> AutoRun is a *terrible* thing to do to innocent users. Just give 'em
> an index document and tell 'em to open that.
Have to say I agree (I hate autoruns), but all my clients demand an autorun,
and it seems the average PC user doesn't even know how to open a CD once
they put it in the CD-ROM drive. I don't know how that is, but believe me,
after dealing with many a confused client that seems to be the case.
I even had a recent project where the client paid actual money to an outside
"testing company" to "test" the CD's "compatibility". On the sheet they sent
back to me it said,
"Once [the CD] has been exited, it is not intuitive to relaunch the CD. It
turns out that if the CD is ejected and then remounted, the program starts,
but this is not typical Windows launch method."
This CD even had an autorun on it, so all he had to do was double-click the
CD Icon and it would run again. I told him this, and he said, "How is the
user supposed to know that?" So I asked what exactly is, "typical Windows
launch method"? He said to launch from a desktop icon or from the Start
Menu. I told him to do that we'd have to run an install, and there wasn't
time for that at this point in the project. I then made a little joke about
how the average PC user doesn't know where the CD icon is and I was the only
person laughing. Of the three other people in the room two of them made
their living "testing" Windows application everyday and they both said they
didn't know where the CD Icon was. The third person didn't either, but I
didn't really expect him to.
I differentiate between Mac users and PC users here because as we all know
on a Mac the CD icon pops up on the desktop where the user has a hard time
missing it and you can arrange the icons so they know which one to click.
Not a platform slam or anything just how the systems work.
sad but true tales,
kyle
Kyle Smeby
ASI Image Studios
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
612-379-7117
http://www.a-s-i.com/hyper/kyle.htm
[To remove yourself from this list, or to change to digest mode, go to
http://www.penworks.com/lingo-l.cgi To post messages to the list, email
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Problems, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]). Lingo-L is for
learning and helping with programming Lingo. Thanks!]
