Re: More on apps, shelf space

"Snit" <SNIT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:C0664AF4.4BFC7%SNIT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Dan Johnson" <danieljohnson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> stated in post
1241menqeh71s7a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on 4/15/06 4:32 AM:

No, but there is "Add/Remove Programs", which is just the thing
if you want to uninstall & reinstall. Many installers actually *automate*
this- they have a "Repair" option which tries to produce the same
effect more quickly (and without discarding preferences).

In my view this is just a different placebo- but Apple isn't the only
one to put this stuff in.

If the Add/Remove feature worked better I might agree with you. :)

Hang on there. If it "worked better", would it still be a placebo? :D

Actually, I do wish Apple had a better remove feature, but this is another
issue. I general one does not need such a feature in OS X - and when one
does it is often built into the applications installer. Still, this is
not
consistent and it would be good if Apple improved this.

I do agree with this, really. Uninstallation is a useful thing,
even if reinstallation is mostly useless as a troubleshooting
step.

[snip]
But I'm not sure your wrong. If it's *too* easy, will users
believe in it?

Not sure what you mean. People believe in OS X, and it tends to be
easier.
That is one if the Macs selling points. :)

I mean, things like tossings prefs and reinstalling apps are "tricks";
they are't things the computer does for you, they are things you
learn to do. If they were automated, would not people simply
invent new tricks?

[snip]
New users *can* be walked through regedit. They *shouldn't*
because it's almost certainly useless.

How else do you alter or remove fried settings? Export them from a good
machine then import them?

You do not need to remove fried settings; you can alter them in
the "preferences" or "options" dialog of the app in queston.

Tossing prefs is what you do on the Mac when you don't know what
the problem is, but you want to convince your "new user" that you
know how to fix it.

Incorrect. It often *is* the correct solution - or at least a correct
step
in trouble shooting.

If this is really true, it is a shocking comment on the
poor state of Macintosh software development.

But I do not believe it.

On Windows, the equivalent convention is to uninstall and reinstall
something. :D

A much more complex and time consuming operation. And uninstalls do not
always wipe out old settings.

They rarely do so- it's actually technically challenging to do
that on a multi-user system, after all.

They do rebuild the object registrations, so if that's what's knackered
it can help- in theory.

But in practice, it's a placebo. Does nothing most of the time.

[snip]
But I wouldn't want to be the user who had to rebuild *all*
my preferences. :D

For a new user they likely do not have many prefs.

I think you might be surprised. A lot of stuff winds up in
those preferences files; things like window positions and
stuff. You don't have to be setting prefs explicitly to have
them.

[snip]
You are not comparing like operations.

It is not I making this comparison; but I agree that
these are not like operations. Yet Mac-advocates
insist on making this comparison- it has been made more
than once in this very thread.

I am speaking to you.

Well, that's your trouble right there! :D


.

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