Slim FreeBasic installer for Windows

caseih · Post by **caseih** » Jan 16, 2021 14:44

Off topic, really, but since we're on the subject:

coderJeff wrote:download 7-zip or something that can deal with 'rar' packages. (*)

Great work by Paul and others to provide this. Thank you. I realize that rar certainly had its popularity among certain folks throughout the years and that it can often compress more than zip. But really, rar? Zip is natively supported by all operating systems these days and is more appropriate for this purpose. I'm always surprised when people use rar these days. Paul, if you're listening, please change it to zip!

Here's a program that claims to be able to turn zip files into more friendly installers: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/zipinst.html

jj2007 · Post by **jj2007** » Jan 16, 2021 16:40

Please download the slim (17.6MB) FreeBasic installer for Windows and tell me about any problems. It is a zip archive that contains a readme and the installer.

Feedback and suggestions about missing features, error messages etc are needed. I have tested it on Win7-64 and WinXP, it should work fine on Win10 but please tell me if not.

This installer creates a C:\FreeBASIC-1.07.3-win64 folder. If that folder exists already, the installer will not overwrite any newer files (i.e. your recently modified source files are somewhat protected).

-----------------------------------
Internally, it contains the original FB 1.07 files compressed with the 7z format. Here are some benchmarks from https://peazip.github.io/maximum-compre ... ode]PeaZip, ARC, 9 21.82%
WinZip, ZIPX, best 23.33%
PeaZip, 7Z, ultra 23.56%
WinRar, RAR, best 26.04%[/code]Personally (at home), I use FreeArc, it offers the best compromise between speed and compression but is a bit fragile. For my MasmBasic installer, I use 7z, but it's self-extracting, so the user doesn't need an exotic unzipper.

caseih · Post by **caseih** » Jan 16, 2021 19:18

Yeah it's definitely l337. That's about all I can say for it. It's really not the best choice for this sort of distribution, aimed at beginners as it were. Zip is a universal standard. Sure telling a user to go get 7zip isn't crazy burdensome. But it's something I wouldn't bother doing, personally.

aurelVZAB · Post by **aurelVZAB** » Jan 16, 2021 20:44

self-extracting is a good way i think and simple ..
well i don't know that Paul pack is that large when unpacked but
well important factor is that is all there .
What ever guys you decided i hope that would be simple and easy to new comers ...or NOObs
everyone of us in some point in past are noobs...right ?

marcov · Post by **marcov** » Jan 16, 2021 20:56

caseih wrote:Yeah it's definitely l337. That's about all I can say for it. It's really not the best choice for this sort of distribution, aimed at beginners as it were. Zip is a universal standard. Sure telling a user to go get 7zip isn't crazy burdensome. But it's something I wouldn't bother doing, personally.

For programs on Windows an installer, either EXE or MSI is the universal standard.

caseih · Post by **caseih** » Jan 16, 2021 22:36

Oh sure. I'm sure if someone volunteered to make an installer script Paul would be happy to use it and create an installer. An archive is still acceptable, though, just not a rar file. If you give any Windows user a zip file, they'll know what to do with it also. Windows will even let you run programs directly from the zip file, unzipping it all in the background and running it in a temporary folder. And like I said, there's a utility that can turn a zip file into an installer. Someone like Paul who's distributing some software could use that to make a nice installer if he had the time and inclination.

jj2007 · Post by **jj2007** » Jan 17, 2021 0:03

.delete.

jj2007 · Post by **jj2007** » Jan 17, 2021 11:15

There was feedback in the What do new users need thread - for info:

dodicat wrote:Maybe make this a .zip file jj2007, so people can see what they are getting.
E.g.
What is the editor?
Does the installer put anything on the system path?
Does the installer alter the registry?
-- and other little questions like this.

dodicat, I'm afraid a zip file is technically impossible; this is an installer. People get FreeBASIC-1.07.3-win64
The editor is Notepad.exe (!)
The installer does not write anything to the registry.
It does not write to any paths other than
a) the destination (C:\FreeBASIC-1.07.3-win64) and
b) something like C:\Users\myself\AppData\Local\Temp\7z21145A48\ (where it may leave a 30k hello World.exe)

If, for example, you have modified C:\FreeBASIC-1.07.3-win64\examples\graphics\cairo\clock.bas, the installer will kindly ask you if you really want to overwrite that file.

C'mon, be courageous - test it ;-)

P.S.: I fired up my wife's Win10 machine, downloaded and run the installer. It took ages to the point where the OS allowed me to run the installer. Running it takes only a few seconds.
Then I tried to compile the hello world and was told that C:\FreeBASIC-1.07.3-win64\bin\win64\ld.exe was not found (a lie, it was there).
Minutes later I hit F6 again and got this:
fbc.exe -t 2000 -gen gcc -Wc -O2 -s console "~HelloWorld.bas"
Impossibile completare l'operazione richiesta. Il processo specificato non è un processo dell'interfaccia utente grafica.
*** Launching C:\Users\MICROS~1\AppData\Local\Temp\7z3720AE24\~HelloWorld.exe
Congrats, your FreeBasic installation is working fine!

Microsoft should be ashamed for Win10. It's disgustingly slow on this not-so-old notebook.

dodicat · Post by **dodicat** » Jan 17, 2021 11:34

Thanks jj2007.
I clicked the .exe.
I got a message from AVG.
. . .
Hmmm... This needs a closer look.
We've sent SetupFreeBasic17012021.exe to our threat labs for a thorough analyses.
It should only take a few hours, in the meantime, we'll keep blocking it.
. . .

I noticed something about masm basic in the first page before AVG killed it, but I didn't have time to read it all.
Could you explain that bit please.

jj2007 · Post by **jj2007** » Jan 17, 2021 11:41

dodicat wrote:Could you explain that bit please.

It's genuine assembler code, so their heuristic scanner does not detect the typical traces of C++ or similar, and it barks at you. Give the URL to VirusTotal to see what decent AVs are saying...

Actually, if you give the URL to VirusTotal, it's all green (which is humbug); but if I upload the latest version of the exe, it says 5 out of 68 "detected" something: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/cab ... /detection

At Masm32, we have a dedicated sub-forum called the AV Software sh*t list with over 20 threads ;-)

P.S.: My wife's machine slowed down to a grind, so I investigated and found this jewel explaining how to solve a very common problem with Win10 (no, it was not the cause of the slow install).
Read the answer of the Microsoft guy (Greg Carmack), then relax and reflect again about our problems with a simple FB installer ;-)

jj2007 · Post by **jj2007** » Jan 17, 2021 17:08

You can find here a minimalistic installer for FreeBasic version 1.07.3-win64 inspired by this discussion.
Download the exe (it's only 16MB), and run it. Note it may trigger Windows warnings (executables are incredibly dangerous, you know), and AV software may complain, too (it's written in Assembler). If you trust me, ignore the warnings, test it, and give me feedback on errors, problems, glitches and missing features.

It's work in progress but well tested. If you have already a folder C:\FreeBASIC-1.07.3-win64, don't worry, the installer will not delete any files, and it will not overwrite any files that are more recent than the ones in the archive.

--- older ---
There was feedback in the What do new users need thread - for info:

dodicat wrote:Maybe make this a .zip file jj2007, so people can see what they are getting.
E.g.
What is the editor?
Does the installer put anything on the system path?
Does the installer alter the registry?
-- and other little questions like this.

dodicat, I'm afraid a zip file is technically impossible; this is an installer. People get FreeBASIC-1.07.3-win64
The editor is Notepad.exe (!)
The installer does not write anything to the registry.
It does not write to any paths other than
a) the destination (C:\FreeBASIC-1.07.3-win64) and
b) something like C:\Users\myself\AppData\Local\Temp\7z21145A48\ (where it may leave a 30k hello World.exe)

If, for example, you have modified C:\FreeBASIC-1.07.3-win64\examples\graphics\cairo\clock.bas, the installer will kindly ask you if you really want to overwrite that file.

aurelVZAB · Post by **aurelVZAB** » Jan 17, 2021 18:23

jj
I don't want to complain ,,,but why must be installer ?
is not better to just zip or self-extractor ?
just asking...

jj2007 · Post by **jj2007** » Jan 17, 2021 22:35

aurelVZAB wrote:why must be installer ?
is not better to just zip or self-extractor ?
just asking...

Perhaps because
- all Windows applications have an installer
- this forum is crammed full of threads dealing with configuration problems
- there are almost no new members around?

BasicCoder2 · Post by **BasicCoder2** » Jan 18, 2021 0:08

fbc.exe -t 2000 -gen gcc -Wc -O2 -s console "~TmpSource.bas" -x "~HelloWorld.exe"
This version of %1 is not compatible with the version of Windows you're running. Check your computer's system information and then contact the software publisher.

I am running Windows 10 Home editio

jj2007 · Post by **jj2007** » Jan 18, 2021 0:42

That is weird. Does ~HelloWorld.exe exist? What happens if you start it manually with a double-click in Explorer?

If ~HelloWorld.exe exists, it was produced by FreeBasic. If not, then fbc.exe itself was the "incompatible" program. Really weird.