Re: Floppy disk access in Gnome - followup.

[Lionel Lecoq <lionel_lecoq yahoo com>]

Hi George,
I am afraid being a newbie, I don't have a solution to your problem.
However, I aggree completely with you and would go further: If we want linux, gnome, kde etc... to
reach more than a marginal number of users, someway to bring the file management closer to the
windows approach might be needed in spite of the fact that it is not the **right** way to do it.
The **right way** requires some (if not that much) technical savvy. 
Just an example: I installed RH 7.2 beta yesterday on a PC and it would not boot from the HD but
did from the diskette finding out about the various partitions without going back to the
installation CD was a problem for a beginner like me. Luckily I had already done a similar install
on another machine (which had not given that problem) and could figure out more or less what to do
(in that case removing the number behind hda and letting lilo find out where the boot segment
was...) Being able to see the drives and partitions without having to dive into the documentation
would have help.
Another gripe I have is the structure of the documentation: one more or less has to know the
source of the problem before being able to get any information on how to solve it. However,
finding out that source IS the difficult part... 
Lionel
--- George Farris <george gmsys com> wrote:
> 
> Whoo boy and floppy disk access in GNOME.
> 
> First off allow me to apologize for my venting the other day.I had just
> lost a perfect opportunity to install four linux remote terminals in the
> Library here at the college and lost it due to the floppy disk issue.I
> was mad, I vented and well... you all know the rest.
> 
> Now having said that I would like to respond to a number of things that
> came up in reply to my post.
> 
> (1)
> There was a comment that this is a linux kernel issue and that GNOME
> installs on more that just Linux. 
> 
> Yes you are of course correct, however, I was referring to Linux and
> GNOME and the issue of floppy disk access is not one of just the
> kernel.  Floppy disks are used by people, and generally through a UI of
> some type.  In our case it will be GNOME.  The OS and the desktop have
> to work together in order for this to happen.
> 
> For example: autofs and Nautilus don't always get along:-)
> 
> (2)
> The next comment was that "You don't have to mount floppies - just use
> tar with the raw device (/dev/rfloppy or whatever)."
> 
> Let us review the state of the desktop: In 90% of cases it is a Windows
> OS.  People are used to accessing removable devices in a certain way. 
> Now this may not be the "right" way according to UNIX thinking but it
> has the majority.  We need to be able to support this.  If we feel the
> need we can suggest when people use the floppy that there is a another
> way to do things but to remove their choice is not good.
> 
> (3)
> The next suggestion was to use mdir, mcopy etc.  Fine.  Can you imagine
> asking a student to save their word processing file to the hard drive,
> drop down to the command line and then use mcopy to copy the file to
> their floppy.  They would rebel in microseconds.  In short they just
> won't do it and don't want to hear about it.
> 
> (4)
> Mounting a floppy for general use in a computer lab is bad news,
> period!  Because we can pop the the diskette out without unmounting,this
> will never work.  Students forget their floppies in the drives all the
> time.  Someone comes along and pops out an already mounted floppy and
> boom, problem.
> 
> There must be an easy and I emphasize EASY way to to handle this
> situation, so,I put it to the list how can we accomplish these goals:
> 
> In any GNOME application.
> 1) Run application, create a document, graphic, whatever.
> 2) Insert diskette (no mounting, people won't do it).
> 3) Save directly to the floppy.
> 4) Pull diskette out and leave (no unmounting, people will forget to
> unmount).
> 
> From Nautilus.
> 1) Insert diskette.
> 2) Open Nautilus window and view diskette contents.
> 3) Drag and drop or otherwise copy file to hard drive.
> 4) Eject diskette (no extra steps just hit the button).
> 
> From Mozilla or Galeon.
> 1) Browse to web page.
> 2) Click "File->Save as"
> 3) Choose floppy drive.
> 4) Eject diskette and go. 
> 
> We must realize that the computer needs to be able to handle the steps
> of mounting and unmounting automatically with no errors, after all, that
> is what a computer does best, handle the jobs that we humans don't want
> to do.
> 
> This is a problem folks.  A desktop ease of use problem.  I think we
> would all like to see GNOME on peoples desktops but these and other user
> interface issues need to be addressed. 
> 
> Thank you all for your patience in this matter.
> 
> -- 
> George Farris - VE7FRG
> George gmsys com
> _______________________________________________
> gnome-list mailing list
> gnome-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-list


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