Re: Online Help Systems

["Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>]

"David Knopf" <david -at- knopf -dot- com> wrote in message news:215588 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
>
> Chuck Martin wrote:
>
> >Except that Flash isn't quite ubiquitous. How many new computers come
with
> >Flash pre-installed? (I know my new one didn't.)
> >
>
> And the first time you accessed a page that included a Flash movie, the
> Flash player plug-in was automatically downloaded and installed on your
> machine, making it one of the 97% of Internet-connected computers
> worldwide that have the Flash player installed. No biggie.

Not true at all. I went to a page last night from my new computer, a page
that had Flash on a splash page (two big no-nos for an information site).
All that was there was a plug-in graphic, then a dialog box asking if I
wanted to install the Flash plug in.

>
>
> >Lots of new computers are
> >being sold.
> >
> >Many Web applications are being developed as "IE only." If you run
Netscape
> >or Mozilla (as I do) or Opera as your default browser, you still need to
> >keep IE around for those "IE only" sites and applications.
> >
>
> I too run Mozilla as my default browser, and I find there are very, very
> few web sites for which I need to use IE. As for needing to "keep IE
> around," I'd be interested to hear the alternative. Do you have a method
> for completely removing IE from a modern, Windows PC? If so, would there
> be any benefit in doing so, given that a successful complete uninstall
> of IE would prevent you from running the online Help for Windows itself,
> as well as the Help for many Windows applications? And will that method
> work in the future, now that Microsoft has announced that IE will no
> longer be delivered as a separate application but instead will become an
> integral part of the OS? I think not.

Almost every place I've worked that's developed Web applications, they
develop for IE only. At the exception, our Web Developer regularly pulled
what was left of his hair out trying to get the application functioning and
looking reasonably like in IE.

vistaprint.com is but one site that I've used that is IE only.

I use Yahoo Sports a lot. Yesterday I went to use the GameTracker to see the
progress of the NFL game. I got a message saying that their "new"
GameTracker not only required IE, but Windows.

What good is a Help system that uses browser components if a "critical
update" for the browser breaks the Help system? This has happened twice this
year that I know of.

>
>
> >For many things, Java is onerous as well--and the defaults for the latest
> >JRE can slow yoru system down or make it seem like your browser has
frozen.
> >
> >Development teasm disregard isses such as these far too often, and user
pay.
> >
>
> The original question, I believe, concerned FlashHelp and its
> requirement that the Flash player be installed. Since the player is very
> nearly ubiquitous - and since any machine that does not have it
> installed will obtain and install it automatically the first time it is
> required - I think users pay almost no price for this requirement.
>
Because the install is not automatic, users do pay a price. A price that's
not necessary if it weren't for some developer's vanity.

Chuck Martin



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