Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!amdcad!amdahl!tat00
From: tat00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Setup Programs
Keywords: brief
Message-ID: <33955@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 1 Jun 88 20:22:43 GMT
References: <33336@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <5854@pyr.gatech.EDU> <2245@bigtex.uucp>
Reply-To: tat00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey)
Distribution: na
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale  CA
Lines: 30

In article <2245@bigtex.uucp> james@bigtex.UUCP (James Van Artsdalen) writes:
 >IN article <5854@pyr.gatech.EDU>, is813cs@pyr.UUCP (Cris Simpson) wrote:
 >>[ extolling the virtues of the Brief setup program ]
 >
 >The thing I like about their setup program is that it looks in the
 >environment, autoexec.bat, config.sys and INITIALS.m (personalized macros
 >file) and parses each of them for your current configuration. ...
 >..., you don't have to tell it where
 >anything is (except which hard disk to install on) or what any current
 >configuration is: it figures that out for itself.  ...

Sounds great, maybe the writers of Brief have anticipated all possible
configurations.  My experience is that setup programs assume too much.
Like -only 1 hard disk, -only 1 copy of the software (I almost always have
a test and production version), -only 1 autoexec.bat or config.sys etc,
-specific directory names for some things, -only 1 monitor, -only 1 printer,
and so on.  IF the program tells me what it's going to do and gives me
the choice to abort and complete the installation manually, Ok.  If it
barges ahead I usually spend the next few hours restoring my disks and
trying to figure out how to install the software without using the
setup program.

My preference would be software that installed by simply copying the
distributions disks into a directory.  If I have to use a setup program,
I want to know exactly what it's going to do and have the option to
abort before I get trash all over my disks.
-- 
Tom Thackrey tat00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com <=> amdahl!tat00

[ My opinions are only my own. ]