Installers. Do you need them?

[SilverFox441]

It's very easy to assume that everybody knows as much as you do. The trouble crops up when somebody who has written tutorials on the subject makes that assumption!

I've been lucky recently...most of the people that have asked me how to add planes to FS meant how to install them, not how to build them.

Brings you back down to earth and reminds you that we all started somewhere.

[Hagar]

Brings you back down to earth and reminds you that we all started somewhere.

This is of course the secret of writing good instructions - or tutorials for that matter. I always thought it a pity that there was not some sort of agreed method for configuring zipfiles when the first freeware FS addons were posted all those years ago.

It's really quite straightforward & many experienced developers already do it as a matter of course. You would have to do this anyway to configure it for auto-install. Configure the files in a dummy FS main directory. The files are sorted into folders/subfolders with the same names as those in the FS directory - Aircraft, Gauges, Scenery, Texture etc. Then all the end-user has to do is to unzip the file & tranfer the files/folders into their corresponding folders in the FS directory. If all downloads were configured in this way there would be no need for any installation instructions at all.

[Stratobat]

Brings you back down to earth and reminds you that we all started somewhere.

I remember my first download I got from this site... A YB49

Regards,
Stratobat

[JVC_systems]

Wow!! You guys have provided me with some really usefull information. I have never ever trusted any installers that come with FS simply because I hate to install and fill up my registry with spyware and things like that...I still think the fastest way to install add-ons for FS is through zips

[congo]

This is of course the secret of writing good instructions - or tutorials for that matter.

Easier said than done. I find I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to write bullet proof readme's that can't be misconstrued. It's a bit of an art, or in my case, a lot of proof reading, editing and re-editing.

Then I have to go and pretend I know nothing and follow the Readme to the letter and see how it all turns out. I am surprised by how many times I get it wrong before I get it right. People have a habit of finding all the loopholes. Murphy's Law applies.