Re: [Usability] tools on the desktop

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Sun, 31 Jul 2005, Rodney Dawes wrote:

> Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 14:39:47 -0400
> From: Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
> Cc: gnome-usability <usability gnome org>
> Subject: Re: [Usability] tools on the desktop
>
> On Sun, 2005-07-31 at 15:50 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> > On Sat, 30 Jul 2005, Rodney Dawes wrote:
> > > For things like USB keyfobs and such, I think we should just fix the
> > > problems with losing dating if you unplug the device, and it is not
> > > written to yet.
> >
> > Yes please!
> >
> > Making users jump through hoops because the sofware is not smart enough to
> > cache data is really annoying.
>
> The problem is that the software is caching data, actually. It's
> buffering the write to disk, so the data might not actually be synced
> yet when the user pulls the plug, since the writes are async. :)

Fine, I understand that much now.

What I dont understand is how Microsoft thought it was a good idea to
implement things the way they did.  I really dont want Gnome to prevent
users from unplugging they device without first unmounting it throught
their computer.  Warnings about having to hit onscreen buttons to safely
remove USB devices are really annoying.  I should only be need warned if a
transfer is actually happening and then and only then be told the transfer
is incomplete and data will be lost if I dont reinsert the device so the
transfer can be completed.

Windows really sucks rocks here as far as I'm concerned so my concern
is to avoid something similarly awful and annoying being implmented for
Gnome/Linux/whatever.

> This basically means that devices need to be unmounted properly so that
> the data can be dumped to disk, rather than lost. Windows and MacOS both
> have methods to whine at you when you unplug devices without stopping
> them.

The Windows whining is particularly annoying.  I hope the MacOS version is
good enough that you can interrupt a file transfer but safely resume it by
reinserting the USB drive.

- Alan