Conference azur::mcc

3687.0. "Using the Iconic i/f on Easynet" by MARVIN::COBB (Graham R. Cobb (DECNIS development), REO2-G/G9, 830-3917) Thu Sep 03 1992 17:08

I have  been  trying  to  set  up DECmcc V1.2 so that I can test out various
things (primarily working with DECNIS).  I can use FCL fine but I would like
to use the iconic interface.  I am trying to avoid creating my own namespace
but  can't  work out how to make it work in the DEC namespace (without being
in the Networks Operations group!).

I have a few comments and questions.  

1) I   am  a  novice  user  as  far  as  this  interface  goes.   I  entered
MANAGE/ENT/INTERF=DECW  and  got  a fairly blank window.  So, I went looking
for  some  menu option to get me started.  That was reasonably successful: I
found  "New  Domain...".  Which was what I wanted.  However, when the dialog
box  came  up  I  had  no  idea  what it wanted in the Domain Name.  I tried
pressing  the  Help key or clicking on the field with the Help key depressed
and  was  very  disappointed  to  not get any response.  After trying a text
string  (which  it didn't like) I typed in a fullname, which worked (I still
don't know if that was what it wanted).

2) The  next problem was how to get something to appear on the Map (at least
I had guessed that the window was an empty map -- I have no idea what you do
if you aren't lucky enough to make that guess!).  I searched through all the
menus.   I  even  started  looking  through the help but I couldn't find any
suitable  option  with  "Create" in its name.  I searched again.  Eventually
something  clicked  and  I  remembered  that  everyone  here talks about the
toolbox  so  I brought that up.  Again, without my background as a long term
reader of this conference I would have had no idea that was what I needed to
do.

I presume  I  should  have read some documentation first but I don't usually
bother with DECwindows applications.  I think the choice of menu names, menu
entry  names  and  the  mechanism for getting things on the map add up to an
unnecessarily  difficult  to  use  interface.   You  could  make a *massive*
usability  improvement  by  just renaming the Toolbox entry in the Edit menu
and  the  MB2 popup menu "Add Icon to Map"! Also, help-clicking on any field
should  bring  up some related piece of help: there may not be specific help
on every field but at least make it position you somewhere relevent in Help.

3) How  do  I  add an entry that has already been registered by someone else
into  my  map?  When  I  try  to  add a node to my map it seems to go off an
attempt  a  registration,  which I don't have privs to do.  But it shouldn't
need registering, someone in my local Networks Group has already done that!

4) If  I  do  need  to  register  something,  how  can I make MCC use my own
(writeable)  directory  in  the  DEC namespace instead of using the standard
directories, which I can't write to?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Graham