Re: A would-be user's first XSL experience (long)

[jmbolles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Chris Maden wrote:

> > Or you could use any of a number of installers such as
> > InstallAnyWhere that creates installs for a variety of platforms. If
> > I read your comments right, you are complaining because you can get
> > away with forcing the user to make you app work on most platforms,
> > but not on the Mac. (The difference between truly installing an app,
> > and dumping it on the user's drive.) As a user of both Macs and NT,
> > let me ask why are you distributing any application on any platform
> > that isn't double-clickable to open?
>
> The software in question is written in Java, and is usable out of the
> box on UNIX and Windows.  On UNIX, there's a shell script that runs
> it; on Windows, there's a batch file and an AUTORUN.INF.  The problem
> on the Mac is just that the application can't be run directly from the
> CD and so I have to jump through a few hoops.
>
> -Chris

Your response focused on your inadequacies with tools for the Mac vs. your
proficiency with tools for Unix and NT.

My post, on the other hand, focused on how your means of distribution,
regardless of the platform, makes computing more difficult for the user.

A.
Even on NT, what serious application doesn't show up in the Start menu? If
it's so difficult to run from a CD, why not let the user install it, which
I would bet they'd prefer to do anyway.

B.
Someone wrote the shell script; someone wrote the batch file and generated
the AUTORUN.INF. JBindery is just as easy to use. Usability experts would
prefer it for many reasons, including because you don't have to worry as
much about syntax. Just because you have yet to learn it doesn't mean its
"a real pain in the butt".

C.
My response to "Playing nice with others is not something the Mac system
is good at" was tame and measured compared to what some cross-platform sys
admins I know would say. Learning AppleScript is arguably much simpler
than learning the incompatible-at-the-minutae-level command line scripts
on Unix and DOS. (I can't believe I'm discussing the ease of the Mac
versus DOS.)

D. "Jump through a few hoops", from this post, is decidely less
inflammatory a statement and easier a task than one that is "a real pain
in the butt", from your original post.

E.
Does this mean that O'Reilly won't be doing "MacOS X in a Nutshell"?

Jack


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