Docs/ExperienceUI/pages/intro.htm
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<html>
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  <head>
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    <title>ExperienceUI Documentation Content Frame</title>
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    <link rel=stylesheet href=style.css type=text/css>
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  </head>
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  <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" style="background-color:#FFFFFF;margin:0px;padding:0px">
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    <table border=0 width=100% height=100%>
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      <tr>
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        <td valign=top style=margin:10px;padding:10px>
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          <h1>ExperienceUI for NSIS</h1>
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            <p style=margin-left:0.2in>
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              <font face=Verdana style=font-size:8pt>
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                <b>Welcome to the ExperienceUI.</b><br>
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                </p>
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                <p style=margin-left:0.4in>
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                The ExperienceUI is a new user interface for NSIS that looks like
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                the latest and greatest InstallShield® setups.  The ExperienceUI supports
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                skinning the main installer window with several new picture areas,
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                and it also adds a few features to NSIS.<br>
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                <br>
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                You may think that because of the graphical effects, the ExperienceUI
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                requires a lot more space.  If you think that, you're dead wrong.  A typical
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                InstallShield® installer requires 1.43MB.  Wait...if you still believe in
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                floppy disks, you definitely don't use InstallShield to install your programs,
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                unless they're under 1KB...not likely.  An ExperienceUI-based installer, with
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                Welcome, License, Components, Directory, Install Confirm, File Copy, and Finish
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                pages, uses 90.9KB of space.  That's under 1/10th of an identical InstallShield®
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                installer, except this one is faster, smarter, and much more friendly to dial-up
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                users.<br>
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                <br>
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                One of the biggest features of the ExperienceUI is the information panel
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                on the left side of the installer window.  Every version of Windows Setup since 98
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                has a counter on the left side of the screen that shows an estimated count of how
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                much time it will be until Setup completes.  With the ExperienceUI, this info panel
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                can be blank, it can show an "estimated time remaining" window, and it can display
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                interactive notifications.<br>
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                <br>
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                All this can be accomplished with code that has already been written (and rewritten)
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                for you, so using the ExperienceUI requires very little programming experience.<br>
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                <br>
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                The ExperienceUI also resembles the Modern UI in the way of the symbol
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                defining method, except many of the defines are shortened, others are
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                eliminated, and many new ones have been added. Also, the ExperienceUI has
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                multi-language support that is largely based on the Modern UI's multi-language system.
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                </p>
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                <a name=why id=why></a>
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                <p style=margin-left:0.2in>
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                  <b>Why it was created</b>
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                </p>
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                <p style=margin-left:0.4in>
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                <font face=Verdana style=font-size:8pt>
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                Simply put, I created the ExperienceUI because NSIS needed a makeover.  The classic NSIS look works for Winamp plugins,
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                but what about when you need to create an installer for your user experience-aimed firewall?  The Modern UI provided many
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                visual enhancements for NSIS, but it was still missing something.<br>
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                <br>
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                I was upgrading the drivers for my NVIDIA video card one day, and I noticed that the installer used a fully skinned UI.
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                I thought to myself, "If InstallShield can look this good, NSIS can certainly look better."  So, I set to work.<br>
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                <br>
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                At first, I modified the Modern UI.  While this made scripts very easily portable, my new InstallShield-style user interface
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                seemed limited because I had started with a skinning system that did not support skinning the entire installer window.
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                Finally, I decided that I had to re-write NSIS's idea of skinning completely.  The first few tests proved to be cool, but
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                there were still improvements to be made.  After a lot of hard work, the InstallShield UI for NSIS (as it was called back
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                then) was ready for release.<br>
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                <br>
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                I posted my new UI on the forums, and within 3 hours I received replies saying, "For the design and implementation, I give
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                you 10/10! This is truly amazing!" (Afrow UK)  There was a lot of work still to be done, but the first release had done its
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                job and then some.<br>
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                <br>
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                Because of copyright concerns (using "InstallShield" in the product title) I decided to rename the whole thing to the
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                ExperienceUI for NSIS.  I named it the ExperienceUI because it aims to redefine user experience and make software 
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                installation lose its bad reputation as slow and often unsuccessful.<br>
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                <br>
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                Today, the ExperienceUI is a complete user experience solution, with support for multiple languages and extremely easy
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                implementation.  It includes a language selection page, native support for Saivert's WAnsis skinning plugin, and other
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                enhancements too numerous to name here.  All that, and it's open source.<br>
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                <br>
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                For a complete list of features included with the basic ExperienceUI package,
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                <a href="javascript:parent.window.location='browser.htm?url=http://xpui.sourceforge.net/index.php&sec=about&return=intro.htm%23why'">click here</a>.  <font size=1>(Internet connection
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                required)</font>
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                </p>
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              </font>
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            </p>
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        </td>
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      </tr>
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      <tr>
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        <td valign=bottom style=margin:0px;padding:0px>
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          <p class=footer>Copyright &copy; 2004-2006 Dan Fuhry.  All rights except those explicitly given in the <a href=license_agreement.htm style=color:#A0A0D0 onmouseover="this.style.color='#A0A0A0'" onmouseout="this.style.color='#A0A0D0'">license agreement</a> reserved.</p>
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        </td>
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      </tr>
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    </table>
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  </body>
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