For beginner it's much easier use IS then WiX- it's user interface and documentation much clearer.
But Wix free of charge and (what importance!) Wix save its source in xml-files - you can see what have been change in your installer from version to version. IS save its source in binary format (at least msi-project), so it's impossible to understand what have been changed.
But Wix GUI is poor and it's hard to use Wix for beginners.
InstallShield project files can be Binary (which is actually a standard MSI file, that can be diff'ed using InstallShield's MSIDiff tool or IDE).
InstallShield project files can also be XML. You can set how you want your InstallShield Project file to be saved in the General Information view (look for the option called "Project File Format")
I'm sorry, but I have to take issue with the "InstallShield is XML also" point.
While this is technically true, WiX's xsd schema is far, far superior to dtd.
Yes, being able to transform a windows installer database to xml and back ( thank you Daniel Gehriger ) is somewhat useful in allowing one to take advantage of source control capabilities, the reality is it's a bitch to actually use in real life.
Case in point. I work in a clearcase environment where I maintain different branches of a product line with time spent doing branching and merging. Comparing files in DTD format is soo much more difficult and manual / error prone then WiX where the distributed nature of fragments and schema constructs lend itself here.
The main advantage of InstallShield is in it's visual designers. Unfortunatly they don't work that well in the environment I describe above. Our .NET assemblies begin with similar names and InstallShield uses very weak names for autogenerating primary keys. This means I frequntly get non trivial merge problems in clearcase.
It's pretty obvious to me how the best of InstallShield and WiX could be brought together to make my daily life easier. I'm just hoping someone will put it together soon.
We have been using IS for quite awhile now and one of our developers would like one of our new product installers to be built WiX instead of IS.
Are there any aruments that should be used for which one would be best for the task. I have not personnally used WiX so I do not know much about it.
Our new project is a complicated install project with drivers, third party apps, lots of custom actions to perform, print drivers, as well as we are now going to be pushing out our own plug-ins.
Christopher Painter wrote: I'm sorry, but I have to take issue with the "InstallShield is XML also" point.
It's pretty obvious to me how the best of InstallShield and WiX could be brought together to make my daily life easier. I'm just hoping someone will put it together soon.
WixPie is an option if you want to use the Wix-Toolset but want a Gui and xml
