Re: Adding an icon to the dock

FROM : Steve Israelson
DATE : Sat Nov 03 17:50:19 2007

One issue my clients always mention is that most users are not that 
computer savvy.
They end up running the app from a disk image or cd-rom all the time 
because they see the icon there.
They even run an installer, and still run the app from the disk image.
If there was ONLY an installer for them to see, and then it installed, 
put the icon in the dock for them, then they would not have to worry.
It is even suggested that I launch the app, and close the disk image 
and trash it for the user once the install is complete.

Me, being a savvy user, just cringes, like most of you, when I hear 
this, but the problems these users have are real ones and how to make 
those users lives easier is the problem to solve.


On 3-Nov-07, at 6:51 AM, I. Savant wrote:

> On Nov 3, 2007, at 1:17 AM, Mark Munz wrote:
>

>> Apple can
>> get away with this, but most other folks can't.

>
>  Why?
>
>  What I mean is, why can Apple or others get away with it? Just 
> because they're Apple (or some other large corporation) you're less 
> angry with them for putting an icon on your dock? That seems silly.
>
>  I *agree* with you that apps shouldn't do this - if I wanted the 
> app on my dock, I'd put it there - but that commonly-repeated reason 
> makes no sense. Some like it and some don't mind. The entity doing 
> it doesn't matter.
>
>  Here're some real reasons not to:
>
>  - Drag-install apps should never simply automatically place 
> themselves *anywhere*. It's counter-intuitive and keeping track of 
> whether the user actually wants you to requires storing that "DO-NOT-
> WANT!" value somewhere. If that value is lost (resetting 
> preferences, etc.) you've annoyed your user yet again.
>
>  - Modifying the dock's PLIST directly could potentially damage it 
> if changes are made. Users don't always upgrade before running an 
> app on a new OS. See what happens to you if you damage something and 
> people lose their list of dock icons -- I know I get a bit lost (due 
> to muscle memory) if I suddenly have to rebuild my dock.
>
>  - To pull this trick off, you have to forcibly kill the dock 
> (allowing it to restart). The silly reason that it's "jarring" 
> notwithstanding, it could potentially lose settings the user just 
> made (if they weren't yet written). You can't know everything about 
> timing and what the user's doing just prior to killing one of the 
> single most important applications on their computer.
>