Posted by XD 351 on 01/11/2019 07:57:48:
Hi Bandersnatch,
Not directly to you as Andrew has had similar issues .
I think (and i'm no computer expert ) that trying to run duel versions of the same programme will lead to registry issues as they will be trying to use the same address or files .
…
What would be really nice is if these slicers could be loaded onto one of the various forms of SD storage devices and used like that then you can switch slicers at will , a bit like changing the OS on a Raspberry PI .
…
Whether or not multiple versions of a program will ordinarily run side-by-side is a developer design decision. For example, Python2 and Python3 co-exist because they have been deliberately built to do so. Finding out if a particular application can be installed in parallel needs research, it may be clear in the documentation, or it may require a non-trivial conference with the vendor.
Unfortunately most applications won't naturally coexist. One reason is that user configurations are almost always carried forward and tweaked between updates, which scuppers the old code. Another is the need to prevent undefined behaviour due to new code using old components and vice versa. The easiest way of keeping everything clean is for the installation to simply destroy older executables and modify the original configuration settings.
Overwriting is great as long as the new version does what the old one did, not so good if it's buggy.
It is possible to maintain multiple versions of software not built to do it, but it's done at the cost of new bother by adding a separation layer to isolate all the components. One way is to create an entire Virtual Machine in which the computer hosts another complete operating system and environment alongside the real one. This feels over the top for this requirement.
More practical might be a Sandbox environment like Sandboxie. Sandboxes create separate working spaces in which programs can be installed and run blissfully unaware of other copies. Because each version runs in it's own space, each has to be set-up independently. This is often useful, for example when the same version of a program is needed to drive two completely different set-ups. Many sandboxes can be set up if that's useful.
Although tools like Sandboxie try hard to make sandboxing easy, it's not always straightforward, for example if the software license detects and blocks multiple copies. The user also has to remember which sandbox he needs to engage!
Pure theory – never needed to sandbox anything myself. But as the technology exists and is respectable, it's worth a try.
Dave
Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 01/11/2019 09:37:06