setup factory and Visual Patch

[Henk]

I posted this message in the True update by mistake. I try again here.
Forgive me my ignorence but is the subtile difference between the Setup Factory and Visual Patch 'only' the CRC feature found in VP and not in SF?
Why not adding the CRC in SF, add a couple of bucks and everybody's happy. Except from a commercially point of view it would be so obvious that it almost hurts.
Right?

If not, at least add the possibility to add all files from a SF project to a Visual Patch project. Saves a lot of time and frustration.

Kind Regards,


Henk

[Lorne]

Originally posted by Henk:
Forgive me my ignorence but is the subtile difference between the Setup Factory and Visual Patch 'only' the CRC feature found in VP and not in SF?

No.

Why not just use Setup Factory to build a new installer?
When preparing a new release, you will certainly want to use Setup Factory to build an installer for new customers; however, you can save money and ensure the security of your updates by using patch files that only distribute the files that have changed, making them smaller and—more importantly—absolutely useless to anyone who doesn't already have a valid version of your software installed.

Why not just use Setup Factory to build a patch?
Like Visual Patch, Setup Factory can be used to replace files, but it doesn't have the important ability to analyze your versions and determine which files need to be distributed. You could use Setup Factory to build a new installer that would update your software by installing the new files, but you would need to determine which files need to be updated yourself. Of course, determining which files need to be updated in all of your previous versions would be a monumental task.

Visual Patch greatly simplifies product maintenance by taking care of this for you. Whenever you have a new version ready, Visual Patch figures out what files need to be added or replaced to bring any older version of your software up to date by distributing a patch containing as few files as possible.

There are significant advantages to using Visual Patch for your software updates. Visual Patch saves you time by making the design process as easy as possible. Visual Patch is also incredibly accurate; by automating much of the decision process, it eliminates several opportunities for human error compared to developing patches "by hand" with other methods.

[Lorne]

Also, keep in mind that Visual Patch was released long before development of Setup Factory 6.0 even started. A future version of Visual Patch will very likely have a lot more interoperability with SF.