G. Roderick Singleton wrote:
Before we go off topic, I would like to add this bit of history to the
mix.
1. This question only shows up if the user has MSO installed.
That's a good start.
2. At the start of OOo deployment, OOo behaved as a good Windows
program and set associations to itself by default. That was
worse than the current situation which is why the checkboxes.
Actually, that was very bad behavior. Very much untypical. Not the norm.
I realize you don't use or like Windows and that's fine, but at least
cast your aspersions accurately.
3. Having been through this discussion before, I have come to the
conclusion that it is impossible to do anything that will be
universally acceptable where there is an existing MSO
installation.
Which is why I say *Get rid of the dialog completely*.
We need to be looking at the cost/benefit ratio here. The benefit is
that some users will be able to conveniently change the file
associations at install time. The cost is that some other users will
mistakenly do the same thing. The question is how do these balance out?
First, I wonder how many people actually have both suites installed with
the MSO files associated with OOo. I have no real knowledge here, but my
guess is not many and it would be transitional to dumping MSO
completely. But a scientific survey would be useful to answer this. In
my case I had both suites installed and left the MSO associations as is,
if for no other reason, to leave the icons alone so I could easily
distinguish between the file types in a folder view.
Second, the question is posed at the wrong time. People taking OOo out
for a test drive simply don't know the answer to that question yet. The
only intelligent response to the dialog in that situation is to leave
them unchecked, rendering the dialog pointless. To those who are less
technically literate, or who may simply misread the question, it is
nothing more than a potential stumbling block that results in
angry/frightened/panicky emails to the user list.
Third, since the code that digs into the registry is already written,
how hard would it be to move that into the Options menu? That would be a
handy, logical place for it and it would be a lot more convenient for
those people that decide -- after a suitable test period -- that they
would indeed like to use OOo exclusively? It would certainly be more
convenient than any of the other existing methods for making that change.
Finally, let's consider more closely the folks who would be presented
with the dialog (because they have MSO installed) and who would
rationally be checking the boxes. Who are they? They're certainly not
new users; they might check the boxes but it wouldn't be a rational
choice. There are number of potential scenarios, but the vast majority
are likely to be upgrading to a newer version. Now even if you uninstall
the old version first, the OOo profile folder still remains in the
user's Application Data folder. How hard would it be to have the file
association info in the OOo profile somewhere?
You may not even have to do that much. Does anyone know, If you have MSO
and OOo both installed, with the MSO associations pointing at OOo, and
then you subsequently un-install OOo, do the associations revert to MSO
or do they just disappear? If the latter, then checking for existing
doc, xls, and ppt associations would suffice as far as making rational
decisions in the install process. Simply, if they exist, leave them
alone. If not, point them to OOo.
Rod
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