Nebulus
4th August 2003 20:01 UTC

Docs outdated, example have NO comments. ???
1) NSIS is fantastic. The installer I made so far is very good, lightweight, and works perfectly.

2) Yes, I know it's free so you can't expect too much from the documentation

3) Yes, I did RTFM.

Ok, the question....
Are there any example and tutorials out there that actually have comments and some documentation that is relavent to the scripting?

The documentation on creating user variables is really, REALLY bad, an I haven't been able to even define a variable because every permutation of the commands fails.

Are there any docs that show actual NSIS method/property tables?

Are there examples with comments that extend past ONE line? (eg. ;write a registry key here - ok, NOT that helpful!)

I've poured through the exmaple files and the docs, and I'm just plain lost. I've got years of ASP/VB/Java/etc under my belt and I'm still lost!

Afrow UK
4th August 2003 20:09 UTC

You want to creat a variable?

Var MyVar

Section "Here I use MyVar"
StrCpy $MyVar blah
DetailPrint $MyVar
SectionEnd

-Stu

Nebulus
4th August 2003 20:14 UTC

Sorry, this throws an error: "Invalid command Var"
I'm using the latest stable release of NSIS.

I've attached my nsi file for anybody interested.

What I'm really looking for is heavily commented code as opposed to what's in the examples. This code is not even remotely user friendly for us newbies!

kichik
4th August 2003 20:16 UTC

Thank you for your constructive comments Nebulus. I will remember this post forever.

Joost Verburg
4th August 2003 20:28 UTC

I'll give you one advice: Upgrade to the latest development version before complaining about things that don't even exist in the version you are using.

It you want that things improve, give constructive comments or help improving things.

Nebulus
4th August 2003 20:30 UTC

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend. I'm just trying to learn and use this tool. While it's extremely powerful, the docs and examples do not lend themselves to being user friendly and seem to be geared towards the experienced user.

Would it be helpful toi start a SourceForge project to write complete docs for NSIS? I'd be more than happy to contribute to sucha project.

Once I learn enough to be helpful, I hope to contribute to the examples and documentation myself, but right now the learning curve is VERY steap.

Afrow UK
4th August 2003 20:32 UTC

Latest NSIS version is CVS:
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/nightly/nsis.zip

Hey guys, maybe you should make the link to 2.0b3 more concealed, or maybe make a bigger link to latest CVS.
It seems that all the newer people download b3 and assume it is the latest release.

-Stu

Joost Verburg
4th August 2003 20:40 UTC

On our SourceForge page, you can see that we are still looking for documentation writers. Writing documentation takes a lot of time. If nobody wants to help us, we can't spend that much time on writing documentation.

If you would have used the right version, you would have found a good example of user variables in Chapter 2 of the documentation.

But even without a lot of NSIS experience, there are ways to help us, like helping with the new website we are working on, or with the archive site development.

The people on the NSIS forum always want to help people learning NSIS, but not if you start a topic with such an unfriendly post.

umehim
4th August 2003 20:40 UTC

I've got years of ASP/VB/Java/etc under my belt and I'm still lost!

While it's extremely powerful, the docs and examples do not lend themselves to being user friendly and seem to be geared towards the experienced user.

Nebulus
4th August 2003 20:40 UTC

Afrow: Thanks for the link - I'm not sure I would've found it!

Joost & kichik: Really, not trying to offend or complain here. I've released free software myself and I know how stupid soem users can be. Like I said, I actually READ the documentation and ppoured over the examples before posting. I also tried every possible way to create variables (and ended up with errors) before posting my comments and questions.

My comments were written as constructive critism only - no complaints. Thanks for your understanding....

kichik
4th August 2003 20:43 UTC

Constructive would have been attaching your own example. Saying it sucks doesn't count in my books.

Joost Verburg
4th August 2003 20:44 UTC

There is a link to the development version on the main page of our website (next to the documentation), so it not that difficult to find.

When using texts like "Yes, I did read the f*cking manual" and "really, REALLY bad", your posts don't really sound like constructive critism.

Nebulus
4th August 2003 20:46 UTC

I wasn't aware that the post was unfriendly by any stretch of the word. I merely started with what I had done so far. Most of the time, posts come from people not reading the documentation or looking at the exmaples. I wanted to make sure that people reading the post wouldn't waste their time posting by pointing to an obvious link in the docs.

I also understand that docs are the last thing to be written. I'm in the midst of creating documentation of rmy applications as well.

I'd be very happy to offer anything I can to this project - it's very much worthwhile to have a good, open source application like this.

Again, and hopefully finally - I was not trying to complain, offend, whimper, mutter, point fingers, blame, roll my eyes, or otherwise ruin anybody's day - just posting a question.... whew!

Joost Verburg
4th August 2003 20:53 UTC

Good, let's stop the discussion about your post.

One of the things you could help us with is helping with graphics design or texts of our website. Just send me a PM.

Nebulus
4th August 2003 20:56 UTC

I typically tend to be a little sarcastic in my posts, having dealt with customers all the time. I use "RTFM" almost on a daily basis. Sorry about that. I have also filled out the appropriate ID10T form and sent it in to NullSoft.

I had no idea that everyone was so thin skinned around here - not after seeing the nullsoft site stating "now 100% more beef" and descriptions of PiMP being so complex and advanced that you won't even start to explain, all of course, an example file showing how to use text with a string "now we're f*cked". What happened to the humor?

I offered an alternative - having documentation with propery/method tables and examples.

An example would be something akin to the Microsoft MSDN library online. Of course, it wouldn't have to be that in depth, but something similar.

Like I mentioned, I'm very new to this installer - I downloaded and installed it Friday, and just started using it today.

I also said that it's an awesome and fantastic tool, having just compiled and sucessfully used the resulting installer within 30 minutes of browsing the docs and examples. Those comments must have been miseed....

Nebulus
4th August 2003 20:58 UTC

Originally posted by Joost Verburg
Good, let's stop the discussion about your post.

One of the things you could help us with is helping with graphics design or texts of our website. Just send me a PM.

kichik
4th August 2003 21:02 UTC

Enough. What has been said has been said.