On 13/03/08 8:53 AM, "Eric Iverson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ... > Again, I wonder why people install J in "program files". How do the > advantages weigh against the disadvantages? > > Some reasons I prefer to install in Program Files: > (1) I like to have only one place to look to see what programs (equipment > supplier, 3rd party, user defined etc) are installed on my machine > (2) It has become a de facto standard to install programs in one place under > Program Files. An artifact of DOS/Earlier Windows was that program > directories just appeared¹ everywhere beneath C:\ which made things a little > messy/less structured to work with. > (3) Further, it encourages user data to be separated from program data, > simplifying backups (faster, lightweight etc). Programs aren¹t much help for > recovery (unless within a disk image) so can waste backup time, and then you > need only point to the top level¹ data/user folder to identify the backup > source. Also having just data¹ in one well identified area/folder simplifies > searches for files/text etc (typically seeking something of mine). > (4) With data separated (and only the programs in Program Files) then you > don¹t risk inadvertently losing your data should an upgrade destroy/overwrite > the previous version (This is more of a data separation advantage than > anything to do with Program Files, but program collections¹ do encourage > storing data elsewhere than in Program Files). > > I just found the system easier to manage over time (I worked in Sys/NW Admin > for a large company for 8 years too, so it really did help). Disk > organisation is something that seems like the suppliers leave to each user, so > any reasonable/logical structure has advantages. > > Regards, Rob Hodgkinson
---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
