Re: website draft 4, help wanted

[Mark Polesky]

chip wrote:
> Generally speaking, when it comes to Windows documentation - it
> is almost always dummy proof. Showing every step one might come
> across during the process. It applies to XP as that is what I
> use, should apply equally to NT and 2000. Never seen ME, does
> anyone actually use it? Vista has the same steps but a different
> control panel. I don't have a Vista machine to get the exact
> steps.

Graham,
I'm with Chip here. Explicit, unambiguous, fool-proof. Have you
noticed the troubles I've had recently with abbreviated
instructions? (: Assume nothing; assume the user is a robot.

Chip,
I can't say for certain, but on Windows I seem to recall that the
two uninstall options are not always the same? The rumor I hear the
most often is that the uninstall.exe provided by the program
usually knows how to uninstall the program (and all of its
potentially disjunct files) better than the control panel uninstall
function, which may accidentally leave some distant files undeleted
(perhaps not a big issue with LilyPond, though). But a lot of
programs store files in some arcane places like the Application
Data or Local Settings folders. Not to mention there are at least 3
different folders called Application Data in the directory tree.
What a dumb design.

The other thing is that LilyPond's uninstall.exe knows which
program files you've altered and smartly leaves those undeleted. So
if you fiddle around with some settings in the scm folder, you
won't accidentally delete your changes when you uninstall. Off
hand, I don't know if the Control Panel uninstall is that smart.

If anyone can comment on these issues, I'd be interested.
- Mark