gtk4-cross VS wixsharp

I use it from rust, it works with libadwaita. Since it's rust I just run cargo in a docker container. https://github.com/MGlolenstine/gtk4-cross

(Assuming GTK4) For Windows you could try gtk4-cross. It was pretty clunky to use for Vala but since they have a Rust-specific image it should be easier for your use case

For gtk programs I just put the dll's in the same folder as the binary and distribute it as a zip. Not the most elegant, but it works. I use this docker image to do the bundling https://github.com/MGlolenstine/gtk4-cross

If you're willing to install docker it's really easy to build and package for windows. https://github.com/MGlolenstine/gtk4-cross

I'm guessing you're not using this Docker container? → https://github.com/MGlolenstine/gtk4-cross

You can just bundle the required DLL's in the same directory as the executable. They don't need to install anything. You can use this docker container to handle the bundling automatically for you https://github.com/MGlolenstine/gtk4-cross

With gtk4 you can just bundle the libs. You can check out https://github.com/MGlolenstine/gtk4-cross for a docker container that handles cross-compiling to windows and packaging the libs.

The image for cross compiling: gtk4-cross

Yeah, it's actually much easier to cross compile from linux to windows. If you only have windows you can use docker desktop and this container to cross compile https://hub.docker.com/r/etrombly/rust-crosscompile . It doesn't have gtk4 support yet though, someone forked it if you need gtk4 https://github.com/MGlolenstine/gtk4-cross

I can recommend Wixsharp (https://github.com/oleg-shilo/wixsharp), you no longer have to learn the insane wix xml syntax to create an installer.

Also try wix# (https://github.com/oleg-shilo/wixsharp) - it makes things much easier

Windows: The Microsoft-recommended way is .msi files but, if you're not willing to pay for something like InstallShield or a professional "How to use WiX XML course", making them is going to be painful even with something like WiXSharp, so my advice is to offer a Zip file and an Inno Setup installer. (Which things like Chocolatey can build on)

Wix# is better, but still not as easy, and it depends on .NET, which makes it a hassle to get set up in Wine compared to how, being written in Delphi and using itself as an installer, Inno Setup is practically Rust-like in how easy it is to set up in Wine.

If you really want to bundle a compiler, my advice would be to just use an installer like Inno Setup or NSIS or the WiX Toolset via WixSharp and have it either download or bundle the installer for the compiler.

Speaking of MSI, I'd suggest using Wix# instead of WiX directly.

The functionality in the msilib module is somewhat low-level anyway (it basically just opens the database for you and leaves the arcane incantations required for doing anything as an exercise for the reader) so it probably wouldn't be hugely difficult to replace it with ctypes calling msi.dll directly.

If I were to replace my msilib-based installer, I would migrate to Wix# [1], a fantastic high-level wrapper for WiX that lets you express your installer in a few lines of C# (and then generates the thousands of lines of XML that WiX needs, but you don't need to touch it). I wouldn't have used msilib if I had known about Wix# at the time.

[1] https://github.com/oleg-shilo/wixsharp

Adding that folks should look into using WixSharp especially if there is a need to create a more customizable UI for the installer. The instructions for building the installer is all written in C# including any custom actions required by your installer project.