .CHM format plus several useful tools such as Orca).

 

Geek humor: I am a duplicated bot.

Every once in a while something amusing happens on the wix-users mailing list that makes me chuckle. Sometimes, when they are short, I post them to my Twitter account. This morning I came across a new email to the mailing that started with "Hi Rob" which seemed a bit odd since there are hundreds of people on the list. Sébastien Mouren apparently found it interesting too since he made an amusing response:

Hi, it's not Rob here.

I'm Sébastien, a duplicated bot that has inherited a limited part of Wix Rob's knowledge. I am not a fully featured Wix bot since I'm not able to develop for the Wix toolkit.

But has your question has reached the "read documentation" level technical support, I'm able to understand it and hopefully to answer it.

I've lost count of the number of times I've said I wish I had a clone to get everything done. Little did I know it had already happened! In this case, even with the limited inheritance, more bots out there answering WiX questions well (or, at least, amusingly) is much appreciated.

And Sébastien thanks for the chuckle this morning.  Keep answering the questions, you know I am.

 

Anniversary at the end of the beginning.

A year ago I wrote about the quiet day of reflection on my first wedding anniversary.  Today was a weekday, a work day and my job rarely allows the time to sit back and think about where I've been and what I've done personally.  So I bailed early and ran a few errands gathering components for the small gift I gave Jenny tonight when we celebrated.

While running errands and after watching the historic events of the evening, I reflected on the last year.  Easily the most dramatic event of the last year has been the process of selling "my" house and buying "our" house.  We don't get to move in until this weekend but I had the vague notion that some "next phase of life" was around the corner when I "my" house was sold and completely empty a couple weeks ago.

At this point, my friends probably think (and my parents probably hope) that I mean "kids" but I don't.  Not yet anyway.  I think it's something simpler than that.  Something like the end of the beginning.

Normally when I think of "the end of the beginning" "the beginning of the end" immediately comes to mind.  But not this time.  Instead I'm thinking "comfortable".  Not the type of comfortable where you stop doing and stop growing.  More the type of comfortable that serves as a solid foundation for reaching further and doing bigger things, new things.

Now, I don't know what those things are right now, I haven't turned that corner yet, but one thing is certain to me.  I am officially declaring November 4th a personal holiday.  From now on I will be taking that day off every year.  After that, I don't know.  For now... I'll just keep coding. <smile/>