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Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute

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"Richard Heathfield" wrote:

> On 24/07/16 16:34, J. Clarke wrote:
>> In article <nn2m7t$o38$2@dont-email.me>, rjh@cpax.org.uk says...
>>>
>>> On 24/07/16 16:00, Osmium wrote:
>>>> "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.
>>>
>>> But the /user/ is responsible for setting up that association. The user
>>> double-clicks on "foo.bar", and Windows says "huh? You'd better choose a
>>> program for that", and the user chooses my program, and that's the
>>> user's choice, so it's the user's problem.
>>
>> And the tech support guys think badly of you when they have to remote-
>> access 10,000 machines and set up that association that _should_ have
>> been set up by the installer.
>
> I understand your point but I don't agree with it. File associations are a 
> pain in the neck, because they rely on a false premise - i.e. that the 
> file extension uniquely determines the type of the file.
>
> I once had to write a program to inspect the first few bytes of a PDF to 
> discover whether it was a Portable Document Format file (a document) or a 
> Program Description File (a format used by a screen layout descriptor 
> utility for COBOL programmers). The program had to decide which one it 
> was, and then call either Acrobat or the screen layout thing - and the 
> users associated .pdf with /my/ program, rather than Acrobat or the 
> utility.
>
> File extensions go at least as far back as VM/CMS, but they were never 
> designed to uniquely determine the type of file (even VM/CMS used file 
> mode descriptors rather than extensions to determine whether a file was 
> supposed to be executable). File associations were a badly-designed 
> overlay onto file extensions, and Microsoft has done little, if anything, 
> to address the problems that file associations cause.

I probably agree with all that.  But it's a bit like complaining about the 
way words are spelled in the English language.  For the most part, it works, 
and people expect other people to honor the conventions. 

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Thread

To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Wally W. <ww84wa@aim.com> - 2016-07-23 18:13 -0400
  Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Kaz Kylheku <349-534-5780@kylheku.com> - 2016-07-24 06:44 +0000
    Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2016-07-24 04:53 -0700
      Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Kaz Kylheku <349-534-5780@kylheku.com> - 2016-07-25 04:13 +0000
        Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-25 08:28 +0100
  Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 09:40 +0100
    Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-07-24 10:00 -0500
      Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 16:18 +0100
        Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-07-24 11:34 -0400
          Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 16:46 +0100
            Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-07-24 10:55 -0500
              Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 17:08 +0100
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-07-24 12:24 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 17:37 +0100
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-07-24 13:16 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 18:53 +0100
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-07-24 15:11 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-07-24 14:45 -0500
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 21:31 +0100
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-07-24 18:06 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 23:53 +0100
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-07-24 18:04 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 23:47 +0100
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Wally W. <ww84wa@aim.com> - 2016-07-24 19:34 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Wally W. <ww84wa@aim.com> - 2016-07-24 14:03 -0400
            Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-07-24 12:10 -0400
              Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-07-24 17:36 +0100
              Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-07-24 11:37 -0500
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-07-24 13:24 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-07-24 18:29 -0500
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Wally W. <ww84wa@aim.com> - 2016-07-24 20:34 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Mark Storkamp <mstorkamp@yahoo.com> - 2016-07-25 10:00 -0500
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-07-25 11:22 -0500
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Kaz Kylheku <349-534-5780@kylheku.com> - 2016-07-25 18:55 +0000
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Wally W. <ww84wa@aim.com> - 2016-07-26 00:19 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Kaz Kylheku <349-534-5780@kylheku.com> - 2016-07-26 04:24 +0000
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-07-26 09:13 -0500
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2016-07-26 14:11 -0700
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Wally W. <ww84wa@aim.com> - 2016-07-27 02:58 -0400
                Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Kaz Kylheku <349-534-5780@kylheku.com> - 2016-07-27 13:47 +0000
          Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Wally W. <ww84wa@aim.com> - 2016-07-24 13:24 -0400
    Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Wally W. <ww84wa@aim.com> - 2016-07-24 13:40 -0400
      Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Wally W. <ww84wa@aim.com> - 2016-07-24 13:42 -0400
    Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute Kaz Kylheku <349-534-5780@kylheku.com> - 2016-07-24 18:29 +0000
  Re: To all who write uninstallation programs for software you distribute SIKDER EMRAN <sikderemran4321@gmail.com> - 2016-07-31 03:19 -0700

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