On 2006-06-01, at 13:54:48, Emmanuel wrote:

>> I think installing the current release of Smile wiped out all my  
>> User Scripts. Could you fix this in a future release, please?

> I am certainly very sorry if you experienced data loss, but John in  
> his reply to your post said that you should not install personal  
> stuff in the application's package, and that your personal stuff  
> should be installed in your Home folder (for instance, your User  
> scripts in /Users/you/LIbrary/Application support/Smile/User scripts.)

Emmanuel,

The OP's request is valid. He's only requesting that you follow  
standard practice.

Various Apple documentation clearly states that the onus is on the  
developer to devise a non-destructive and convenient installation  
strategy. It's not necessary to use an installer package. For  
example, the first release of Script Editor 2 and the upgrade of  
System Events ran AppleScripts which renamed the old files, and then  
placed the new items into the correct locations.

% cd /Applications/Smile;
	Documentation
	ScriptingAdditions
	Smile samples
	Smile.app
	User Scripts
%

This distribution layout is not really correct. The desirable layout  
is a single .app package in /Applications or ~/Applications with  
extras put into the appropriately named auxiliary folders in the user  
domain.

"Documentation" goes into Smile.app/Contents/Resources/Documentation.  
"ScriptingAdditions" goes into Smile.app/Contents/Resources/Scripting  
Additions with an option to install in either /Library/ 
ScriptingAdditions or ~/Library/ScriptingAdditions. "Smile sample"  
goes into ~/Library/Application Support/Smile/Examples, and "User  
Scripts" goes into ~/Library/Scripts/Smile/. Your installer should  
rename potentially affected items to something like ~/Library/Scripts/ 
Smile/ScriptsXXX where XXX is the previously installed version string.


Philip Aker
philip->vcn.dot.bc.dot.ca