Re: mac disk image images

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From: Yoz Grahame
Subject: Re: mac disk image images
Date: 02:15 on 04 Jun 2006
On 6/1/06, Chris Devers <cdevers@xxxxx.xxx> wrote:
>
> Draw whatever conclusions from this that you like, but it seems to me
> that there is some kind of UI breakdown going on here. As much as the
> alpha geeks may be impressed by the "just drag from the .dmg to the
> Applications folder" "simplicity", maybe there's something to be said
> for a package installer that puts things away properly and -- hell why
> not -- moves itself from the desktop to the trash on successful
> installation, avoiding leaving downloaded turdpiles in its wake that
> will never ever get deleted "because it seemed to be important".

Another major benefit of installers - on Windows, anyway - is that
after the app is installed it is then linked from the standard place
you go to when running an app, the relatively-easy-to-find "Start"
button in the corner of the screen. Now, I'm certainly not going to
claim that the Start button isn't hateful in a myriad other ways (in
particular the way you have to run your mouse pointer along the
expanding tree of programs without falling off, much like those old
fairground games with the twisted wire you had to navigate with the
little electrified hoop without touching it) but at least the
"Programs" menu is considerably easier to get to than the
"Applications" folder on OS X.

As for the problem of shit getting installed all over your system:
that's not a problem with installers, it's with leaky abstractions.

-- Yoz
There's stuff above here

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