ADSM-L

First impressions of V3 clients.....

2015-10-04 18:03:48
Subject: First impressions of V3 clients.....
From: Jerry Lawson [SMTP:jlawson AT THEHARTFORD DOT COM]
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date:     November 4, 1997              Time: 3:21 PM
From:     Jerry Lawson
          The Hartford Insurance Group
(860)  547-2960          jlawson AT thehartford DOT com
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First impressions of V3.....
First impressions of V3.....

I just installed the Win-32 client on my NT-4 workstation, and I find a few
very disturbing things...... some of which I think are bugs, and some of
which appear to be design flaws that verge on making the new clients almost
unusable..... I am posting this to see what others think.

My thoughts.....

Installation:   Very easy - did a custom and took everything.  Was
consistent
to previous install programs for this client, and went smoothly.

Admin client - so far, very nice.  I did find what I think to be a bug in
the
scheduled event section - when I go to include, and select admin schedules
only (no check in backup/archive) I get EVERYTHING - including
backup/archive.  In fact, there is no difference between the two results
(checked and not checked).

Other functions seemed good to begin with.

Backup client......

On the positive, you fixed two nagging problems - the client can now be
expanded to full screen, and there was no Divide by 0 error with my
favorite
Music CD loaded.

On the other hand, my first impressions of the backup window is a disaster.
Selective backups as we used to know them seemed to have disappeared.  We
trained people to do backup by tree, but the default seems to be do an
incremental, even if the tree structure appears.  And if I go to the root
and
click on the plus, it shows now local and network - click on the gray box,
associated with one of these, and it will select ALL of the file spaces
below
it.  For example.....If I click on the grey box next to the Local
Filespaces,
all filespaces, including my CD ROM drive is selected.  It didn't actually
backup my music CD, but it did try to backup the clipart CD I also had
mounted!  And if I happened to click on the grey box next to the network
drive, it selected all of the network drives I was logged into.  And if I
happened to click on the grey box next to the machine name, I get
Everything
both local and Network!

I have to assume that if a user can do something unpleasant or
unsatisfactory, he WILL do it.  This makes it too easy to shoot us in the
foot - and the DB and the network too.  I am not certain I want to
propagate
this release to any clients at this time.

In defense of the design, the old design presented the CD ROM and Network
drives too, but the true local drives (round brown spinning DASD) were
treated as LOCAL and they were highlighted in blue.  A customer could
always
select something else, but the default (and what was usually taken) was to
do
nothing.  The new design requires a user to make a selection - and if there
is a choice - a user will make the wrong decision too often.  (Does anyone
think I'm getting pessimistic in my old age????)

I also miss the easy way to select a whole directory - CNTL+left mouse
button
does not equal a full directory anymore - doesn't do anything as a matter
of
fact.

I'm also not wild about the little selection box on the  backup bar - the
options being "Changed and Deleted', "Quick: Changed only", and "always
backup".  This seems to be asking for more ways to confuse.

 I haven't done a scheduled backup yet, but the interface here in the GUI
makes me wonder what the batch program will select as a local drive?

In closing, one of my favorite programming rules (right after, "you touch
it,
you own it") is "Change for the sake of change is NEVER a good idea."
  This
whole interface looks like change for the sake of change - I was very happy
with the old interface, and I do not remember anyone making any serious
changes about its design.  Why was it changed so drastically?

OK - I've had my say - what does everyone else think?


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                                                     Jerry
                                                     Jerry

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over..and expecting the results
to
be different - Anon.
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