EF 1.1: Some Feedback
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blohman,
jrvanderhoeven
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Dear all,
the EF really is an impressive piece of work; I would like to share some first observations though which show room for improvements:
On Linux, one should not install as root, which per default goes to /usr/local/KeepEF. At least on Ubuntu Linux, you are not allowed to start GUI programms from the command line. OTH, when starting /usr/local/KeepEF/runEF.sh as a normal user, you don't have sufficient rights in that directory tree to write log files etc. Install with your normal user account, which per default goes to /home/$USER/KeepEF. This should be included in the UG.
On devices like netbooks (or tablets?) with only 800 pixels screen height, the main GUI window does not show the important controls at the bottom of the screen. The GUI should not use a fixed window size. (From a usability perspective, all button functions should be accessible from the menu as well.)
The left tree window pane should be made resizable, or deeply nested folders cannot be navigated easily.
On a german Windows and Linux installation, you cannot change the drive letter in Dioscuri 0.6.0, as there is no ":" Key on the keyboard (Alt-058 also does not work). Inside the emulator, an english keyboard layout is active, but the physical key "ö" (german o-umlaut, the right neighbour of letter "l" in a german layout) does nothing instead of producing a ":" as expected in an english layout. Changing to drive a: is quite important for the EF ;-)
KEEP up the good work, regards
Heinz
Hi Heinz,
Thanks for your feedback, this helps us improve the software.
* We will include the comment to install as a normal user. The EF relies on the JVM, which should be installed as root/superuser on Linux (and will be located in /usr/bin or something similar), but the EF itself should, as you say, be located in a directory that the user has write access to.
* We decided to keep the screen a fixed size to ensure a consistent layout. Java Swing is notorious for violating the layout once windows are resized. However, we agree that it isn't very useful on a netbook, so in our next release we're ensuring the maximum screen size is less than 1024x768, so users with netbooks should also be able to run the software.
* We've not tried a German keyboard in Dioscuri, but I can understand your problem. However, as Dioscuri is external software, I've relocated this bug to the Dioscuri bug list
Regards,
Bram Lohman
Emulation Framework team