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It is easy to get so wrapped up in developing great software that you forget about getting it onto a user's computer. It pays to pay attention to detail in the installation of your software -- if a user can't get your program to work on his machine, you've just managed to both hurt your reputation as a developer and lost a user at the same time. Installation is one of those elements of software development that is given little, if any, attention when it works well but is quickly noticed when something goes wrong. As of this writing, there are two main methods of packaging and installing software on BeOS-based operating systems: zip files and Software Valet packages.
Zipped software is the simplest method for the developer at the cost of more work for the user. If your program has a simple structure, this is generally no big deal -- the user unzips it, sticks it somewhere, and creates a symlink in the Be menu. If, on the other hand, your program has shared libraries that need installed or other files that need to be installed in more than one folder, it is much, much better to use a Software Valet package.