Funktastic Programming Adventures in Web Development

Lately, I’ve been fighting with InstallShield (because there is no other better way to put it) to manage some basic installer functinoality.  Actually, I’ve been learning all the various different facets of the software off and on over the past few months.  I know that its used by a lot of different companies and seems to be powerful to do lots of different things, but I have to say that the experience has left me kind of sour.

I have to admit that a lot of the problems I have dealt with have been my own making.  But there were others that were clearly a fault of InstallShield itself.  Now bear in mind that I was using InstallShield 2009 Premier and not the latest version, so some of this may not apply to the newest version.  An upgrade to 2012 is in the works but these issues are only in regards to 2009.

First of all, let me mention the project file format.  It is a combination of binary and plain text.  This makes it virtually impossible to do change revision on the project files.  It makes it difficult for users to see what changes were made and how to undo those changes.  I am dealing with Basic MSI projects and sometimes I can see XML based rules and sometimes I cannot.  I haven’t been able to figure out why this is the case, but its very annoying.

Second, I’d like the mention the horrible user interface.  I get the fact that they are trying to make it look like an IDE (and * have no problem with that).  The tree node navigation is a little non-standard but I guess it is somewhat consistent.  I am wondering what’s with the tabs though.  Sometimes they are on the top and sometimes on the bottom.  You also have the same tables (like string tables) represented in multiple ways in the application.  The Features and Setup nodes mostly represent the same information except one allows you to manage components and one does not.

Next there is the issue of error reporting.  Many of the errors can be cryptic such as when you have a file path which is too long.  Sorry InstallShield, excuse me for having a long path on my development drive.  It’s not like InstallShield creates long paths itself… oh wait a minute, it does!   I had a particularly nasty error  message while creating a chained installation package that read “build error 6151 (Cannot save target database)”.  After days of research, I found out this error occurs when the installer package name is longer than 9 characters in length.  Gee, InstallShield could have just limited the name in the IDE to just 9 characters but instead I get this cryptic message.  (FYI: this has been fixed as of IS 2010).

There are a lot more flaws I could mention here, but I’ll save most of those for another post.  One last point, when trying to build a release, if you have Windows Explorer or a command prompt open to one of the directories under the release folder, InstallShield shows you an error that reads “Cannot rename folder because it is currently in use”.  If programs like Visual Studio can create builds when the folders are open, I don’t understand why InstallShield can’t.

As an aside, I’ve invested time in learning Nullsoft installer and WiX installer.  My preference is to convert everything over to the WiX installer.  WiX is fairly simple, straightforward, and all files are text-based and can easily be version controlled.  Plus, an added bonus is that I don’t have to worry about licensing issues so multiple people can work on the same project at the same time (and the software is totally free).  For now, I am stuck with InstallShield but I hope to be leaving soon.

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iTunes University

I just had a chance to check out iTunes U (short for iTunes University) on the iTunes store.  I checked out an introductory Computer Science course from Stanford.  Actually, it is just the lectures that are placed online as far as I can tell.  The lectures are well done and include many major universities.  This information should be a great benefit to a large number of people if they are willing to devote time to it.

Lectures in the form of video podcasts seem to be the only content available through iTunes U.  However, the lectures often mention the website for the class which can be used for downloading assignments and handouts from the class.  This allows anyone to follow along with the class and perform all of the assignments.  However, even though you can do the assignments and projects, you won’t be able to submit your assignments for grading.  Therefore, there is no real way to measure your progress as you follow a class.

This is a major shortcoming of iTunes U and I think it is their biggest issue at the moment.  Without some form of mentoring system to guage students feedback, the value of iTunes U is diminished somewhat.  Doing some searching on Google, I did find that some universities have been addressing this issue.  Brown University has a page on their Wiki which summarized their discussions on the issue.

Maybe a community of users should get together and do mentoring of students interested in learning online.  This way people would be able to take courses online without official credit.  It would provide a free means of getting an education for many people.  Without any degree from an accredited university, the benefits may seem minor.  For technical professions such as engineering, it may be a great way for people to keep their skills up to date.

It’s hard to get any work done for my current employer. Our system is very complex and convoluted and doesn’t respond very fast when navigating our website. That’s one of the drawbacks of working for a smaller company. We don’t have the manpower nor the resources to build a responsive website.

A lot of it boils down to the large amount of data we are sorting through. We have thousands of users on our systems with gigabytes of data for our websites. Despite best programming and database practices, our relatively weak servers cannot keep up with client demands. It seems that we should improve our database server or put in extra effort to optimize our database layer.

The key to keeping your customers happy is to create a fast and responsive website. With a highly dynamic website, the best way to do that is to improve your database speed and use caching on your site to speed up your pages. We have managed to make general improvements in this regard, but more needs to be done if we are to be considered the major player in our field.

Today, Google is allowing people to sell items on Google Base. This is a great threat to the long monopoly that E-bay has had over the years. While it’s true they don’t allow you to sell items at auction, the marketshare of Google ensures that any items posted there will reach a lot of eyeballs. This should make it much less painful to sell items without having to deal with all of the fees and charges that Google has.

With any luck, their new payment system will eliminate the exorbitent “final-value” fee that takes a cut of your sales. I am ecstatic to see Google take the lead in this. Our government and big corporations have been waging a war against consumers in America. Their profits are staggering and they needn’t be so. The same services can be offered by other companies for a small fraction of the cost we’re paying now.

It’s up to the consumers of America to respond: “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!” Hopefully, Google will expand their services to allow sellers to run auctions instead of just classified ads. Kudos to Google for giving consumers another choice. Let’s just hope they adhere to their motto: “Do no evil”.