Today I discovered, the hard way of course, something which needs to
become a new requirement for any APM available from the Arachne download
page.
I rec'd an MP3 file attachment. I clicked on it and Arachne went into
its "what do I do now?" dance. I was certain I'd installed an APM that
handled MP3, so I clicked on 'search for APM' ...
But instead of searching in the installation directory on my HDD, and
saying "You don't got an APM to do this," Arachne took me right to the
download page and indicated the only option I had was QV. I didn't have
QV installed because I'd had bad luck with it before, but since this was
a new version of Arachne I thought I'd try it. Before I knew it, things
were overwritten, changed, "updated" all over the place in Mime.cfg. QV
then played only a few seconds of what should have been a MUCH longer
piece of music [108K worth].
So I said what the heck, uninstall it and get on with other things.
But how was I to 'uninstall' with so much overwritten and changed? I
looked in the BACKUP directory and nothing was there.
-------------***------------
And *THAT* is the change I'd like to see required for every APM
available on the web site:
Before any changes are made to MIME.CFG or any other file
in the Arachne complex, the original file should be copied
to BACKUP directory!
And, since often more than on APM is installed, each APM
should put its own extension on the MIME.CFG backup so we
can tell which was is which. QV should save backup as
MIME.QV, Telnet should save backup as MIME.TN, Xedit as
MIME.X etc etc etc
-------------***------------
Everyone knows that one of the worst things about WinXxxx is trying to
UNinstall anything. Even provided uninstall programs often don't work.
Arachne should always strived to be better than dozeware.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to my archieves and do a phoney
install on Arachne so I can get a clean copy of Mime.cfg. And then I'll
have to try to remember all the change that were made for this an that,
and I'll have to reinstall the APMs I do want working .... and it will
probably take a couple of hours and I am NOT looking forward to it at
all.
l.d.
--
-- "I need not like the company I keep, if that company helps me
attain my own personal goals and does me no harm." anon.
--
-- Arachne V1.61, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
