HForm - is it safe to use?
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John Rickman (71) 629 posts |
HForm offers two SCSSI devices (0 and 1) I select device number 1 and answer all the prompts. Yes drive 0 – the main SSD drive on this ARMX6 scary! I am now not sure how to proceed.
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Colin (478) 2433 posts |
Yes it is scary. I format my cards on a pi in a card reader. That way it is the only scsi device. I don’t have the courage to press yes on my Armx6 |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6046 posts |
For some reason HForm uses two different drive numbering schemes for SCSIFS. The initial listing where it shows the device names is just sequentially numbered from 0. After you’ve chosen the drive it then converts it to the actual SCSIFS drive number, which is then shown when it prints out the “Are you sure?” prompt. Should be easy enough to fix it to use SCSIFS numbering everywhere… |
Colin (478) 2433 posts |
Be even nicer if it went something like this:
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Jeffrey Lee (213) 6046 posts |
Why use letters? |
Colin (478) 2433 posts |
To avoid the confusion between drive numbers and menu selection. Also the addition of SCSI::n in the menu gives confirmation that your previous menu selection (S/M) was correct. An option to quit at any menu would be nice too. |
Steve Pampling (1551) 7932 posts |
As Colin says – to avoid confusion. I once did a document at work that started with three sentences of explanation for by a “If you just want to install then click the link here, otherwise read the document to the end and then click the link” |
Colin (478) 2433 posts |
In case you are tinkering with HForm Jeffrey get rid of the dangling G in the menu and attach the units to the number.
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Mike Freestone (2564) 128 posts |
press escape? |
Colin (478) 2433 posts |
Yes but it’s nice to be guided on screen and you don’t always remember escape. When faced with the possibility of formatting a disk by mistake I want telling how to avoid it. |
Rick Murray (539) 13402 posts |
Uh… Don’t run HForm? |
Mike Freestone (2564) 128 posts |
answer no when asked “Are you SURE you want to do this to drive SCSI::0 (Y/N) ?” |
Colin (478) 2433 posts |
Look at the original posters screen. You’ve never used HForm before and you’re not that familiar with riscos. Look at the first question.
At this point you think ‘I don’t know’. HForm isn’t multitasking so you can’t look at the iconbar menu so you have to quit. The possible input options to the question should reflect that quitting is not an afterthought but an essential option. For a program that has the consequences HForm has it needs to be more obvious how to quit than how to continue. |
John Rickman (71) 629 posts |
HForm isn’t multitasking so you can’t look at the iconbar HForm will run in a TaskWindow. This useful for getting a record for what it does. |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6046 posts |
Or we could just make the menu selection be the drive number, making the behaviour consistent with ADFS & SDFS formatting? Is your drive connected to SCSIFS or SDFS (S/M) ? S Searching for devices... SCSI::0 : 0:0.0 Direct-access 15 Gbytes Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 PMAP SCSI::1 : 0:3.0 Direct-access 3807 Mbytes Single Flash Reader 1.00 SCSI::2 : 0:4.0 Direct-access 983 Mbytes VBTM Store 'n' Go 1.02 SCSI::4 : 0:2.0 Direct-access 466 Gbytes Apricorn Net Dock Hdd 1.16 Format which drive (0 - 7) ? Now in HForm 2.75. https://www.riscosopen.org/viewer/revisions/logs?ident=1512855587-881784.html |
Rick Murray (539) 13402 posts |
Could I suggest another enhancement? Is your drive connected to: Because in the bit quoted above – SCSIFS vs SDFS… What the hell is “M”? Which of the S names does “S” relate to? I’m guessing SDFS is M because both are listed second, but when it’s a tool to format discs, you really don’t want any ambiguity. ;-) |
Andrew McCarthy (460) 126 posts |
Is your drive connected to SCSIFS or SDFS (S/D) ? S or Is your drive connected to SCSIFS (S) or SDFS (M) (S/M) ? S or … ;-) |
Andrew Conroy (370) 724 posts |
That sounds like a great idea, Rick, much clearer! I believe the ‘M’ is for ‘Motherboard’. |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6046 posts |
Part 2 of the filing system improvements bounty promises an all-new HForm, most likely with a Wimp interface, so I don’t think there’s much point in spending too much time perfecting the current text-based one. And of course, all this confusion over drive numbers or filesystem letters wouldn’t be an issue if the ‘Format’ option on the icon bar menu actually worked for anything other than floppy discs!
I figured the ‘M’ would either be for ‘Memory’ (as in memory card), or maybe ‘Multi’ (as in MultiMediaCard). |
Chris Mahoney (1684) 2100 posts |
M for “memory card”, according to the User Guide. I agree that a desktop version would be nice (or at least having the Filer’s Format feature work for flash drives and SD cards). |
Colin (478) 2433 posts |
Thanks for the changes Jeffrey. It’s a poor solution as it list 4 devices and asks you to select 0-7 but I suppose you went for quick and easy and its a vast improvement on what it was. |
John Rickman (71) 629 posts |
Thanks for the new HForm Jeffrey. It is a vast improvement. |
Andrew McCarthy (460) 126 posts |
Documented in the user guide sounds like a constraint which kinda closes down the options for the user interface numbered solution. Though good to hear the quick fix worked. The solution to tidy things up would perhaps point to: Is your drive connected to SCSIFS (S) or SDFS (M) (S/M) ? S Not an ideal, as my choice would have been either the numbered options or changing the M to a D, but hey ho! |
Chris Mahoney (1684) 2100 posts |
The User Guide is currently in draft so rather than treating it as a constraint, treat it as an opportunity. Any changes can be folded into a new draft before it goes to print. |
Holger Palmroth (487) 115 posts |
Another idea: After the selection of the drive, HForm could output the first few lines of the directory of that drive, followed by the question “Do you really want to format this drive? Y/N” |
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