Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!apple!mattd
From: mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: What's so great about INSTALLER?
Message-ID: <43664@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 5 Aug 90 18:41:08 GMT
References: <4459UD182050@NDSUVM1>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 34

In article <4459UD182050@NDSUVM1> UD182050@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mike Aos) writes:
>I'll admit that I use it too, but I really don't understand what possible
>difference there is between copying the files, and telling the installer to
>do it....would someone please explain that to me?
>
>Thanks,
>-------
>Mike
>
It's not so much the Installer as the Installer scripts that do the magic.

First, the Installer scripts are written by the folks who write the system
software itself.  They know exactly which files are needed for which features
and where they go.  If you were trying to install support manually for the
Video Overlay Card, for example, you might not think to look in the
:System.Tools:System:System.Setup: directory and find "AppleIIVOC.Init", which
is some support for the tool.  The Installer does because the script tells it
to.

Second, the scripts also know what files are outdated and should be removed.

Third, the Installer copies both the data and the resource fork of files.  Lots
of programs do this now, but some of them will still fool you.

We didn't spend a lot of time writing the Installer and the scripts because
it was a check-off item ("Oh, the system software must be good now.  It has an
Installer.").  It's there because it's useful and needed.  Use it.

-- 
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Matt Deatherage, Apple Computer, Inc. | "The opinions represented here are
Developer Technical Support, Apple II |  not necessarily those of Apple
Group.  Personal mail only, please.   |  Computer, Inc.  Remember that."
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