Zugg Software :: View topic

Novice Joined: 21 Mar 2009 Posts: 35

Is it possible to have the version numbers in the installs so it can be installed separately of other versions? Helps for beta testing and being able to remove older version properly without leaving reg files behind....

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:12 pm

You can already install it to whatever directory you want, including one with the version number in the name of the folder, like you suggested.

Novice Joined: 21 Mar 2009 Posts: 35

Yes but the reg values use the same ones as the older versions, so they're not listed as a separate installation to the system...

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

That's correct, you can't be actively running more than one version at a time, so only one gets listed in the registry.

Novice Joined: 21 Mar 2009 Posts: 35

But for betas, wouldn't it be helpful for your testing to be able to have people install multiple versions to be able to track problems and replicate them? Or fall back on a functioning one if a new version blows up?

I agree for the public release, however it would make sense for betas...

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 4:13 pm

What I do is I copy my main CMud directory something like CMUD_308 and then I install the beta version in CMUD. Then when I want to switch to the main version I just rename the beta CMUD_311 and rename the CMUD_308 directory to CMUD.

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:01 pm

This is actually done on purpose. That is why the installer allows you to specify a different location for the Application Files and the Data Files. Yes, the registry key for the Data Files is shared by all versions. But this is what most people want. For example, I have ten versions of CMUD installed on my system, all with different Application File directories (C:/CMUD237, C:/CMUD311, C:/CMUDPro311, etc). But since they all point to the same Data Files (My Documents/My Games/CMUD) I can play my sessions with any version of CMUD.

Since Data Files are compatible between versions, this is the desired behavior. You shouldn't need to make copies of all of your session data, scripts, maps, etc, just to use a different version. That would cause you to end up with different versions of your session scripts for each version of CMUD and could get very confusing (for example, you add a trigger to your CMUD v2.37 files, but then have to copy it to all of your other versions).

You *can* run multiple copies of CMUD and can run different versions at the same time. I do this all the time to compare two versions.

If the problem is that you think a new version might "corrupt" your data files, then that is when you should ALWAYS be making your own BACKUPS of your Data Files before each upgrade. I typically back up my Data Files directory each time I upgrade CMUD so that I can go back to previous data files as needed. But this is very easy for anyone to do themselves (just right-click on My Documents/My Games/CMUD and select Copy, then right click and select Paste in Windows Explorer). There is no reason CMUD needs to do this itself.

Also, CMUD already makes backups of your packages. This was added in one of the 3.x beta versions, but click on Preferences and then click on the "Backup" tab. You can enable the "Automatic Backup" option and then set the number of backup files to keep. This will cause CMUD to create a backup of your package every time you save a new version.

If the problem is that you only have a single Start/CMUD entry...well, that's pretty trivial. Just install each version into it's own directory, then drag each CMUD.EXE or CMUDPRO.EXE and drop it on your desktop and give it a different name. You hopefully realize that the Windows Start menu is just a collection of shortcuts stored in folders...you can add any number of icons or links to your start menu yourself. So it's pretty trivial to add additional menu or desktop icons for each version. CMUD doesn't need to do this for you automatically, and most people would complain that it clutters the start menu and desktop.

In fact, CMUD *used* to have the version number in the Start menu icon, and people *did* complain that it created too much clutter, especially when I was releasing a new version every few weeks. So I got rid of that by popular demand. Not going back to it since there are so many ways around this issue.