Tuesday, 07 November 2006

Please Don't Name a File Setup.exe

After doing all the downloading from my previous post I have one big request from the software development community.  Please don't name your install file Setup.exe.  Try instead Setup<Application Name><Version Number>.exe or some varient of that.

I just downloaded the Windows SDK and the file was named setup.exe.  I download all files to the same directory, and decide what to do with them from there.  I don't want to have to rename your file in order to prevent it from overwriting another file with the same name.

While I'm on this little rant, I'm tired of iTunes always downloading with the name iTunesSetup.exe with no version number.  It seems rude to me for Apple to assume users want to overwrite the previous version they downloaded, and thus lose the ability to roll back to a previous version if they don't like the upgraded "features."

Thanks, and have a nice day.

++Alan

Wednesday, 06 December 2006 02:09:06 (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Hi Alan,

Sorry for using this blog as a way of contact, I couldn't find an email or other contact information. Anyhow, on to the meat of my question.

I saw your post on the article "5 Books Every Programmer Should Read" (http://www.turnofthecrank.com/2006/12/01/the-5-books-that-every-programmer-should-read/), and it really struck a chord with me. I agree with your comment about UML being too clunky to use and the best way to go is a white board. I'm researching ways to improve UML interaction to be more practical, hopefully figure out if there's an interface possible that could let a designer's mind run free on a computer screen with the same freedom as a white board. (I'm open to adding to or dropping any elements of UML to make it more intuitive)

The problem is my background is mostly academic, and I've only got 1 1/2 - 2 years of practical experience under my belt. Have you seen any books out there that would be a good source of inspiration to drive my project from a practical perspective? (Other than Mythical Man Month, everyone I've talked to seems to adore that book).

Thanks!
Nick Mangano
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