What the Shell is wrong here?

[David Glasgow]

Thanks Richard,

As ever a very helpful perspective.  I probably spend more hours in front of Windows than I do Mac OS, but I just hadn't noticed that.  I never go near the Start menu, and wouldn't have guessed that that is the main entrance for most people.  I get irritated when installers put aliases anywhere without asking, so I have never really thought about it on my own software distributions.

And the backup point is interesting too.  I have just told folks where the data stack is, and said backing up is a Good Thing.  I suppose a backup button must be all of 7 lines of script?....hmmm. Food for thought.

Best wishes,

David Glasgow

Courses HTTP://www.i-Psych.co.uk 


 >
 >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
 > ___________________________________________________________
 >
 >