NSIS is helluva killer. It creates MS Windows based installers that go next, next, next, finish. It is something that we could only imagine some years ago for our ADempiere ERP project. Imagine a killer ERP (as a FOSS offering against the killing SAP, fees wise) that works out of the box. No, i am not eating proprietary Microsoft here for breakfast. Its Windows platform is still the defacto dominant platform - about 70% in our user base, and 90% countrywide in my Malaysia. That majority will be a wasteland if you cannot push your killer wares into it. But imagine if I myself can do this killer. Why, I be more famous. But the real itch here is not just the kudos but that something smart out there that you did not conquer. That Mongol gene in me kicks in.
Someone (Kai Schaeffer) beat us to it when he created our first NSIS installer in 2009. Since then no one wanted to upgrade it making it getting older and older as release after releases pass by. That installer was for ADempiere Release 342. When i was teaching ADempiere in Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand last year, i asked some of my trainees to take on this 'easy' job and upgrade the installer, since Kai has uploaded all his scripts online. One java expert in the class did, but it was too large for him to upload back.
Back in Malaysia, that itch growls again. Why not me? I took a look at Kai's script, and without C experience, I turned my head away in fright. I left the pain of looking at it, and few months later just before last new year, with some sponsorship to review ADempiere on OSGI it bought me some time and some idea to provide the OSGI addon via a better base installer. So i gripped my teeth and took a deeper look into Kai's NSIS scripts. After a few hours the C kinda got into me. It is more straighter than Java code and that has its own advantage of grasping in thin air.
Upon further researching from NSIS online resource, i found out cool stuff such as adding in background image and background music. Ahah! Now i can force everyone to listen to my 'Promise' song i did with Mellow Mark in Potsdam and Toki of Malaysia. And so I did (described in this PDF).
At the end of it, this experience teaches me a lesson about been a good hacker or developer:
1. Learn to face your greatest fear of the unknown script. It usually take about 2 hours of stumbling around reading online. In some cases 2 days.
2. Learn to do things in solitary confinement. Having someone around to cling on won't help your learning curve. When would you graduate from been a nobody?
3. It truly feels good when you take each step up the rung of gurudom.
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