38166 - Dialog if pre-8.5 system is ambiguous, needs layout fixes

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, defect, P4)

Description

[Eli Goldberg]

<broken out of 34836>

The dialog that results if you launch the installer on a pre-Mac OS 8.5 system is 
ambiguous and needs some quick layout fixes:

* I believe the top edge of the text string should be aligned with the top edge 
of the "!" icon, unless this has changed since the 1992 HIGs (p. 194)

* The text string is ambiguous, and may result in problems when other people use 
the installer for non-Netscape applications. Specifically, it says:

"Sorry! Can not install this product because MacOS 8.5 or higher is required to 
run it."

first:

-> "Can not" -> Cannot
-> "MacOS" -> "Mac OS"

Secondly, the phrasing is inefficient: e.g. "This product requires Mac OS 8.5 or 
higher."

-> I'm not sure if "Sorry!" is unprofessional in a dialog box. I've normally only 
seen it in shareware applications. 

-> Is it correct that the installer does not require Mac OS 8.5? What's the 
Mozilla installer's minimum OS? What if someone distributes the Mozilla installer 
to install a product that requires Mac OS 7.6, but the Mozilla installer requires 
(say) 8.1? Would this error message then make sense?

BTW, welcome back from Seattle, Samir. ;)

Comment 1

[Eli Goldberg]

Attachment: Error dialog

Comment 2

[Eli Goldberg]

Geeky Mac issue; QA assigning to self.

Comment 3

[Samir Gehani]

The installer requires Mac OS 8.5 (note the space between 'Mac' and 'oS' :o)).  
Hence, folks who use our installer will require Mac OS 8.5 to install.  
Unless of course they ship with AppearanceLib, IconServicesLib, and 
NavigationLib all statically linked (which would bloat the installer).  If 
they are going to tinker with the linkage they will be able to change this 
message too.  They are "at their own risk" at that point.  

I'll use the supplied message and realign the text accordingly.  

Comment 4

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

The installer should weak-link with 8.5 libs, and do runtime tests to see if the 
user has 8.5, putting up the 'we can't install or run' dialog if necessary. This 
is important, I think; there is no worse impression we can give than to have 
somone run the installer under 8.5, and get a cryptic messsage that 
'AppearanceLib' could not be found.

Comment 5

[Samir Gehani]

Simon,
The installer does that.  This bug is a spin off of bug 34836 that 
addresses the weak linking issue and the dialog.  We are merely getting the 
wording and dialog alignment straight with this bug.

Comment 6

[Eli Goldberg]

Matthew (or Verah if you feel so inclined) ---

Do you feel that "This product requires Mac OS 8.5 or higher." is a fine text 
string to describe the case in question to the user, or do you have a better 
suggestion that you'd like to share with Samir? Thanks!

Comment 7

[verah (gone)]

"This product requires Mac OS 8.5 or higher" is fine. In the past I fussed over 
the word "higher," which seemed odd in this context, but this phrase is what 
users are accustomed to seeing now. So, it's cool with me.

We need to fix the product name ASAP, by the way. We simply can't go around 
referring to "Mac OS" as "MacOS."

Comment 8

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

I wouldn't say `this product'. Why not just `Mozilla'? Or, if it's a general 
installer thing (rather than a specific Mozilla thing), `this software'?

I know! How about `This software requires a version of Mac OS with a version 
number 0.89 higher than the lowest version required to run Internet Explorer 5' 
... :-/

Comment 9

[verah (gone)]

"This software" sounds good to me!

Comment 10

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

updating mac mozilla installer QA contact to me

Comment 11

[timeless]

this is easy, and should just be done. Unless it was done, in which case it 
should be verified.

Comment 12

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

The simple text change should be done. Would seem easy enough for an interested 
party to fix so low priority.

Comment 13

[Samir Gehani]

Addressed the layout fix.  The top edge of the text should now be aligned with 
the top edge of the alert icon.

Changed the text to:
"Cannot install this software because Mac OS 8.5 or higher is required to run 
it."

Comment 14

[Grace Bush]

vfd