Claude Montpetit -- Montpetit.net -- en

While browsing through a proposal for The Next Programming Paradigm, I stumbled onto this:

[In this new paradigm,] It may appear that the difficulty has simply shifted to the Create step [as opposed to the programming step]. However, a combination of tool support and applying LOP to itself will make this step much easier.

Then I wrote this tiny post. Maybe I'll take the time to read it all though.

How many times have I heard that tools are the answer to a given complexity? Many.

This week, we heard that Arctic is already seeing the results of climate change with temperatures rising twice as fast as the rest of the globe and the loss of sea ice the size of Texas and Arizona combined. I read an article about it today and here is my favorite quote from a US official that is self-explanatory:

Despite this, the United States has yet to take serious action. After the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment was released Monday, a State Department official said the United States needed more science before deciding how to proceed. The emphasis should be on ensuring "continued economic growth and prosperity for our citizens and for citizens throughout the world," State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said.

A couple of days before the official release of Firefox 1.0, I coincidently complained about how unclear it is to choose which Mozilla product to install. With the release of Firefox 1.0, I now think that they are making it easier: install Firefox. So I retract myself: If you are new to Mozilla, I suggest you install Firefox and put IE away for a while. And of course, it's free.

I consider myself a well-informed user of Internet technologies and I use Mozilla. Nonetheless...

I just went to Mozilla.org to upgrade my home installation from 1.5 to 1.7.3. I was then given the choice to choose the product I want to install, with full attention given to Firefox.

Again, I am not a novice user. I've switched to Mozilla sometimes around 2 years ago. But now I have to choose what I want to install or upgrade, or both. To figure out what is the difference between the various offerings, I had to click on "Products", then go to the page about "which program is right for me", then scroll down to the Mozilla section and read this:

Mozilla 1.7 is our mature, integrated application suite that includes browser, email and newsgroup client, chat client, and an HTML editor. Mozilla 1.7 is not a combination of Firefox and Thunderbird. Mozilla 1.7 is a completely different application.)

We suggest Mozilla 1.7 if you are looking for an all-in-one solution when using the Internet. Large organizations that require an integrated suite (past Netscape Communicator users) should consider moving toward Mozilla 1.7. All others should consider upgrading to Firefox and Thunderbird.

Am I an "all others" type that should not choose their mature integrated application suite but instead choose their other immature Firefox and Thunderbird products?

To me, this seems too complicated for must users. I am part of those that want to attract users from IE to Mozilla, but this whole offering will not help our cause. Users that are used to automated upgrades and reasoning-free installation processes will be intimated when offered choices like those presented on mozilla.org. If I was the decider at mozilla, the front page would put the focus on the "mature" software and leave the other choices a little bit behind.

But today, this is not what you see. You get there and the focus is on the Firefox download. I have mozilla installed. So should I uninstall it before installing Firefox? Then I must install Thunderbird? Will I be able to install a French dictionary like I have in Mozilla (the download mentions "English version"). Will it be easy to re-import all my settings from Mozilla? Or do I just install both over Mozilla? Oh all of these are answered on a FAQ somewhere? So I have to read a FAQ?

Way too many questions for a guy that has 30 minutes free while his daughter is having a nap on a slushy-Saturday morning. I'm better-off just finally allowing for the pending automatic Windows/IE upgrades awaiting for my approval. And let's upgrade my Eclipse 3.0.0 installation with the similar automatic upgrade facilities.

Update: Ok, I can't resist ... and around 20 minutes left. Here is the link to the FAQ entry about migrating from mozilla to Thunderbird.

Update 2, 15 minutes later: Well, it all went smoothly. Installed both Thundebird and Firefox, imported my mozilla settings in both apps, from my own session and Chantal's session too, then uninstalled Mozilla 1.5. If you read this with Firefox, try "CTRL -" (CTRL-minus) many times, then "CTRL +" (CTRL-plus) many times. This is CSS and relative fonts in action! When making text bigger, display problems start to be visible after around 4-5 increases. Decreasing text goes further.