[E-Lang] what is good about E?

[Ken Kahn]

MarkM wrote:
> I have no idea how Toontalk or SimCopter actually arrange for a DirectX
> upgrade, but it doesn't need to be *this* bad.  You should be able to get
> the code from Microsoft, or verify that the code came from Microsoft, so
> you're only making yourself vulnerable to / trusting / relying on
Microsoft;
> not both Microsoft and SimCopter / Toontalk.
>

You can always go to www.microsoft.com/directx and get it yourself. What
ToonTalk, SimCopter, et. al. do is make life more convenient and speeds up
installation for those who trust us. It is true that Microsoft could make it
hard for us to tamper with their DirectX installation but I don't think they
put in any effort.

My feeling is that if you are running a Microsoft OS you may as well trust
them regarding updates. But as Alan pointed out things can go wrong. I think
Microsoft really does a good job making sure that upgrades work on
relatively new hardware and where they don't seem to care is for old or rare
hardware. On the DirectX developers list a Microsoft employee recently
responded to a problem by essentially saying "well, your video card is from
1996 so what do you expect?" Maybe this is good business sense.

To deflect some of the blame if things go wrong, the ToonTalk installer says
"Microsoft recommends that ..." I guess in an ideal world a user should be
able to confirm that this is indeed what Microsoft recommends before
proceeding (since they might trust them more than me).

Best,

-ken