Shareware Installer Program Gets New Version

5:00 PM EDT, Jul. 10th, 2001 · by Kyle D\'Addario · News

Public Access Software has updated their shareware installer program, MacInstall, to version 1.2.5. MacInstall allows shareware authors to easily create an effective application installer for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. The latest version features several OS X enhancements. According to Public Access Software:

MacInstall v1.2.5, the simple yet powerful Mac software installer for ShareWare authors made by a ShareWare author, is now available.

MacInstall installers can save and fully restore long (up to 255 Unicode characters) file/folder names on Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X HFS Plus disks using MacInstall Compression.
Introduces a feature to open/launch items installed on Mac OS X capable of installing Docklings into the Dock.
Before purchase MacInstall installers can now run in a fully enabled demo mode on the developeris computer for evaluation purposes only.

MacInstall Key Features:

Installation to any System folder location or pre-defined locations on a Mac OS computer such as Extensions, any of the default Appearance folders or the root level of the System disk.
Fast and efficient operation by using pre-cached info for installer files and folders and low program code overhead.
Unlimited number of files or folders to install in any combination (realistically you wonit want more than a few dozen per installer, you can use folders to group items like HTML help files)
680x0-based Mac compatible Installers to support schools, churches and other organizations with older, but still useful, Macs.
File version comparison from major version all the way down to pre-release designations (alpha, beta and release numbers for each).
Ultra small application footprint for the installer itself. Total installer size is dependent on the number of files to be installed.
Open Source, Standards-based. MacInstall Compression is built on open standards including:
MacBinary III encoding to preserve the Mac-ness of files to be installed including Type/Creator, bundle bits, Finder lables and more.
Adjustable compression via the open source, non-patented zlib library.