What the Shell is wrong here?

Richard Gaskin ambassador at fourthworld.com
Wed May 21 12:43:00 EDT 2003


Howard Bornstein wrote:

>> My underpant free solution was to burn the data stack onto CD compressed,
>> and uncompress it onto the users HD on installation.
> 
> That's a very clever solution. I also don't like rummaging around in
> Windows unmentionables (I'm a Mac guy), but I've now got a simple method
> that works (thanks to the help given here) so I'll probably use it. It's
> one less step for the user.

As you work more with Windows you'll find the most common installation
method is simply to have an installer auto-launch when the CD is inserted.
The user just hits the Enter key and away they go.  Most installers also add
an icon to the Start menu -- necessary if you want your app to be used.

It's a difficult thing for Mac folks to grasp, but Windows end users rarely
touch applications or data files directly.  Many don't even know where they
are, let alone where the Program Files folder is.  Almost everything an
end-user does in Windows is through the Start bar or within an application
itself.  I develop an app for the edu market in which we'll be adding a
Backup feature that simply copies data files to a Zip disk or other
removable media, as most of our competitors already have that.  Why?  Win
users are so accustomed to handling data files by proxy that they aren't
confident about simply digging into their folders and dragging them over to
the drive.

One could debate the relative merits of the two philosophies (direct user
control vs. assisted), but when the talking is done we stll have very
different user expectations for each platform that each require a different
approach.

-- 
 Richard Gaskin 
 Fourth World Media Corporation
 Developer of WebMerge 2.2: Publish any database on any site
 ___________________________________________________________
 Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com
 Tel: 323-225-3717                       AIM: FourthWorldInc




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