[plt-scheme] Version Check

Eli Barzilay wrote:
> On Apr 27, Anton van Straaten wrote:
> 
>>Eli Barzilay wrote:
>> > User-triggered checks were a failure.  During the 209->299->300
>> > transition, the version check thing got broken, and for months nobody
>> > noticed.
>>
>>And what was the problem with that situation?
> 
> 
> It showed that it was hardly used, which means more outdated
> installations.

But it also implies not much demand for being reminded about updates, 
and it doesn't tell you how many people had deliberately "outdated" 
installations and were quite happy with that.  It doesn't say anything 
about any need that users have.  But no need to argue with me about this 
- I understand the various rationales behind encouraging updates.

> The thing is that "install time" goes away -- the installers are all
> simple unpack-a-directory things now (except for the extra windows
> things like the start menu entries).  

In that case, a dialog box should appear when DrScheme is first run, 
before it ever checks for updates.  Subsequent upgrades could trigger 
this dialog box again, if you like, although the answers to the 
questions from the previous run should ideally be retained.

(E.g. a tiny config file could be devoted to nothing but recording 
whether the question has been asked, which gets overwritten and thus 
reset by an upgrade).

> But install time is a vague
> concept anyway: consider lab installations (which are exactly the kind
> of crowd that this is supposed to target).

I'm not sure what technical issue you're thinking of.  I have experience 
with exactly one lab, at a high school, and I would think that 
per-workstation reminders about updates are the last thing that the 
people responsible for a lab would want.  But that's not an area I'm 
very familiar with.

Anton