Information about insteon.zip needs to be included

[Harold]

this post really addresses broader issues than the site. It is about how many things are dealt with in the product. But I could not really pick another topic category that seemed to cover it.

 

I would like to suggest that you do something to provide release number information when looking at an insteon.zip file. You always name the file insteon.zip, I assume, because of the need for your install software to recognize it.

 

That is OK. I understand that. Although it would be useful if you could change your software to deal with another naming convention.

 

For example, UD insteon release#.zip. Where release number is perhaps n_nn_nn bn (bn is a beta release number or an for alpha). You would parse for the ud insteon and then accept anything after that before the .zip. This simplifies a number of things for the user. First of all it allows the file to be immediately distinguished as a UD file and not something from Insteon. Yes multiple directories resolves this, but having the differentiation implicit in the name significantly reduces the chance for confusion. By allowing the inclusion of the release number it vastly simplifies the problem with the user easily determining if the file they are about to install is actually the one they want. There is currently no way to look at one of these zip files and determine what release it is. It is not contained in any file names and it does not show in the properties of either the zip file or the compressed files. This just makes it unnecessarily difficult for a user to keep track of what they have.

 

Another possibility is to look at the release number part and compare it with what is installed. If the new file is not "newer" generate an error message that explains that.

 

There really is a need for making some of your stuff easier for the home control user who really does not want to get into the annoying details of the software. Pretty much everything I have seen here is oriented toward people with much more knowledge, and serious perseverance in discovering even some of the really simple and basic issues in using this system, than should be expected for a control system that is sold at a big box store (the Insteon stuff).

 

The skills of the user are, in my opinion, a serious market impediment to your product. The product (and of course the Insteon products) has a broad potential application market. The documentation (and in no little part the software interface itself) has a much narrower applicable market. Documentation is really rather incoherent and fragmented. And it tends to assume that the new user knows the stuff that the people who wrote the documentation already know. Never overestimate the knowledge of the user. You need to assume Joe six-pack is using your product. Test the application and the documentation on people that you pick off the street.

 

You may all be too young to remember what was probably the ultimate implementation of user friendly products. Heathkit. The could get Joe to build a color television, a computer, an amateur radio station, stereo, etc. they wrote excellent instructions, provided clear interfaces, and tested it on non-experienced customers before it was released. They died because of the integrated circuit. Kits became so simplistic, there was no point.

[Michel Kohanim]

Harold,

 

Thanks so very much for your feedback.

 

1. Naming convention can be implemented and it's trivial

2. I agree

 

With kind regards,

Michel