[Distutils] SourceForge.net: Project Info - Windows Installer XML (WiX) toolset

[Trent Mick]

M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> Looking more closely at the msi2xml project page it seems
> to do XML -> MSI direction as well.
> 
> Trent, do you have experience with one of them ? Which is
> more usable ?

WiX was built and is maintained by Microsoft guys (mainly Robert 
Menching) and is, they say, heavily used inside Microsoft for putting 
there installer packages together. I've played a little bit with WiX and 
probably intend to use it for ActivePython (and other installers I 
author at work) eventually but haven't started really using it yet. I'm 
pretty confident that WiX is a good way to go. I haven't used msi2xml at 
all so I can't compare them technically, but the Microsoft usage stories 
makes me more confident in WiX. A quick look at the msi2xml XML schema 
gives me the impression that msi2xml would feel a lot more raw where as 
WiX attempts to put a slight nicer face on the authoring of the database 
tables that make up an MSI package -- for better or worse. (ASIDE: MySQL 
is now using WiX for their installers.)

WiX blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/category/4625.aspx
Rob's personal blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/robmen/

Cheers,
Trent

-- 
Trent Mick
trentm at activestate.com