Creating and deploying a sharepoint solution package without command line tools

OK so you're a SharePoint developer, and you don't like using command line tools... some think you can't create a solution file and deploy it without using at least makecab or stsadm, but this isn't the case.
What you need to create the solution file (wsp) and deploy it:

1. Cabpack is a GUI cab compression tool using the MS cab engine.
2. Either stsadmWin this adds a UI and sends the commands to stsadm or sharepoint solution intinstaller

Create your dll, create a manifest.xml cab it up using cabpack and follow the prompts with sharepointinstaller.

I came about this while trying to debug a solution deployment... read my previous post.

Cabpack has been very useful for quickly fixing/editing site templates. And has also help reduce site templates size to 1/3 using LZX compression type.