Feedback (Last updated 12/15/93) This file contains a random selection of comments I received about a previous CD-ROM, and my response or resolution to those comments. It is not a complete log of all comments or problem reports received, just those that seemed interesting or general enough to include, or that I thought to save for this purpose. Each CD-ROM will have a completely new "Feedback" file. I.E. the lifetime of these particular entries is only the next CD-ROM from when they were received or acted on. =========================================================================== RE: Icon spacing A user wrote: > You asked for comments concerning your first CDROM disk, so that you > can consider them for later disks. First let me say that I am very > pleased with the disk. However, one annoyance is that I use a larger > system font for my title bars, and icon text, and apparently this > causes the icons in each and every window to not quite fit--the icon > labels are cut off for the bottom row. This means that I am forever > adjusting the size of the window whenever I open a drawer, and if > there is anything that CDROM has a *lot* of, it is drawers! My > suggestion is that you leave a little extra room at the bottom of the > windows. I realize that this might be an inconvenience for people > with only 200 line screens, and in general it is a good idea to make > windows as small as possible, but maybe you could just give a little > more room? If you want to set your system fonts so that you see what > I am seeing, I am using Times 18 for the Screen text, and Times 13 for > the icon text. Just a thought. And another user wrote: > Please make the windows of the drawers a bit larger so people that are > using a much bigger font could read the names of the lowest icons in this > window without using the slidebar on the side of the window. I am using > Helvetica in 11 pt. and I can't read the names of the lowest icons. And yet another user wrote: > After playing some time with your october CD-ROM, I'd like to make a > suggestion. With more and more users having flicker fixers, GFX cards > or other means for a high resolution display, they are likely to use > bigger fonts for icons in order to make the names readable. The disk > and drawer windows of the CD however are measured to look nice with an > 8 point font (guessed, never tried :)). If you've got a bigger icon > font (like me), the names of the lower icons cannot be read > anymore. So after opening the disk/drawer you first have to enlarge > the window (storing this is _somewhat_ difficult on the CD :)). Could > you probably leave some more space below the icons? OK, OK... I get the point. :-) I'm now using about twice the previous spacing for the CD-ROM files, and will probably do the same for floppy disks 951-1000. =========================================================================== RE: Floppy Disk "Contents" files > Speaking of fish contents, I was surprised that there wasn't a > comprehensive Contents file containing the contents from disk 1 to the > present on the October CDROM. I think that this would be a valuable > addition to futureCDROMs. I agree. Done. See Useful/Catalogs/*/*. =========================================================================== RE: PARNET Support A user wrote: > Some suggestion: For CD32 use (or CDTV), wouldn't it be nice to have > icons for IconX files on this disc that allow you to start a ParNet > or DNet/SerNet connection to another Amiga? Everything (in regards > of software!) that's needed is already there on your disc, you simply > would have to put these small scripts with some Mount's and Assign's > together. And I responded: > The first CD-ROM has everything in :s/Startup-Sequence to start parnet, > so when you boot the CD-ROM on a CDTV, it should be usable with parnet > (though I haven't yet confirmed myself that it works, or had any users > confirm it). This is one of the things on my list of things to test > for the next CD-ROM. The user responded back: > Yes, but you need a keyboard to activate it! And when I want to use the > CD32 (or CDTV) just as a remote CD-ROM, I shouldn't need to have a > keyboard at all. Just use the joypad or remote control and click on > some icon. You just would have to add that icon and give it an c:IconX > Tool Type. Not any more action to do, very easy. (Well, if you leave it > in S:, you would have to give the S: drawer a normal icon, else it still > wouldn't be accessible on the CDTV under OS 1.3.) The s:Startup-Sequence starts parnet by default. But I added an icon anyway. I need to either read up on the fine details of running parnet, or have someone explain to me in excruciating detail how the CD-ROM should be set up for optimal use of parnet. I should probably take a look at setting up SerNet on the CD-ROM's as well... =========================================================================== RE: Default Tools under pre-2.0 Kickstarts A user wrote: > I found a quirk on this 1st CD when used on my CDTV: This runs under > OS 1.3 and obviously has problems with the command path under Workbench. > So when I click on some Readme that wants to invoke MuchMore, this > program isn't found. I think to remember that 1.3 still needs full > paths in these Default Tool entries of their icons. I'm still trying > to get this solved under 1.3 with a boot floppy (I've an external floppy > connected to my CDTV), it's not that easy. I also can't use the Shift- > click feature for selecting a viewer program and this project file, > because I have no Shift key on my remote... and another user wrote: > When you re-run the first CD, could you please fix the default tools > of the readme files in the root directory of the Fresh Fish #1? The > tool is set to "MuchMore", but it should be set to ":c/MuchMore". There are two aspects to this problem: (1) What text reader (or other tool) should be used. For text files, the most universally available reader is the standard CBM "more" program, though I'm not sure it has always been found in the same place on all releases. I have decided to simply start using "more" again. (2) How is that tool invoked. Some users suggested using an explicit path, such as ":c/more". This would all the use of a more popular text reader program, but the danger here is that there is never any possibility to use a different reader by default, other than the one hardwired onto the CD-ROM. What happens, if for example, the copy of ":c/more" causes a future machine to lockup or crash? If the Workbench search path is used and the default tool is just "more", there is always the possibility to install a more up to date copy of "more", or even substitute a different reader by just calling it "more" and making sure it is in the search path before the standard "more". =========================================================================== RE: Archiving Directories versus Archiving Floppies A user wrote: > Another suggestion is that 99% of the users on a BBS does'nt want to > download a whole disk , they just want the programme on it, mostly of > the users have still a 2400 baud or slower modem and 3-400 KB take a > long time to download. When a read yur first letter a thougt that > "Archived for BBS-Usage" meen that i was the AMINET CD with files > sorted in directories not 350 whole discs ... And another user wrote: > As long as real disks are available keep them in a single archive. But > when you switch to pure CD-ROM ditribution of new stuff use a single > archive for each program. Right now I use a mixture of directory archiving and whole-floppy archiving. The floppy disks that are put on the CD-ROM are archived in their entirety, while the new material on the CD-ROM which is not put on the floppy disks, is archived on a per directory/submission basis. It's not clear to me which method is more desirable for the floppy disks, per-floppy or per-directory archiving. I suspect per-floppy is more suitable for people that want to retrieve the disks via ftp or are interested in regenerating floppy disks for subsequent distribution as floppy disk copies, while per-directory is more suitable for people that are just interested in obtaining a particular program, or are on a narrow bandwidth channel (your 2400 baud modem example). One thing I will consider for future Fresh Fish CD-ROMs is to do a per-directory archive of the floppy, along with an archive for the admin files that are on each floppy, and include a crclist for the floppy. Then people that are interested in reconstructing a floppy can extract the all the individual per-directory archives, then the admin archive, and then use the crclists to verify that they have an accurate reconstruction. It would probably be better to have a program that does all this automatically, given a file that lists the components necessary to reconstruct a particular floppy and information about where to find those components on the CD-ROM. I like this idea for the 1000 disk archive CD-ROM, but for now I think it's a fairly low priority for the Fresh Fish CD-ROM's. Until something better is in place I will include both forms in the BBS section for newly released floppies, since there are only 20-30 new floppies released with each CD-ROM. =========================================================================== RE: GNU "find" and AmigaDOS filename syntax A user wrote: > "Find" in useful:bin deals incorrectly with Amiga filename > syntax. For an example, printing the disc contents with > > 1> find : -print > > yields > > : > find: :/c: No such file or directory > find: :/cdtv.tm: No such file or directory > find: :/COPYRIGHTS: No such file or directory > find: :/COPYRIGHTS.info: No such file or directory > > etc. Similar problems happen with > > 1> find df0: -print > 1> find / -print > 1> find "" -print I didn't have time to chase down this particular bug for this CD-ROM, however I will try to get to it before the next CD-ROM, and/or install a fix if someone else chases it down and sends me a patch. ====================================================================== RE: Amiga version strings in GNU utilities A user wrote: > None of the GNU utilities have Amiga version strings. > > Since AmigaDOS 2.04, the c:Version command can be applied to > any file. (For example, try "version c:dir".) It searches the file > for a string of a particular form, containing the version number of > the file. This sounds like a reasonable AmigaDOS specific change that would be worth supporting. I will note it as an enhancement request for future CD-ROM's. ====================================================================== RE: CD-ROM "startup" and "shutdown" A user wrote: > How about an Shutdown script for your CD to unassign (etc.) all the > stuff the Startup script did? > > Eventually an Installer-Script could be done that lets the user > choose, which parts he/she wants to assign/use and let the > Installer create an appropriate Shell-Script for Startup/Shutdown ? One thing that definately needs improvement is the way the CD-ROM is "installed". There needs to be a better way to activate particular portions of the CD-ROM, than just the supplied FFCD-Startup script. This is very high on my TODO list for a future CD-ROM, and I'm definitely interested in receiving suggestions and feedback on this issue. ====================================================================== RE: FishCat, KingFisher, etc. > How about an already install FishCat that includes all stuff on > former and current Disks/Cds ? Eventually seperate file for "all > stuff" and "stuff on this CD"... > > Please include an up-to-date-archive of the contents of the FishDisks > (e.g. KingFisher) in archived and unarchived (ready to run) form. Done, at least for KingFisher. See the contents of the Kingfisher directory in the root directory of the CD-ROM. ====================================================================== RE: BBS support > Could you add a file like "Files.bbs" in each directory containing > archived stuff? That would make life more easy... (See AmiNet CD-ROM) I'm still sorting out the suggestions for BBS support. There wasn't time to act on any of the existing suggestions for this CD-ROM, but this is very high on my TODO list for a future CD-ROM. ====================================================================== RE: Cover artwork > If you find someone that designs a cover for the FreshFish CDs you could > include it on the actual CD-ROM, so I could print it myself. (BTW: Starting with the December CD-ROM, artwork should be included in the jewel case. It's not done on an Amiga (I contracted the work out to a graphics artist), but I may be able to include whatever files are applicable on a future CD-ROM, if there is enough interest. ====================================================================== RE: Amiga Report Magazines > I have received my copy of your first monthly CD-ROM about two weeks > ago and I must say that I'm very pleased with it. I just want to make > two suggestions for the next CDs. I would like to see the Amiga Report > Magazines which are uploaded to Aminet regulaly on your CD's. In the > biz/dbase directory of Aminet there is a database 'mdb2.6' which is > about 15 MB installed, so it would be nice if you could include it > installed on the CD so that the users of your CD don't have to waste > HD space. ======================================================================