So in my last blog the solution was to write a python script to perform the search and replace on the gtk_basepaths in the 2 files and then have a batch file call python and pass the script to it. That is great, but only as long as the user already has python installed on the computer. If not, then that could be a problem because there will be no way to execute the python script. And you don’t really want to ask the user to please go and download python before you run the installer because it depends on python…that’s kind of silly.
Ok so here’s the better solution:
Since the user is supposed to be running Windows, the system on which the installer is going to be run on should be able to execute .vbs files (visual basic script) via command prompt (ah, something we already have 
). So if you write the search and replace algorithm in vbs you can execute this script with the batch file and the world will be safe.
The algorithm for such a visual basic script can be found here:
Here’s the script:
Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
strFileName = Wscript.Arguments(0)
strOldText = Wscript.Arguments(1)
strNewText = Wscript.Arguments(2)
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForReading)
strText = objFile.ReadAll
objFile.Close
strNewText = Replace(strText, strOldText, strNewText)
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(strFileName, ForWriting)
objFile.WriteLine strNewText
objFile.Close
?
For a better understanding of how the script works, read the explanation provided at the link above. In my case I had to change a few things within the script to get it to work the way I wanted but I’ll come back to that later.?
Ok, so the script can be executed like so:
cscript replace.vbs "C:\Scripts\Text.txt" "Jim " "James "
where replace.vbs is the name of the script, C:\Scripts\Text.txt is the file which contains the text to be replaced, “Jim” is the text to find and “James” is the replacement.?
Since I wanted to replace <gtk_basepath> with the value of the GTK_BASEPATH environment variable and then change C:\GTK to C:\\GTK for instance (assuming C:\GTK is the value of the environment variable) I changed the line:
strNewText = Wscript.Arguments(2)
to read:
strNewText = Replace(Wscript.Arguments(2), "\", "\\")
and then from the batch file I called the vb script like so:
start replace.vbs <file_to_replace> %GTK_BASEPATH%
note: in command prompt, %GTK_BASEPATH% returns the value of the environment variable.
that did the trick.
I still can’t believe Microsoft gave up on the Office Assistants in Office 2007. I used to open MS Word just to see the little fella animate 
