I am not looking to get into an argument, I am not here to pick at the product like it may seem, but it it is flawed and all I ask is please look at it and fix it.
Yes, it seem you ARE here to pick an argument, since I clearly explained you why the product works, why is not flawed and why other installers don't offer the same level of reliability, yet you are here again insisting there's something to "fix", when there's clearly none so no, either you haven't read what I wrote, or you haven't understood it, or you ARE here to "pick an argument".
Other products, in fact all other products, achieve this.
No, they don't. Let's take a very simple example of an updater that shows you have the "latest version" immediately, like the PMDG operation center, try this very simple excercise:
- Go into any folder of any of your PMDG airplanes, and start removing files at random, or edit some files and intentionally corrupted them. This, of course, to simulate either you missing a file, or having an outdated file for any reason.
- Check for updates. It will STILL tell you have the "latest version", but have you ? Do you think the product would still work after messing up with files ? No, it won't, and you have NO WAY to KNOW there's a problem, because the updater is telling you have the "latest version" and is not restoring the missing or outdated/wrong/corrupted files, but you think you have the "latest version" and are left with a crippled installation without even realizing it. Because this was a test, but what about it you lost those files because they were removed by accident, or they were outdated because of a previous bad download, bad connection, antivirus, anything ?
Now, try doing the same with any FSDT product, run the Updater, and see what happens. Each and every file you removed or edited WILL be restored to the correct version. Is THAT simple.
Try this, and come back here telling how other products have achieved this...
The management console IS confusing
No, it's not, once you understood the very simple concept that the Update button is not a semaphore that turns on/off depending if you are already updated.
it loops with updating itself
No, it doesn't. If you think it does, please make a precise example, and we'll see if it's "looping and updating itself".
and numerous other issues
Which are, exactly ? You can't just write those blank statements without a precise, exact report, which will be obviously replied to in a precise, exact, manner as I already did before.
, if it didn't we wouldn't be having this conversation
We are having this conversation because you are either failing to understand how it works, even after the explanation.
If something is up to date, don't show the update option, it isn't rocket science.
That's your mistake: because other products takes shortcuts to show an update status very quickly, you THINK it's something easy to achieve. But that's just because they took shortcuts, like checking a single file version, and be done with it. That might work for an app that has its executable changing for each release, you just check the .EXE file version, which is a standard thing, and if your app updates the .EXE with each version, it might be enough.
But for a product made by over 30.0000 files like GSX, where EVERY one of them, either missing or outdated, can cause malfunctions, the ONE and ONLY way to be ABSOLUTELY sure each file is correct, is doing exactly what we already do:
- Check each and every file individually, local against remote, and download if they don't match.
- Don't take shortcuts and don't assume that, because one crucial file is fine, all of them are.
As I already explained so many times, even here, what takes the longest, is the CHECK so, to achieve what you wanted to see, the Update button Disabling itself if you are already updated, would require doing the longest operation of all ( the CHECK of all your local files ) while the updater started, and this should have been repeated for each and every FSDT product you have.
That would be the only way to have all the Update buttons Disabled if you didn't require an update, but it would take about 90% of the time that just DOING the check + updates, as it doing right now, but only when you explicitely ask for it, by clicking the Update button.
Also, we are only discussing the INSTALLER interface, where you are in control of what to update. If you find it "confusing", why not just using the UPDATE interface ? It will make a single run, updating what is required to update, and will exit automatically when it's done. End of confusion.
