Re: [Jmri-developers] Law of unintended consequences & serial ports

[James L. <jle...@ma...>]

How about if everytime JMRI starts up it first checks for a NONE or  
COMM PORT IN USE. If it finds either of those to be true then you get  
the following screen

JMRI must have a working comm port connected to the layout. Currently  
you have NONE  selected or the selected COMM port is in use by the  
computer or other software. You must resolve the COMM port issues  
before proceeding because JMRI will not start up without a valid  
port.  Your current selections are "XXX" on the main port and "YYYY"  
on the auxillary connection. The main port must have a valid selection  
other than none. Select from the following choices. The auxillary  
connections are valid with either none or and unsed comm port.

Then list in a drop down box only the valid and unused available ports.

Give examples of possible correct one.

If the system has no ports then give a message stating that no  
possibilities existed and tell them to either free up a com port,  
install a com port, install a USB device that connects to the layout,  
or go take a hike dummy.

My point is to stop JMRI from even opening unless valid , non used ,  
ports are available and assigned. And them put some verbage there to  
help them realize exactly why they are stuck at that point and how to  
possiblly resolve the problem.

Jim

On Jan 25, 2009, at 1:18 PM, Daniel Boudreau wrote:

> Not sure how adding the option on "none" would cause the user to  
> "think"
> about which com port to use.  They are the same ones that try "none"
> "thinking" that it's a valid option.
>
>> We've now had five people on the jmriusers list refer to the computer
>> as having "selected" a COM port or similar, which turns out to be the
>> wrong one. They're getting confused by the default connection,
>> because they think the program must have picked the right one, when
>> it's really just picking the first one.
>
> I wish there was a way to determine which Com port is valid!
>
>>
>> *) Pick one if there really is just one possibility (might backfire
>> for people who haven't plugged in a USB adapter yet)
>
> This is the current operation when there is only one Com port, none  
> doesn't
> exist.
>
>>
>> *) Pick the last one; COM1 or COM3 is usually the first one, but it's
>> rarely the right answer.
>
> Not sure if this is really true.
>
>> But we need to do something, because we're shooting a new user in the
>> foot about every other day.
>
> How about we inform the user when saving his preferences that there  
> several
> serial ports available and they might need to try the others if the
> connection fails?  We can tell if they've selected a serial port or  
> letting
> it default to the first one.
>
> So if the user hasn't selected a serial port, and there are two or  
> more
> ports send a popup that states when saving preferences:
>
> "JMRI has detected n serial ports, if your connection fails, you  
> might have
> selected the wrong serial port".
>
> Dan
>
>
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