JChem 5.5 Installers identical?

User 1a8d11549a

27-06-2011 13:04:08

I was evaluating deployment scenarios for the Marvin editor dialog, and played a bit with the available JChem_NET_5.5 installers in a Windows 7 64 bit system. These are:


JChem_NET_API_5_5_0_1510.exe
JChem_NET_API_5_5_0_1510.x64.msi
JChem_NET_API_5_5_0_1510.x86.msi


To my surprise, all three installers installed seemingly identical content on my 64 Bit system, both into the "Program Files" folder and the "Program Files (x86)" folder. My expectation was that at least the x86 and x64 installers should distinguish themselves somehow, but this doesn't seem to be the case.... 


Stefan

ChemAxon b62f37c21a

27-06-2011 14:08:08

Dear Stefan,


Thank you for your observation.


Most of the content of the JChem .NET API is managed code, that is why we decided to install it under the 32-bit "Progam Files" folder. There are only two native dlls that have both 32- and 64-bit versions. One of them is embedded in a managed assembly and it is resolved in runtime which version should be loaded. So only one platform dependend dll is left in the file system, which is usually is not used. This was the simplest solution we found.



Actually, the Shared folder should exist under both "Program Files/ChemAxon" and "Program Files (x86)/ChemAxon" folders if you install with the exe installer. Actually the exe installer is the union of the x86 and x64 msi installers. This is easily manageable from our installer tool.


Best regards,


Gabor Vasko


 


 

User 1a8d11549a

27-06-2011 14:58:48

Hi Gabor,


Thansk for your explanations.Maybe I didn't understand everything correctly, but hopefully you can enlighten me a bit more. I don't want to start a lengthy discussion here, its just for my understanding.


First, I am not sure to understand the piece about the components being installed into the 32 bit folder due to the mere fact that they are managed - since manged code can also be compiled also in 64 bit?


Maybe you also can elaborate on the actual difference between your 32 and your 64 bit installer? Which of the installed items actually are different?


Stefan

ChemAxon b62f37c21a

27-06-2011 20:19:21

Hi Stefan,

First, as far as I know an assembly can be x86, x64 and MSIL/.NET which is determined by a flag. The MSIL/.NET mode works in both x86 and x64 processes. Therefore our assemblies are MSIL/.NET assemblies.


There are 3 modules that can be included by an installer, different installers do it differently as the table shows below:































Modules x86.msi x64.msi exe
Program Files 32-bit/ChemAxon/JChem .NET API Y Y Y
Program Files 32-bit/ChemAxon/Shared Y N Y
Program Files 64-bit/ChemAxon/Shared N Y Y

Hope this helps. If you have further questions or any needs, please share them.


Best regards,


Gabor Vasko

User 1a8d11549a

28-06-2011 08:05:30

Hi Gabor,


Ok, understood. So the only difference between the installers is the flags, they otherwise seem to install the same thing. Thus, the 32 bit installer also installs into the 64 bit application folder of a 64 bit system. 


The reason I started this thread was to understand why (almost) everything was duplicated between the 32 and 64 bit application folders on a 64 bit system, no matter what installer is used - which is quite unusual. To be honest, it's still not completely clear to me.  But anyway, since this is more of a theoretical discussion with little practical impact, and disk space today is not an issue, I think we can close this discussion now. Thanks a lot for your patience in explaining.


Stefan