What is th minimum background for an InstallAware user?

[catsAreMyFriends]

What is your recommendation for the minimum background of a new user of InstallAware?

I have looked through the forums here for topics like "newbie" etc. to see what support is offered for people who are new to both InstallAware and doing automated Windows installations (i.e. like me). This seems to be minimal.

I have played around with the free InstallAware download for a couple of hours to try and get a feeling for what is involved in the process of building an installer. Even for a very simple application it does not seem to be very intuitive.

It seems to me that there is a very large hole in my knowledge which needs to be filled before I can work successfully with InstallAware. I am trying to understand how large that hole is and how best to fill it.

Thanks,

cats

[CandiceJones]

If you don't find InstallAware intuitive, you're probably missing some background. Hard to tell exactly what skills would be required though, because InstallAware has been told to bring the "convenience of obviousness" to setup authoring by our customers.

So maybe you want to sharpen up on some general script coding skills and OS/runtime/framework knowledge.

[bokkie]

Cats,

All installation packages require some familiarity of the concepts. I adapted to IA by virtue of my previous knowledge of InstallShield. Installation authoring is very different to normal application development. In much the same way that someone who knows C will adapt quite quickly to C#. But that's where the difference is. C# is in simple terms a language delivering MSIL code that would be just as valid as if it were written in VB.Net. The true added value however is found in the knowledge of the framework.

The same applies to installation authoring. If you've never been exposed to that then it would be helpful to learn about the concepts and there are many. There are very few books about installation authoring, period. Books endorse and support a product. Books on their own do not necessarily drive and sell the product.

I think you've hit the proverbial nail on the head. If you've only used IA for a couple of hours then I can understand you might find the adjustment or the shock of the new, a bit tricky. If you think IA is unintuitive, then I'd suggest you start learning another product! You'll soon be back.

You'll soon learn to recognise that IA is actually a very easy product to work with as much of the hard work is done for you. The forums are a valuable source of reference. By the time you've used up the 30-day evaluation you'll soon be getting your card out to buy it.