Sebastian et al,
My reactions to the win preview installer
* I can see you've worked hard at leading the user through a
step-by-step process of configuring the node and making it operational -
well done - but it needs a lot more work
* Creating the file association, so that double-clicking '.ref' files
launches freenet, is a neat idea. It's nice to see a ref file with the
hops logo icon. But if a ref file exists outside the freenet program
directory, what will happen if it is double-clicked? I see in the
registry that the command is to run 'freenet.exe -import' - will it work
with spaces in the pathname? Another danger with this is that a user may
double-click on 'myOwn.ref' - what will happen if a user tries to import
his/her own ref?
* After I followed all the directions, I ran freenet, and got the
flashing icon in the task tray. The ALT text on the icon reads '|' -
totally meaningless.
The node won't run. My OS is Win98SE with Sun JDK 1.3 installed.
Worse, my system ultimately froze up and needed a hard reboot.
* After uninstalling freenet, doing scandisk, and reinstalling in
C:\Freenet, the node seems to be now running happily. I suspect there's
a problem with spaces in pathnames. Please test this, and if it's true,
then enforce installation paths without spaces.
* * *
Sebastian, I do applaud your effort here. Please keep going with it. The
quality of the Windows installer will totally make or break freenet out
there in the 'real' world.
So, please seriously consider these suggestions:
1) Don't just run Freenet.node.Node --configure. The DOS box will put a
lot of users off.
2) Don't put a link to the Freenet quickguide. That document is only for
0.3.x.x, and will seriously mislead users.
3) Write a Freenet configuration wizard. This is just a multitabbed
dialog with 'Next', 'Prev', 'Cancel' and ultimately 'Finish' buttons.
Write it in MSVC-MFC, not classical Win95, it'll make your life far
easier. I've no idea why you still bother with classical Win32 API.
Also, static link the MFC so no-one sees 'cannot find MFC42.DLL'
messages.
4) Lay out the wizard as follows:
* size - 640x480, the mimimum screen size
* first tabs - basic node config parameters
* next tab - source out the first noderef
* button to get the 'ref of the day' automatically
without popping up browser window
* button to browse for an existing node ref
on the user's disk
* text field to paste in an http/ftp url containing
a ref
* explicit text explaining the sensitivity and
importance of node refs
* next tab - have a 'congratulations' message, with
a 'finish' button. After clicking 'finish', pop up a
message box asking '(re)start freenet node now?'
* further tabs - 'advanced 1', 'advanced 2' etc for
the more esoteric config items
* remove the 'view readme' and 'start freenet node
now' items from the NSIS installer.
5) Make sure user gets a choice about cache size.
At present, it's creating a 200MB store. With some
users, this can actually maim their system and require
a windows re-installation. Don't accept the choice till
you verify that user has sufficient disk space to handle
it (and allow for windows swap file as well).
6) Create programs group shortcut for the config
wizard, so user can re-run it at any time
7) Create shortcut to the noderef explanation page
If you do all this (or similar), and sort out the problem like I
experienced, Freenet will win hearts and minds like we've all been
working so hard for.
David
----- Original Message -----
From: Sebastian Sp?th <[email protected]>
To: <devl at freenetproject.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 1:04 AM
Subject: Re: [freenet-devl] Win preview
> Sebastian Sp?th wrote:
>
> > We should provide frequently updated references for users to
download.
> > That is out of the bounds of the installer and smart people can
think of
> > ways to provide a http://freenetproject.org/seed.ref.
>
>
> Ahh, forgot to mention that this file is currently obsolete, so
Freenet
> 0.4 wouldn't work with that one. Best thing is to download a new
> reference from CVS for now, e.g. from
>
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/freenet/Freenet/contrib/t
est/hawk.ref
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Devl mailing list
> Devl at freenetproject.org
> http://lists.freenetproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devl
>
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