Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Osmium" Newsgroups: comp.programming Subject: Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2016 10:00:42 -0500 Lines: 36 Message-ID: References: <0hq7pblr580ec5n1sv05fapprarqc9ef9l@4ax.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="Windows-1252"; reply-type=response Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net 0eEP0itRzJJ39+zI4+174Qy+uP6kGqisD59eIt1ghNhT8+0Uw2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:BC8ysW6HNv6KNy0dUA2Wicn0Its= X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Xref: csiph.com comp.programming:6779 "Richard Heathfield" wrote: > On 23/07/16 23:13, Wally W. wrote: >> To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute: > > Whenever possible, I prefer not to do this. To delete my software, you > just delete it, and you're done. Either > > cd where/did/you/put/it > rm * > > or maybe, just maybe, there are sub-directories, so: > > cd where/did/you/put/it > rm -rf * > > (careful!) > > or, if you're on Windows, one of the many Windows equivalents of doing the > same thing (such as dragging a pretty yellow box onto a picture of a > dustbin - alas, I can't promise sweeties to those who get this right). > >> If your uninstallation program can't leave the machine in the >> condition you found it, then tell the user what is different. > > Hear, hear! But if your program /needs/ an uninstallation program, there > had better be an extraordinarily good reason. (And sometimes there is. But > it's rarer than many people think.) I long for the good old days too. But doesn't your approach fail in one of the most elementary cases on Windows? A new program with a new data file. You want to click on the data file and invoke the program. How can you do that without changing the data used by the OS? To me, that is SOP and not rare at all.