Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!rpi!mts.rpi.edu!Garance_Drosehn
From: Garance_Drosehn@mts.rpi.edu (Garance Drosehn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: StuffIt Deluxe Installer from Hell!
Message-ID: <PLQ^|F|@rpi.edu>
Date: 28 Dec 90 17:33:52 GMT
References: <`|Q^0$+@rpi.edu>
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst.
Lines: 37
Nntp-Posting-Host: gilead.its.rpi.edu

In article <`|Q^0$+@rpi.edu> I eloquently ripped into:
>            daven@svc.portal.com for writing:
> > When you reformatted your HD, did you do anything to collect bad
> > sectors? You may just have a problem with a sector that happens
> > to be where part of the directory catalogs fall.
> 

with me saying things like:
> This seems absurd to me.  I used my disk day in and day out.  I've 
> installed tons of applications on it. 

As noted in another article here, his guess wasn't as far off as I 
expected.  I got a reply from Aladdin too (via America Online), and it 
turns out that the installer will sometimes trip over minor errors on the 
floppy disk.  So it's not the hard disk as daven suggested, but daven was 
generally on the right track.

To add a few bits to what was said in the article on "Aladdin's reply" 
from johnston@oscar, my message says it was errors on the floppy (johnston 
wasn't quite certain if it was the floppy or the hard disk) which seemed 
to be the problem.

The message I got from Aladdin also said they took two different steps to 
address this.  First they reorganized the code to work around the 
situation they believe is causing the problem.  Secondly they added some 
sanity checking so the installer keeps track of how many files and folders 
it has installed, and if that number goes over the maximum it expects to 
install then the installer will stop.  So even if they haven't found the
real problem, we shouldn't see any more cases of the "infinite install".

This is all welcome news to me.

Sorry for getting so worked up in the previous posting, but whenever I 
recollect the headaches I had with the installer in August I get upset all 
over again...

Garance_Drosehn@mts.rpi.edu