> I agree that installation is an important part of software
> development.  Ideally, this would be an ABC *users* mailing list...

Well, users oughta get to grumble about what developers give them.

My pet hate is excessive automation.  I DO NOT want the process of
installing system-critical software gizmos buried in an unreadable
script.  Apple goes completely over the top with this one, as their
installers use compiled forward-chaining rule networks to decide what
to put where; those are almost impossible to debug even if you can
see the source code (which you can't without a special development
kit), and Apple's tend to fail to either extreme, installing every-
thing available or giving up and installing nothing.  I've never seen
a makefile for a large piece of Unix software that actually worked to
spec without tweaking, either.

Give me the files you want in a folder, with a README saying where
you want them to go and what they do, and I'll put them there myself.
*If* I can assure myself they aren't going to step on something I've
already got.


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