I had my worst ever software installation experience a couple of days ago. I’d previously thought that Visual Studio .NET installation was pretty bad, simply because it’s so painfully slow. However, the VS.NET setup process is a model of excellence when set alongside that for Borland Delphi 2005.
In mitigation, I should say that Delphi 2005 is a very feature-rich product, incorporating Delphi compilers for Win32 and .NET, as well as C# language support. However, the installation experience would make a textbook example of how not to handle such things.
On opening the box (Delphi 2005 Professional), I found a total of 4 CDs. At least two are required for a typical install. This would not be too big a problem, were it not for the patching process (see below).
Nevertheless, the first problem: bad choice of media. No DVD-ROM was provided, and no DVD option was available when buying.
The patching process is at the root of most of the problems with Delphi 2005 installation. You see, there are three patches: Update 1, Update 2 and Update 3. Each of the updates must be applied in the correct sequence.
So, the second problem: no cumulative patches are available.
Having installed Delphi 2005 from the original media, including swapping CD2 for CD1 when directed, I started running Update 1. I soon found I needed to insert first CD1, and later CD2, in order to install Update 1.
This is the third problem: the installation database is not copied to the hard disk, so the original media are needed each time a patch is installed.
That’s right - I would also need to insert both CD1 and CD2 in turn when installing Update 2 and Update 3. That makes a total of 8 CD swaps to complete product installation. Had a DVD been provided, I could have left the same disk in the drive throughout.
At the end of Update 1, I’d spent around 40 minutes sitting by my PC waiting for it to ask for another CD to be inserted.
I then moved on to Update 2. Lo and behold, this failed to run at all. It threw up some message about the base software not being at the right version. I double- and triple-checked that I was installing the updates in the correct sequence - I was. I then spent around 20 minutes with Google, to find that actually there were two versions of Update 2. The first version, the one I had, would fail to update certain copies of Delphi 2005.
The fourth problem: inadequate quality control. I appreciate that such things happen in software development, and I could have lived with this had it not been compounded by the other issues covered here.
So I downloaded and installed the corrected version of Update 2, and then ran Update 3 (lots more CD swapping). At the conclusion of all of this, I’d spent around 2 hours installing Delphi 2005.
Only later did I realise the irony of the fact that Borland’s current marketing campaign is centred around “Software Delivery Optimization”. Maybe that should be “Software Delivery Obfuscation”? Don’t call us, Borland.