Wayne Chirnside wrote in a message to Charles Angelich:



CA>> I'm not really up to speed on how W9x implements 'shortcuts'. Not 
CA>> clear to me why W9x even has them really.  They seem redundant to 
CA>> me.

WC> So you can make, with great effort, it as easy to use as Win 3.1?

Heh.

How it implements them I have no clue,  and I don't care very much one way
or the other.  But I can see where such a thing can be useful.  THink of
symbolic links under linux for a parallel.

Software packages,  especially win-whatever software packages,  tend to set
things up in a way that the software author envisioned.  Sometimes you can
change this,  sometimes changing it breaks things.  I don't particularly
care to experiment with stuff to find out whether this is the case or not, 
having to re-do installations and such,  and similar nonsense all because
different software authors choose to each do things their own way.  I also
don't care to have my grandkids looking at the uninstall option,  the
install program,  README files,  and similar junk.  (And you can't just get
rid of a lot of that,  it breaks things!)  So I have stuff wherever the
hell the install package puts it,  and a folder full of shortcuts for each
of them.  The youngest that uses the machine has a small number of icons on
the desktop rather than any folders to deal with,  and it makes things
easier for her.

WC> I'm beginning to get the picture. The reason is for the technically 
WC> nieve but the effect is frustrating to those profficient until they 
WC> catch on. I'm about ready to move everything over here, rearrange 
WC> the room, split the disk for Linux and and use primarily this 
WC> machine now.

CA> Sounds as though you've made a great deal of progress.

WC> I'm tickled to death and I didn't really read much by way of docs
WC> but intuited it after seeing the results of screwups. You should 
WC> see the manual for the H.P. it's written for idiots and somewhat 
WC> less than useful for tinkerers.

Sounds familiar.  Manuals for stuff seem to be _so_ much less useful than
they were a number of years ago.  Hell,  they don't even give you enough
info to be able to use things in a way other than what they envision in the
first place -- which these days means w9x,  and probably w2k/xp before too
much longer.

---