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Conference azur::mcc

Title:DECmcc user notes file. Does not replace IPMT.
Notice:Use IPMT for problems. Newsletter location in note 6187
Moderator:TAEC::BEROUD
Created:Mon Aug 21 1989
Last Modified:Wed Jun 04 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:6497
Total number of notes:27359

897.0. "QUERY: How will the Iconic Interface handle large numbers of instances?" by COOKIE::KITTELL (Richard - Architected Info Mgmt) Wed Apr 10 1991 14:30

Looking ahead a bit, we see DECmcc and the AIM storage management products
installed in, say, the Census Bureau. They are using our media management
facilities to track their 150,000 individual instances of removeable
media, each of which is known as a Cartridge in our model.

In normal operations the Cartridge namespace isn't accessed directly,
rather there is a domain- or directory-like object called a Collection.
A Collection delineates a sub-set of Cartridges assigned to a user or
project, and is the usual way of mounting or otherwise referencing a
Cartridge instance.

But there are still times when we'll need to issue an operation directly
to one of the Cartridge instances. Say a tape falls off a cart. Someone
picks it up and says "where is this supposed to be?" They go to their
nearby DECmcc management station and double-click on the global library
instance to look into it. The list of class names thus displayed includes
Cartridge. The user now double-clicks on the Cartridge class name, thus
generating a SHOW BranchLibrary mumble Cartridge * . The AM passes the
request to the library server, which generates 150,000 responses, which
are duly displayed below the class name in the map window. The user scrolls
to the desired instance, selects it and shows the status attributes, which
tell them where the tape should be.

Assuming they've got the physical, virtual, and network resources, this should
work. But at best it is overkill, and some users may balk at scrolling
through that many instances. Remember they aren't browsing, they *know*
which instance they want.

Do you envision a short-cut to issuing an operation against a specific
instance? It is almost there today, in the Change Entity option from the
Show and Set windows. But to get to one of those windows one has to have
already done the show-all-instances. Perhaps the greyed-out Find operation
on the middle-button menu anticipates such a need?

T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
897.1will try to get it inBARREL::LEMMONWed Apr 10 1991 19:394
This is a popular request.  We are going to do what we can to get it into
v1.2.

/Jim