Why oh why, when a 3rd party library is purchased are you not able to simply open the package project, build and and install.   Why must every single package put up a fight where I have to debug the damn install?   For a different 3rd party component set I just paid $400 for, I look at the changes since the last version I bought (XE4) and there's a whopping 5 or 6 changes, and of those 3 of them were to make the package compatible with the latest IDE.  No new components, no enhanced functionality, and the documentation looks like it did in 2002.   I guess I just paid someone's light bill for the last few months.  On yet another 3rd party component, the installer built the components and installed for me (ignoring any preference I may have as to where I want to BPLs, DCUs, DCPs, but adding more garbage to the library path).  I have another component set that relies on that component set.  There's a DCU issue, so I need the source.   I download the registered source, and it's password protected.  That vendor didn't send me the updated password when they released the new XE7 compatible source.  Can you say extremely frustrated!   I might have all the components I need installed before XE8 comes out, which I'll probably skip installing due to the high probability of repeating this nightmare.   All, in all, a simple standard for installation needs to be created.  One that's simple, configurable, and quick, and preferably automated.

Comments

  1. I feel your pain. This is a too common complaint. And fully justified.

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  2. Well... we try our best with our installer, although it is far from perfect too :-( .
    And we surely add a lot of stuff between versions, I mean a lot...

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  3. There are some vendors that do a great job - but - imagine if all these packages were available through a repository, with "in-studio" purchase and upgrade management, and all you had to do was sign in to your new RAD Studio version and lean back and watch it all trickle pour in.  Google has sooo spoiled me with Android and Chrome :)

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  4. It would be so much easier if there were standards on how to do this well. Currently all component, library and tool vendors struggle on their own on how to get this right. And since most of them are competitors of each other in one way or the other, I don't see them to cooperate on this any time soon. Time for a Delphi NuGet variant (:

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  5. Great, the current component set (which is an excellent component set once it's installed) I'm trying to install uses "mak" files, ini files etc. for pathing.  It's supposed to be ready for XE7, but what's in the setup is only up to XE5 (from what I can tell with the time I've already wasted on it).   It's installed through the command line, and when it fails (not "if"), I get a cryptic error so I have to spend an hour troubleshooting where the problem is.  Nice! (not)

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  6. Emb needs to step in and create a package manager that supports commercial packages. Especially considering they are moving to a biannual release cycle. Emb could charge some percentage off the top

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