The Design of Software

http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000001048,39419834-6,00.htm

"Programming languages are like sewage plants: if the average user becomes aware of them, something's gone wrong."

Maybe someone should diss ZD's annoying Flash-based navigation system that crashes the flash browser when you click on the "next" link! What a pile of crap!

Oh wait... they did it themselves! The last picture/rant talks about Flash based sites. Sorry, I couldn't get there before. Their "Flash based site" was crashing my browser! (FF 1.5)

Got to say I totally agree about Java. The other day I eventually relented and installed the JVM (to submit my tax return) and couldn't believe that it was trying to install the damn yahoo widget on the sly. wow talk about scaly.

These damn toolbars drive me nuts. We had a customer who installed Adobe Reader the other day and it installed Google toolbar which included a popup blocker that blocked our app. It took us a while to figure out what was going on because according to them, it worked one minute and not the next. Of course they didn't even notice the little opt-out checkbox which is checked by default to install the toolbar.

It's gotten to the point where you can't trust anything anymore and need to run everything through a virtual machine that allows you to "undo" this type of crap.

Actually, it's a pretty crappy quote. The user is aware of java the platform not java the language.

Toolbars, Java, Flash, Acrobat... all crapware.

I liked this line about RealPlayer:  "If this software turned up at your door, you'd call the police."

"Actually, it's a pretty crappy quote. The user is aware of java the platform not java the language."

If only Sun would behave so as to let this distinction have some practical meaning.

User is aware that Java on website means slooooow loading.

That's it.

Funny -- half those annoyances are to do with applications' custom update mechanisms.  Which are only required on Windows, since Windows doesn't have its own update mechanism for applications.

When _I_ installed Java it installed silently, didn't even try to add any toolbars, and hasn't nagged me for updates since.  Ditto Flash, ditto Adobe Reader.  Any updates to those programs are handled by the OS package manager, my one-stop shop for _all_ updates of any sort.

And yet people say Windows is the user-friendly one... funny old world, eh?

> uggh
> Maybe someone should diss ZD's annoying Flash-based navigation system that crashes the flash browser when you click on the "next" link! What a pile of crap!


Which ZD are you looking at? The one I'm seeing doesn't use flash for the navigation, the "next" link, or anything else except banner ads.

It was one of the banner ads. Clicking "next" was causing the next rotating banner ad to come in and it was crashing my browser. So I was wrong on the navigation part. But it is funny that later in the same article they bash Flash based web sites when their site actually IS one.

Uh, a site that has flash banners is not "flash based". If you had AdBlock, there wouldn't be any flash whatsoever. If clicking a non-flash link crashed your browser, it's probably a problem with the page itself, or your browser. (FF2 has been out for a good while...) The banner ad is being served from a different site, and won't know anything about the page containing it, or the navigation links (and vice versa).