SunToo
21st May 2007 07:36 UTC

64-bit Windows
Hi,
I'm glad that NSIS now provides a better support for installations under 64-bit Windows. Unfortunately not completely as I expected. It is still necessary to implement different scripts for 32- and 64-bit Windows! E.g., on 32-bit Windows I have to use $PROGRAMFILES to write to the program files directory, on 64-bit Windows I have to use $PROGRAMFILES64. It would be easier to use the same script for both systems (i.e. $PROGRAMFILES) but compiling different installer just by using a compiler option. Running a 32-bit installer on a 64-bit system is a workaround that involves some problems: file system redirection, registry redirection, calling 64-bit DLLs et cetera. It's a lot effort to write the same installer for both systems, even with the new NSIS features like SetRegView, $PROGRAMFILES64... And it requires that the developer has to know the differences of both systems in detail.
This effort could be avoided just by compiling a real 64-bit installer!

Anders
21st May 2007 16:09 UTC

you can work around the program files problem yourself;

!ifdef SomeSpecialFlag
!define MyPF "$PROGRAMFILES64"
!else
!define MyPF "$PROGRAMFILES"
!endif

and then just use ${MyPF}, then do makensis.exe /DSomeSpecialFlag for the special build

The preprocessor can help you out with most of this stuff so you can have just one script for both versions

SunToo
22nd May 2007 07:30 UTC

Yes, that's right. I implemented such things. But it's just one of many problems. Think about 64-bit DLLs that cannot called by 32-bit applications but are sometimes required (e.g. for driver installation), et cetera ... Sure there is a workaround for each issue. But why should it be required to have such an effort for every developer. It's easy to create a new configuration in a C++ IDE to create a 64-bit application from the files of a 32-bit application. Usually there are only a few things to change. So maybe it's less effort to implement an NSIS compiler that is able to create 64-bit installer than implementing a lot of tricks that try to get a 32-bit installer working under 64-bit Windows. And there is still the other problem I mentioned: Every NSIS user has to know the differences between 32-bit and 64-bit Windows to apply the tricks at the right time. Most of this knowledge would be dispensable if NSIS would compile real 64-bit installer.

kichik
22nd May 2007 12:13 UTC

It's easy to create a new configuration in a C++ IDE to create a 64-bit application from the files of a 32-bit application.

SunToo
23rd May 2007 06:41 UTC

It sounds to me that you already investigated that topic. Is it planned to provide 64-bit NSIS? And if so, when?

kichik
23rd May 2007 14:05 UTC

There is no set roadmap for this feature.