Concerning software (part one)
Posted on
I know software. I've been acquainted with it for a long time. Admittedly, I haven't been around long enough to have been into software in the really early days of computing, but I have been around long enough to know it pretty well. What started, as with most my age, in the 80s with machines from the likes of Commodore and Amiga, has, for me, later turned into a career (of sorts) working for a PC-based software company. And despite working with them all day at work, I still deal with computers—PCs and Macs—in my spare time too.
This blog is the start of what will likely be an irregular series discussing the virtues and—perhaps more often—pitfalls of software. As someone who has grown up with it, and now works with it, I feel I'm reasonably placed to discuss this topic. Of course there will be more knowledgeable souls out there. There's a reason I'm still working nine to five each day and not getting paid a great deal for it. But since this is my blog, I'm going to rant on anyway.
The first target I have in my sights is none other than Internet Explorer: Microsoft's web browser, and (at least at the time of writing) still the most widely used browser in the world. There are all sorts of debates—for and against Microsoft—as to why this is the case, but I don't intend to get into that. It's not perfect (what software is?), but my view is that people use it because it does (more or less) what it's supposed to. Of course, the novice user is less likely to hunt around for an alternative too, leaving Microsoft to claim a few extra scalps by bundling IE with their Windows operating systems, but still...
When using a PC, I use Internet Explorer as my web browser of choice. I do also have Mozilla Firefox, but I mainly use that for testing when I build websites. It's not that I dislike Firefox. In some ways it's a better browser. IE is just what I'm used to. I've used it since its very early versions in the 90s (probably version 2) and the habit has stuck.
For the most part it's perfectly adequate for what I want and I'm happy with it. But there is one thing that really bugs me. And it's such a minor thing that it really shouldn’t be an issue. But it is. It's an example of what I would consider to be very poor design. In previous editions, it was called the 'links' folder, and in current versions it's called the 'favorites bar'. It appears in the favourites menu and is near impossible to get rid of. I hate it. It serves no useful purpose and I delete it whenever I install the browser. But it keeps coming back, because it's hard-coded.
Previously, there was a registry hack one could employ to make sure it would never return. It was great. The folder didn't trouble me again. But from IE8, that doesn't work. Nothing does. Delete it all you like, but sooner or later, it will come back. There's no rhyme, reason or logic to when it will return—sometimes minutes later; sometimes weeks—but rest assured it will return. And, of course, when it does return, it's empty. When you first install the browser, it installs said folder complete with a set of links you'll never use (and I intensely don't want), but once you've deleted it, each time it comes back, it will be without those links. So, it's even more useless than it was in the first place.
This is my first example of poor software design, but it won't be my last. There's more to come...
Bootnote: Incidentally, when I use my Mac, I always use Safari. Right now, it's better than both Internet Explorer and Firefox in my humble opinion.