| Unfortunately, in the less-pleasant world I inhabit, I suspect that this is | a goal that can't be reached without compromising other, equally important | things. It's a simple fact that every hour that the MM guys spend working on | the installer is one less hour spent working on something else - if they | work on the installer plus the "something else", that increases their | investment, and will likely result in an increase in the cost of the | product. Given that they're probably not going to be able to make the | installer work well enough in every possible situation, that hour may well | be wasted. Also, the more functionality that is hidden from the person doing | the install, the less likely that person will be able to deal with | unexpected install problems when they do occur. |
I can relate to the point you are making here, In a former life I worked for a contractor, developing a rather complicated target identification and acquisition database product for a prime contractor. That contractor decided to license the product to the Air Force, and being the sole developer over a period of five years, I had to be pulled off of the development for 90 days while I had to obtain and learn the nuances of scripting the required InstallShield package so that the Admins at various Air Force Installations could install the product. It was complicated by the simple install of the application on one CD, and then the creation of 5 additional CDs which contained the classified data, which had to be installed and connected seamlessly to the application install. The script was required to take care of all connectors, ODBC setup, etc. Once the package was completed and then wrapped in DemoShield to allow for branching to the target platform, I found that the package could be reused over and over again, even as the original application was updated, enhanced, etc. No consideration was given to the importance of the original app vs the installer, as one depended on the other to be successfully deployed. Now, I can see the delay in development when a sole developer was involved, but for a rather large software publisher such as MM, the packaging should be given the required resources which will only compliment the deployment. Especially where there is a rather large team of developers involved. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
