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Install/Uninstall issues (was RE: Missed an update.)

Dov Isaacs wrote: 
 
> As the person within Adobe who is best known INTERNALLY as the
> "equal opportunity harasser of ALL Adobe product groups," let me
> try to address your very insightful (maybe incite-ful as well)
> comments!
<snip long and thoughtful response> 

Dov, thank you for the detailed response. As usual, you provide a wealth
of knowledge and insight. 

You're absolutely right that an _older_ version shouldn't be expected to
cope with all the possible variations in a _newer_ version. I knew
better, and regret my carelessness in suggesting otherwise. 

But, starting with Acrobat 4, the installer routine should have been
able to recognize the Registry entries created by a _later_ version that
it can't cope with. Every post-Win95 version of Acrobat identifies
itself in a subkey under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe, and I'm sure
future versions will do so as well (until MS discards the Registry db
for something else entirely). So an installer can recognize a situation
where it shouldn't proceed and give the user the appropriate
explanation.  

And the installer for a _newer_ version should be able to cope with any
_older_ version. I agree with you about not permitting multiple versions
of Acrobat. _But_, in that case, the install routine should uninstall or
upgrade the older version without forcing the user to do anything more
than, at most, respond affirmatively to a confirmation prompt.  

I'm glad your "harassment" led to no more "bunny-stomping" in FM7 and
PM7. But I consider the fix to be an improvement, but less than ideal.
Why put the burden on the user unless you have to? The installer should
be able to recognize which of 3 situations exists: (1) There's no
Distiller, so go ahead and install it. (2) This version of Distiller
exists, so don't install it. (3) Some other version of Distiller/Acrobat
exists that it's not sure how to handle, so inform the user and leave it
in their hands. 

"It's my opinion and it's very true." ;-)

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT voyanttechDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT freeDASHmarketDOTnet
303-777-0436
------





 


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