Dark extracts to a flat list of files named after their ids. Melt extracts to a source tree, which makes it easier to update. Plus Melt does the .wixpdb updating.
Putting the extraction/updating in Melt was a bad idea. (Whoever it was who had that idea, I certainly can't remember.) It mixes two very different things. Adding the functionality to Dark is a little better but not by much. (Dark is *mostly* about decompiling; extraction is something else tacked on.) I think it would make it easier to discover the patching benefits if it were its own tool. To be honest, if you wanted to do that for v4, it could start in v3: Leave Melt.exe alone, copy the extraction/updating code to NewTool, add the Binary extraction, and merge it (almost) as-is to v4. The only downside: It will take significant research, discussion, and heated debate to come up with a new tool name... On 05-Jan-15 22:21, Tunney, Stephen wrote: > Quick side question for 4.x > > Why do we have melt AND dark? The two of you seem to want them to act the > same, don't they really do the same thing (decompile a MS* database)? Melt > updates/generates a .wixpdb as well which is the only real difference I can > see. > > Should it be considered to merge the two tools together perhaps? Just a > thought exercise perhaps but the questions you two both raised have put a > smell in my nose. > Stephen > ________________________________________ > From: Bob Arnson [b...@joyofsetup.com] > Sent: January 5, 2015 6:51 PM > To: wix-devs@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: Re: [WiX-devs] Updating Melt to extract files from the Binary table > for patching > > On 03-Jan-15 20:36, Stephen Tunney wrote: >> Ok, so here's my pitch: >> >> v3.x would get a couple of new flags >> -xn (extract in new directory format) <patch> >> -xb (extract binaries, does not get squashed by -sextract and uses old >> path format) <path> > Do we need both? I like -xn -- subdirectories for files and binaries a > la Dark, right? That provides binaries and prompts users to update their > scripts and/or existing melt output. > > -- > sig://boB > http://joyofsetup.com/ > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Dive into the World of Parallel Programming! The Go Parallel Website, > sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your > hub for all things parallel software development, from weekly thought > leadership blogs to news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a > look and join the conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net > _______________________________________________ > WiX-devs mailing list > WiX-devs@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-devs > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Dive into the World of Parallel Programming! The Go Parallel Website, > sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your > hub for all things parallel software development, from weekly thought > leadership blogs to news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a > look and join the conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net > _______________________________________________ > WiX-devs mailing list > WiX-devs@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-devs > -- sig://boB http://joyofsetup.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dive into the World of Parallel Programming! The Go Parallel Website, sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your hub for all things parallel software development, from weekly thought leadership blogs to news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a look and join the conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net _______________________________________________ WiX-devs mailing list WiX-devs@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-devs
