Got the installer working. Fixed a few bugs including a nasty-to-debug issue where the lang_id was being hardcoded during installation, resulting in strings being inserted with the wrong lang_id causing an infinfinite loop with fetch() throwing a "no strings" error and using template (which calls fetch()) to complain

.panel_wrapper {height:85px;}
.panel_wrapper div.current {height:85px;}

/* IE */
* html .panel_wrapper {height:100px;}
* html .panel_wrapper div.current {height:100px;}