IP: How not to write an installer

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 22:49:20 -0700 (PDT)
> From: "Ole J. Jacobsen" <ole () cisco com>
> To: David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
>
> How NOT to write an installer
> -----------------------------
>
> In early July, Microsoft posted a patch to Office 98 for the Macintosh.
> According to the company: "This Microsoft Office 98 Updater addresses two
> issues: file corruption saving Word documents containing complex
> formatting, especially tables; and file compatibility between PowerPoint 98
> and future versions of PowerPoint for both Windows and Macintosh."
>
> While I am not a heavy user of either Word or PowePoint, I still decided
> to dowload and run the patch. This is one of those installers that first
> checks your confirguration, and then proceeds to install two files and
> update two files. I am sure you have seen the dual progress bar so you
> know what I am talking about.
>
> About 3/4 of the way through, the installer quit without any kind of warning
> or error message, it just plain went away!  None of the usual "...has
> unexpectedly quit because a type N error occured", nothing.
>
> I tried running the installer again on a system starting with no
> extensions. Same result. I was about to give up when I got this idea:
> Maybe the installer is really looking for "Microsoft Word" and "Microsoft
> PowerPoint" instead of my re-named "Word" and "PowerPoint."
>
> Sure enough, after I renamed the applications the installer ran just
> fine.
>
> There are lots of lessons about quality control and software design in
> this little saga. And of course it's a lesson to us dumb users who are
> so stupid that we would even consider renaming an application.
>
> Ole
>
>
>
> Ole J. Jacobsen
> Editor and Publisher
> The Internet Protocol Journal
> Cisco Systems, Office of the CSO
> Tel: +1 408-527-8972
> e-mail: ole () cisco com
> URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj