This puzzles me.  The win installer has worked without a hitch (except to
ask you to shut down freenet) as long as I've used it.  The only difference
I've seen recently is twice (not always) reporting a failure to complete a
download (check sum error?) and ask if a retry was desired.  That I find
effective if the transmission was in error, because it does not demand that
I wait around for a second try NOW just in case one happens to want to do
something else for the next  quarter hour (obviously I don't have a T1
connection).


> [Original Message]
> From: Paul Derbyshire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: 1/17/2004 9:15:43 AM
> Subject: [freenet-support] Minor installer warts
>
> Got around to updating to 5061. Installer wart is as follows: when it 
> reaches its own executable it pops up something I thought had gone 
> the way of the dodo (and MS-DOS): "abort, retry, ignore". Abort is 
> rather drastic, and retry can't possibly work, so you have to ignore. 
> The installer should automatically skip itself.
>
> This is easily worked around but could confuse some new users and 
> shows lack of polish. Normally installer problems are automatically 
> serious as the lack of polish is present from the user's first 
> impression with the software, but in this case it only will occur the 
> 2nd and subsequent times the installer is run. :)
>
> This therefore only rates a 1 on the 1 to 5 Sanjay-Tarantino scale of 
> bug severity (bugs that bring down the host operating system rating a 
> 5, of course).
>
> Or does it? If the installer itself needs updating there could be a 
> problem. To make the installer updatable, the installer needs to 
> "chain". The algorithm in widest use is for the installer to have two 
> stages: the first fetches the second from a fixed location, then 
> launches this and quits. The second installs everything else 
> including a fresh version of the first if necessary. Since the first 
> has quit, the second can overwrite it. When the first overwrites the 
> second it succeeds since the second hasn't run yet. :)
>
> On a related note, the installer seems unable to automate shutting 
> down the node so it can overwrite with new files, even though it has 
> no problem starting it back up again after. Requiring user 
> intervention at this stage seems unnecessary and is another potential 
> source of error that can easily be eliminated. Many web-updatable 
> apps I've used take already-running instances in stride, and more 
> than a few even update themselves automatically or with only a 
> "there's a newer version available. Download and install? Yes, 
> Cancel" dialog. My current operating system is one of them. :)
> This doesn't really rate as a bug at all, but it is one more rough 
> edge in the installer that can be smoothed over. (Again, it won't 
> show up the very first time you run the web updater, so it doesn't 
> give a bad first impression, reducing its already-cosmetic priority.)
>
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> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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