ISWIX, LLC View Christopher Painter's profile on LinkedIn profile for Christopher Painter at Stack Overflow, Q&A for professional and enthusiast programmers

Friday, December 10, 2004

What Is Hard Core Setup Engineering?

Hard Core Setup Engineering is the combination of the mindset that anything can and WILL be automated while preserving the long time principal of BulletProof Installs. After all any good setup package must accomplish two basic things: Install the product perfectly every time and be brain dead simple for the user to use. A poorly written package will be cursed while a wonderfully written one will be taken for granted. Sadly setup engineers are usually looked down at by their fellow developers. This kind of work is often seen as boring and unimportant - a minor necessary evil to be accomplished just before deployment. Very few developers understand how much a product can be improved when the integrated environment - including the setup package - is considered early on in the design phase of the application.

2 comments:

  1. "Sadly setup engineers are usually looked down by their fellow developers."

    Oh how right you are! Having been a Windows developer for many years, migrating over to installation development has brought a certain level of understanding from 'both sides of the fence'. A simple lack of knowledge regarding the complexities involved with MSI and all its associated technologies breeds a level of ignorance that is unfortunately endemic throughout the developer community. This I fear is something we just have to live with.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Anything can and will be automated"

    This is my personal mantra at my workplace. Unfortunately people really dont believe that setup development is the same as any other application development. Welcome to the blogger community.

    Vagmi
    http://geekswithblogs.net/vagmi.mudumbai

    ReplyDelete