Hi Ed,
Thanks for your comments, they are much appreciated. A few comments
inline below.
On 5/19/2020 4:59 PM, j...@comcast.net N4II wrote:
I sense a bit of, er, annoyance on behalf of WSJT-X developers with the fact
that relatively few users seem to be using Configurations -- at least, the
solution proposed to a fair number of user interface issues raised here
recently seems to be the same: "Use Configurations".
When I first used the software, years ago, I didn't use configurations for
three reasons:
(1) I couldn't find a list anywhere in the manual of just what "settings"
were being "configured" (the File/Settings... settings? To include the main
window check boxes? Frequencies? I still don't know the complete list,
even today);
Configurations save all settings that are normally restored after a
program restart, including which of the defined configurations is
currently active.
(2) The manual didn't explain that I could avoid a lot of UI annoyances by
doing so, just that "[m]any users prefer to create and use entries on the
Configurations menu for switching between modes," without saying why they
have that preference; and
(3) The Configurations menu picks didn't seem to do what I *thought* I
would want to do to start, which was to CREATE a configuration for the
settings I already had, followed by SAVE a configuration. (I knew I didn't
want to CLONE anything . . . .) If one has the manual at hand, one has the
single-sentence instruction to "Simply Clone the Default entry, Rename it as
desired, and then make all desired settings for that configuration." But
even then, one has to make an assumption on how the settings are saved,
since the manual says nothing about what one has to do to save a
configuration (change modes or bands? Switch to a different configuration?
Exit the program?). Without an EDIT menu pick, it's also not at all clear
how one might modify a configuration to correct an error, which makes
experimenting with the feature a high-risk endeavor for new users.
CLONE is a much better description than CREATE for what happens. You
should start with a working setup, configured the way you like it for
some mode. (If the only entry on your Configuration menu is "Default",
you might want to rename it as, say FT8. Or Clone it, and rename the
copy to FT8.) There is no need to re-enter most of your setup details.
After making clone, rename it to something sensible, switch to it, and
then change anything you want to be different in the new configuration.
Modifying a configuration requires nothing more than changing whatever
you want changed. The active configuration is saved whenever you
terminate the program. The next program restart will put you back where
you were.
Note that, when the user has finally found a collection of settings he
likes, as currently implemented the configurations feature requires the user
to go back to the default settings and then change the settings back to the
values he likes, *again*, in order to create the configuration. For most
new users, all this does is break the software, since they likely have not
made a list in advance of all the changes they've made from the default.
If you follow the instructions above, nonw of this is true.
All of these points discourage the new user from experimenting with, and
eventually using, the Configuration feature, which eventually leads to a lot
of threads on this reflector that end with someone writing, "Use
configurations".
Anyway, if I'm wrong, and the user email load has not become annoying, well,
then, never mind, and I apologize for the bandwidth. However, if it has
become annoying, I have two possible remedies, both leading to increased
usage of Configurations over time:
(1) Change the UI of the Configurations menu to the more intuitive CREATE /
SAVE / EDIT model; or
See above.
(2) Add a few sentences to the WSJT-X documentation, at least describing
the benefits of using Configurations; how changes are saved; the importance
of using Configurations/Default/Clone **before** changing settings; what
functions the "Clone Into . . ." and "Reset" undocumented menu picks
perform; and providing a list of the parameters controlled by the
Configurations feature.
We'll try to make the User Guide instructions more detailed and more
specific.
-- Joe, K1JT
_______________________________________________
wsjt-devel mailing list
wsjt-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-devel
