Julie, Thanks for the Wiki.
To all interested: I've published the first two pages (out of five) of my "beginners tutorial". http://www.merlinia.com/mdt/WiXTutorial.msl It's a lot more work than I expected. :-( Corrections, suggestions, criticism, etc. very welcome. Probably not of much interest to anybody here because it's so introductory... Yours, Rennie > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Julie Campbell > Sent: 23. april 2007 19:52 > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: [WiX-users] Beginner's Tutorial, Books, Versions... > > I'm a little late on the topic, but I didn't have access to > my e-mail over the weekend. Like some others mentioned, I am > a software engineer first and an installer person third or > fourth ... some perspective, comments, ideas ... sorry, this is long. > > I started learning WiX in late 2006 after management finally > came to the realization that our current installers (written > by a third party) had no chance at all of working under > Vista. After looking at InstallShield 12, Wise and WiX, I > chose WiX for my emergency development, specifically v3 as I > got the impression it was stable enough (and hasn't given me reason to > doubt) for general application installers. > > The tutorial Gabor created and maintains was good to start > out with and gave me that initial "WiX is easy and I like it" > feeling. However, as it is for v2, it didn't cover some > things I needed to know and other things didn't apply. > > There are several great WiX bloggers out there and some > really awesome explanations of more advanced topics. However, > I find searching for and reading blog entries a really > painful way to come up a learning curve. > > So, I started reading the mailing list religiously and saved > notes whenever I saw something I thought might be useful. I > created and admin a very successful intranet MediaWiki site > at work, so I started saving these notes on an intranet wiki > of my own, because despite the creation and early promise of > wixwiki.com, it is locked down very tightly, not really > organized, I can't even find an e-mail address to request an > account from (though I could probably search for rmacfadyen > in wix-users), and there have been a whopping 5 changes in > the last 60 days. > > Before I know it, I'm up to over 50 pages of rough notes and > link collections (see http://www.mindcapers.com/wiki/WiX). > I'm also seeing the same questions on this list over and > over. I'm having to dig through WiX source code to answer > some of my questions. I look for a book on WiX, there isn't > one. With the WiX v3 roadmap looking like completion at the > end of 2007, I'm thinking by then I'll move from "competent > user" to "expert" with the demands ahead of me anyway. My 16 > years of professional development gives me enough insight to > how long this learning curve will take. I start considering > writing a book for software developers to come up the > intermediate learning curve to save some of the pain I went > through (thank you Google for easing that effort!). > > As I started digging around more, and putting notes in a Word > document, there are dozens (at least) of developers blogging > about WiX. There is a Wiki. There is a mailing list. There > are at least a couple people contemplating writing a book. > > So ... what I would really like to see is group effort on > getting one superb set of documentation together rather than > the hodge-podge of incomplete sources of information that exist today. > > I am willing to help, leading or following, doesn't matter. > Any of the following would be great: > > * I am an excellent MediaWiki admin and could clean up, categorize and > improve wixwiki.com given the opportunity. > * I would be happy to migrate my non-duplicated WiX materials > to wixwiki.com. > * My wiki has open registration if the tightly locked down > wixwiki.com site isn't loosened up a bit. > * I would love collaborators on a book. I haven't written an > entire book before, but I've got a good outline started and a > knack for translating technical mumbo-jumbo into > understandable explanations. I also have excellent > organizational skills. However, there are some topics I have > only glossed over (IIS, SQLServer, xmlconfig) as these aren't > of immediate interest to me. Besides, it is a bit silly for > a relative outsider to try to go it alone and re-create > wheels that have already been rounded. A book probably isn't > all that far off with "go ahead and steal my blog entries as > long as you consider me a contributor" permission grants. It > would also be silly not to have at least small pieces of book > created by Rob, Bob and the other Wixperts. > > A wiki can be as good as a book if organized correctly. > There are also MediaWiki extensions available to convert wiki > sites into .chm files, which would be immensely useful for > those of us that go "off network" for a few days at a time. > > I sent an e-mail to wixadmin quite a while ago asking for a > release to sign and offering to assist with the help files, > but never received a response. > I have no idea whether that was due to my lack of "karma" or > a bit-bucket e-mail address. > > Anyway, enough babbling from me. What would you like to see? > I seem to be set of creating or improving *something*, for > my own use if nothing else, might as well make it easier on > myself and share with the world at the same time. > > Julie Campbell > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > _______________ > Scanned by IBM Email Security Management Services powered by > MessageLabs. For more information please visit > http://www.ers.ibm.com > ______________________________________________________________ > _______________ > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > ----------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 > Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control > of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. > http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
