Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!oberon!pollux.usc.edu!papa
From: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Amiga Roadblocks to User Friendliness
Message-ID: <13943@oberon.USC.EDU>
Date: 12 Dec 88 07:58:04 GMT
References: <9407@gryphon.COM>
Sender: news@oberon.USC.EDU
Reply-To: papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa)
Organization: Felsina Software, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 63

In article <9407@gryphon.COM| keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) writes:
|At the risk of starting another round of heated controversy over the
|"correct" way to package programs, I've run into some new difficulties
|in trying to package a program to be as clean and easy-to-use as we
|dream of.

[very interesting stuff deleted]

|So, I proceeded to spend about 1-1/2 hours with this guy explaining to
|him how to use the CLI for the first time (CLI, what's that?) and
|over-the-phone following his startup-sequence maze to a convienient
|place to add the useful ASSIGNS, how to use ED etc. 

Boy, how much do I relate to that, Keith :-)

|So what's the answer?
|
|1. make sure commercial applications never need boot time configurations
|such as ASSIGN or PATH?

Well, A-Talk III would like to have:

Assign AT3: <hddisk:drawer>
path AT3: add

BUT our installation program puts the executable and related directories
(for scripts and settings) in a fixed place relative to the directory in which
the A-Talk III executable is copied.  When A-Talk III comes up first it looks
for settings/script files in currentdir/Settings and currentdir/Scripts; if it
doesn't find anything then it looks into AT3:Settings and AT3:Scripts.

This works just fine for the Workbench user.

For the CLI user, we ASSUME he knows about PATH and ASSIGN, and remind him
during hd installation to add HIMSELF the appropriate commands to the
Startup-Sequence. We also added to the manual the ED commands needed to
do just that.  So far it has worked nicely.

|2. chase startup script chains looking for something typical and adding
|in the commands automatically after ultra-warning operator?

I have seen it done to my AUTOEXEC.BAT in PC-DOG and I HATED it so much,
I'll never consider doing it on the Amiga.  Beside you need a CLI
"expert system" for doing it "right" :-)

|3. warn user that the Amiga is inherently unfriendly to novice Hard Disk
|users who are unfamiliar with the CLI, so he'd better go out and buy a
|good book, or drag his system back into his dealer and let *him* install
|it?

Well, that's not just a problem for the Amiga.  What we need is something
like Peter Norton's "Inside to the IBM PC". So far most Amiga books for novices
have been just dreadful.

|4. ???? (god I hope there's a 4. and maybe a 5. and 6.)

Really? :-)

-- Marco Papa 'Doc'
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