[Oberon] Re: Oberon digest, Vol 1 #56 - 3 msgs

[Charles Angelich]

>Message: 2
>From: muller at inf.ethz.ch
>Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 00:04:31 +0200
>To: oberon at inf.ethz.ch
>Cc: muller at inf.ethz.ch
>Subject: Re: [Oberon] Re: New Oberon users bootstrap improvement project
>Reply-To: oberon at inf.ethz.ch
>
>Stefan Salewski <Salewski at physnet.uni-hamburg.de> wrote:
>> I think that there is enough documentation and information
>> to install ETH-Native-Oberon or BlueBottle-Oberon and start using it.
>
>I also think so, but perhaps its organization could be improved
>to "steer" complete newbies better.  Of course, many people (myself
>included) read as little documentation as possible.
>
>> At each new installation my biggest problem is again and again the 
>> danger of destroying the integrity of the other two 
>> operating-systems, which resides on my computer, and which I need for
>> my daily work.
>
>Unfortunately there is no way to guarantee that one operating system
>won't corrupt the data of another operating system except by physically
>separating and removing the storage devices.
[...]

One way would be to NOT present the most potentially harmful options
at the TOP of the list of installs within the user track of Oberon0.dsk.
Installation to a FAT file is the _last_ option listed.

>Also, it is not inherently safer to install Native Oberon to a FAT 
>partition instead of repartitioning the disk.  It is only more 
>convenient.  

New people are stressed enough about the possibility of damaging what
they already have that is working (see the comment above on this).  
Convenience is a good thing.

>In fact, the FAT solution is more complicated and therefore more likely
>to contain errors.

Could you elaborate/expand on this a bit?

>> But this is only true for people who are willig to invest some time 
>> and effords. If we want to increase the number of Oberon-Users 
>> outside of ETH, than more good documentsation, accessible without a 
>> running Oberon-System, is necessary. Many people prefer to print out 
>> complete installation instructions before starting installation.
>
>That was the aim with André Fischer's text:
>  http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/installA.txt
>(it will be updated for the new release).

No link to this text file jumps at you when you are at the ETH webpages.

>For users who can easily find their way around a new system, there
>is the "documentation path" I described in an earlier mail.
>
>As an aside: I believe one should try to use the Oberon system 
>itself as much as possible from the beginning. That is the idea 
>behind the Oberon-0 system used for installation.  Of course this 
>is more complicated than the "Dummies" approach of a graphical 
>Windows-based installation program run from CD, but it is also 
>more flexible, e.g. it is possible to install a usable Oberon 
>programming environment on old hardware using a single installation 
>diskette.  Both approaches have their advantages.

Installing an OS using a user interface you are not familiar with
is asking a great deal.

>Bluebottle also uses the "Oberon-0 approach" for installation, with 
>the important difference that the boot diskette is replaced by a boot 
>CD, which contains the complete system.  Therefore it can either be 
>used as-is (without installation), or it can be used to install itself 
>on a hard disk.

>-- Pieter

BlueBottle avoiding the need to repartition and possibly wipe your hard 
drive in the process is not really asking a new user to make the same 
decisions before even getting to try out the OS.

BlueBottle on a CD is a walk in the park compared to repartioning a
hard drive prior to installation.



Charles Angelich

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