Update Build Process

[Rixxan]

Describe the enhancement

The current build process is functional, but is in need of some TLC. The build file should be updated to be more in line with current pythonic standards, as well as to see if any enhancements in speed, reliability, or performance can be made. In addition, further research should be done on if py2exe is still the best option for building the project. Finally, Wix should be investigated to see if it is still the most optimal for our needs.

• Current Build System Triaged
• Py2Exe Fate Determined
• Installer Logic Updated
• Wix Fate Determined

[Rixxan]

At least with where I'm looking right now, the py2exe system is working and the wix system is working. Initial attempts to change this evening showed it would be a giant pain to replace the whole system, vs just putting it in a more maintainable state.

Looked at PyInstaller but couldn't get a working build. Wix is annoying me and might be worth extra effort to try and knock back.

[Athanasius]

As I've said on Discord, the biggest problem with any "build a python project into a .exe" tool is ensuring it includes all the necessary python modules, either in the .exe itself or as a library.zip or similar.

There are some modules that edmc uses (notably infi_systray, which then relies on pkg_resources which is the actual issue) that themselves import modules in a non-standard manner. That then requires special handling by py2exe to ensure the modules are included in the build output.

In short, if changing to any other means of building a .exe you need to pay close attention to both startup messages to ensure no imports are failing, but also check that anything an edmc plugin loads works. The issue there is that because we import the plugins, even the core ones, on the fly, there's literally no way for py2exe or similar to know about anything they import at build time. There's no simple import plugins.eddn, for instance, for py2exe/pyinstaller/whatever to follow.

When I was last active the py2exe developer was reasonably responsive to bug reports and putting out new releases to address any new issues with all of this. I've no idea how pyinstaller or other projects are with respect to that.

[Athanasius]

With respect to the installer/WiX.... yes, it really needs redoing.

Marginal's philosophy seemed to be to make the installer as minimal as possible, I think principally in order to have the auto-update process be as streamlined as possible.

This means there's:

1. No facility for specifying an alternate install location (without resorting to manually running msiexec on the .msi file and supplying commandline parameters).
2. No facility for pre-selecting a translation language. In theory an installer should be able to offer selection of this and tweak the necessary EDMC config (this is all Windows, so just a registry value).
3. Provide pointers to things like the new user guide on the wiki.
4. Display any pertinent licensing (given we depend on a bunch of python modules with their own licenses).

It should be possible to "pretty up" the first-time installation process whilst still utilising command-line arguments to make the update process streamlined.