Artur Anjos wrote:

>
> Hello fingerman,
>
> No replies for this interesting post, so I'm writing something. :-)

Very interesting post indeed!

>
> I have some doubts about the registry [Firebird client installs something
> on the registry] and about the messages file [I never understood quite well
> if we need the messages file in the client or not]. The two questions are
> related - if the registry is needed for the client it's to find the messages
> file. But Firebird installation really installs this.

As far as I have verified, without claiming comprehensive testing, the
msg file is not necessary.
I have seen the posts about the need for the msg file and it had me
wondering as well.
In any case, it is easy to set the registry entry for the msg file:

Create a string key named RootDirectory under
HKLM\SOFTWARE\FirebirdSQL\Firebird\CurrentVersion

Set the value of the key to the path where the msg file is located.

The problem as I see it, is not whether it works or not, it is just good
practice not to arbitrarily fill the disk of a client pc with
gds32.dll's. What happens if the client pc has already an IB/FB client
installed? It will probably work but isn't it confusing if you ever want
to troubleshoot?

I flirted with the idea in the past, but I ended up including a client
setup in my Innosetup script for my applications. This seemed more
prudent to me at the time as I have a feature in my applications that
allows them to automatically update themselves by downloading a new
version over the internet. A gds32.dll in the exe would be redundant as
the application is already installed and working and thus a FB/IB client
is already in place.

What I think would be nice, is if there is a component or something that
checks for the FB/IB client and if it doesn't exist it performs a proper
installation, something like the IB install API does but without the
extra dll that is necessary. Perhaps if I find the time one day...:)

My $0.02 worth.

Best rgds,
Costas