No doubt you've heard that Delphi 2007 has been released and sports a brand new installer built using InstallAware's excellent Delphi-built tool. We've also bundled a copy of InstallAware Express so you can get a taste of this easy-to-use tool. During the development of Delphi 2007, I had the pleasure of working closely with Sinan Karaca, the main developer and owner of InstallAware. He spent a while here in Scotts Valley helping us get the new installer up and working. His help was extremely valuable and I certainly credit his expertise and responsiveness as one of the reasons we were able to get Delphi 2007 out the door within our schedule.
While we did work very closely togther on a tight schedule by day (and they were long days ;-), we also had some very fun times and there was a few stories from this experience we won't soon forget. Sinan explained in this post one such interesting story from his visit here. I remember being in that meeting with Sinan when he got that phone call for his good buddy, Anthony. At the time we all thought nothing of it. It was just a wrong number, right? It wasn't until the next day that he came back into the office for some more meetings and began to explain his phone call later that night from Anthony himself. I don't think that meeting was very productive because we were on the floor laughing so hard that it hurt... The best line is “Just tell them you don’t know anything about me and hang up.” Good thing Sinan really doesn't know Anthony ;-)! What are the odds! Sinan flies in, luggage is lost, needed a local phone number where British Airways can contact him so he gets a cheap cell phone. Then it turns the phone number once belonged to what appears to be some “gangsta” from the San Francisco or Oakland area.
I also invited Sinan over a couple of times for dinner with me and my family. It turns out that one of Sinan's favorite dishes was one that my wife has recently perfected. When Sinan mentioned it, I knew exactly what we would have for dinner when I invited him over. My good freind Nick, who has been out here away from his family, was also invited over since this dish was one of his favorites as well. I must say a good time was had by all and that we had no leftovers. This is also one of my children's favorite dishes as well and it was a real treat for them as well.
ReplyDeleteThe installer is "ok" but can be perfected if you guys want it to: allow the user to select the folder where it's going to download all that stuff instead of doing it the "Vista" way and assuming you know better! :)
And (that may come with the previous change), accept the files if they're in the proper named folders where the installer resides instead of insisting they be in that folder and starting to download them again! :)
BTW: You got me (and probably many others!) curious about what was that dish?... Is it a trade secret?
Later,
Madruga
For a "first cut" of the new installer, I certainly don't hold any illusions that it is perfect. We'll take all this feedback and work on making the installer more flexible in the future.
ReplyDeleteAs for what the dish was... I will probably reveal that once I'm back from the ADUG Symposium in Australia. If you're down under and come to my talk, I may let you all in on it ;-)
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm a bit far away (Portugal) and kind of busy working my way in Delphi 2007. I'm also blogging a bit about my experience (http://memyselfanddelphi.blogspot.com/), and, even though I found a few gotchas so far, I can't say it has been a bad experience. It certainly motivated me to take the time off to rebuild my dev machine properly and I'm glad I did as I don't ever remember having my machine so fast!
So far, of the many things I found, the one that's bugging me a bit is the lack of examples on using the new Pre-Build and Post-Build options: a simple description of the dialogs in the help is not as useful as a couple examples. I even went back to the CodeRage video on MSBuild but that was no help either. But I'll work it out, I'm sure! :)
OK, I'll bite. What was this dish which was devoured and savored by all?
ReplyDeleteLoved Sinans story, BTW. Very funny.
Hi David ... Allen,
ReplyDeleteI want to know the same thing ... what is it and where's the link to the on-line recipe :)
I'll have a squint at InstallAware _after_ I eat.
Madruga,
ReplyDeleteSo your saying the help worked, but you'd like to see better content. I'm just ecstatic that the help worked! I’ll make a note to review those help topics. If you find any other topics that you feel need expanding I’d appreciate you letting me know about those as well.