Jerry,

Thanks for your feedback on the new Win32 V3 client.  I will
try to address some of your concerns.

>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.

To perform a selective backup you first choose the files from the tree
you wish to backup and then select "Always backup" from the Type of Backup
combo box.

>And if I go to the root and
>click on the plus, it shows now local and network - click on the grey 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!

We introduced the hierarchical selection scheme to make it easier for
someone to select items for backup.  No longer do you need to explicitly
select each individual file in a directory in order to backup the
entire directory contents.

>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.

We need to honor the domain statement in the options file like we did in V2.
The question is whether it would be preferable to preselect all the drives
in the domain and have the user de-select any files/dirs that are not desired
for backup, or to perhaps provide a "domain incremental backup" menu option
under
the actions menu.  I'm soliciting input as to what would be preferable.  We're
targeting our next PTF to include this function in the GUI.

>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.

To select an entire directory you simply need to click on the gray box
adjacent to the directory name in the tree.

>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.

We wrestled with terminology in hopes of clarifying, the traditional
incremental, incremental by date, and selective terms.  The online contextual
help does provide a cross reference to the old terms.

> 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?

The command line client/scheduled backup will honor the domain statement
in the option file (default is all local) and works like V2.

>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?

There were a number of customer usability requirements and feedback from
user interface design studies we conducted that led to the changes made for V3.

Regards,

Mike Dile
IBM Storage Systems Division
ADSM Client Development
Internet: mikedile AT us.ibm DOT com