[1012] in IS Home Pages
Re: Download site question
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kevin M. Cunningham)
Fri Feb 25 13:21:51 2000
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Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 13:21:47 -0500
To: Kris Nyzio <knyzio@mit.edu>
From: "Kevin M. Cunningham" <kcunning@MIT.EDU>
Cc: is-home@mit.edu
At 12:17 PM -0500 2/25/2000, Kris Nyzio wrote:
>Hi,
>I'd like to clarify before I begin making changes to the Product Support
>Sheet database.
>Are we saying that the links to the download sites on the product sheets
>should point, say in the case of ADSM, to:
>http://web.mit.edu/is/help/adsm/home.html
>which links to:
>http://web.mit.edu/is/pubs/qg-44/
>which links to:
>ftp://net-dist.mit.edu/pub/adsm/mac/
>instead of pointing directly to the net-dist directory?
>
>Should I make this change in all cases where the link currently points to
>net-dist and a home page also exists?
My take on it is that where a web page (or subpart) GIVING INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS exists, point to that. But if it doesn't exist, just point to the ftp site (or, in the future, create a new web page). But don't point to any page more broad than that if install pages don't exist.
For example, in the ADSM case above, I would have the PSS version "download site" link point to the qg-44 reference above for the Mac install, to qg-45 for the Windows install, etc. Those are exactly the kind of helpful installation-oriented pages we're talking about.
If these installation pages didn't exist and the ADSM home page just pointed to the ftp site, I would link to the ftp site, not to the ADSM home page -- unless the ADSM home page had a little section about "how to obtain the software", in which case I'd link specifically to that subpart of the document.
I think the principle is: "where is the most complete and helpful information -- or where is the best starting point -- regarding the download and installation of the software?" In other words, we want to answer the user question "What do I need to know to obtain this (version of the) software?" or "What should I know before I download the installer?" or possibly "What do I need to know to help me decide whether to download and install this specific version of the software?" etc. This will include information about prerequisites, location of the download source, installation/setup instructions, etc. -- i.e., what I will need to get this piece of software from "out there" onto my machine. (Note that this is a slightly broader question than "Where can I find the current downloadable version of the software?", which seems to be the question that some of the PSS "download site" entries currently answer.)
In the ADSM case, these considerations lead to the qg pages noted.
On the other hand, the question we want to answer with the "download site" pointer is not as broad as "How do I use this version of the software?" or "Where can I find out more about this software?" For those questions (usage, support, training, even which version should I choose, etc.), we provide other links in the PSS pages.
Does this help?
--Kevin
