Just downloaded and installed OpenATSoftwareSuite2.31FullInstaller.exe - and I must admit that I’m not overly impressed.
To start with, it took me a couple of goes to get the package downloaded from the wavecom web site - getting to 430MB of download, then the download timing out did not impress me - and having to start again to download another 470MB did not do much for my broadband download quota either.
Why can’t this file be put up on an (S)FTP server with username/password protection so we can use GetRight or other downloading application that will restart if the download breaks.
Why does the installer want/need to run as a server? Numerous firewall pop-ups about the installer package made me a bit wary…
This is supposed to be the full Install (no internet connection required) - so why does the installer jump straight off to connecting to the M2M Studio repository sites? There are even some options on the version selection page to select local or updated install - but these aren’t available until after the installer has checked all the internet repositories. Remember, this is supposed to be the ‘No Internet’ install…
The personal information/licence key generating page gave me a bit of a start too. You already know who I am - I had to log into your website to download the installer in the first place. Is this the first step in getting having to require a licence key to run the software?
I know this is laboring the point - [size=150]but where is my firmware, documentation and samples?[/size]. I don’t want to have to open M2M studio just to get at the API pdf files, or have to create a new sample project just to check out a few lines of code that’s embedded in the samples.
And you can’t even expand the archive and manually copy the documentation/header files/samples to your local HDD - because they’re no longer in the top level of the archive. This is a really retrograde step, IMHO. So now I have to tediously plow throught the exotic eclipse directory structure and copy things myself.
Please, add an option to the installer to allow the user to copy all the documentation and sample source code to a location of choice (just like the selection for software destination).
Now I’m off to copy an existing project and see if I can it to compile and run.
It’s true that this full installer always checks if a more recent software version is available on the web site, allowing you to be always up to date. But please be sure that if the online and the packaged version are the same, the local one is installed (not the remote one).
About the access to the installed packages: if I understand correctly your point, you needs to access to some resources without launching M2M Studio (e.g. documentation and samples for a given package).
First of all, to locate a given package on the disk, its full path is indicated in the package manager perspective of M2M Studio, in the property view of each installed packages. By the way, packages are isntalled in a location that you have chosen at installation time.
Concerning documentation, it is possible to invoke the Help window (providing links to all the installed packages documentation) without starting the whole M2M Studio. I attach a batch file to this post in order to workaround this, waiting for a cleaner solution in next release. Just detach it in your M2M Studio directory and run it: the M2M Studio help window will open.
Concerning samples, you get the HTML documentation from the help window. It’s true that source code is not accessible without creating a project. As we are working on the project wizard refactoring for 1.2.0, I catch your point and integrate it in the brainstorming we are having on the question.
Concerning firmware binaries, maybe you don’t know that it is possible to update a target’s firmware directly from the Target Management perspective, without having to browse for .dwl files. Connect to your target, refresh the target information tree. Then you can right click on Embedded software > Firmware, and choose update. Here is proposed a list of installed firmwares packages (ready to be downloaded).
Please elaborate if you have other needs which are not covered. Actually we are trying to help you more and more not dealing with the packages content layout or complexity. It’s true that we are breaking the habits you may have learned since several years, but our goal is to provide more usability and an easier access to beginners. We are moving forward step by step, and we count on your feedbacks to help us heading in the right direction.
well, having a tutorial relying on M2M studio and/or Expresso wouldn’t be evil per se.
building a little more ‘user pampering’ into M2M studio wouldn’t be a shame either.
Did you try the attached patch proposal? Isn’t it enough? Invoking the Help window is far more light than invoking full M2M Studio, and it spares yourself of looking and browsing the directory architecture.
i’m sorry, but i do not like the way the information is represented in the M2M help. (opening the pdf-documentation within the help-window etc.)
so i don’t want to use it.
so a solution based upon the M2M help is not going to work for me.
oh, another reason for not wanting to go trough the M2M help is opening the 3 main pdf’s that i use simultaneously. that’s impossible in M2Mhelp
the same goes for copying from the doc’s
but that doesn’t have anything to do with M2M studio, so i do not think that this is the appropriate place to get sidetracked into the usability of the pdf’s themselves
Thanks daav for taking the time to listen to our issues. It’s great (as a developer) to get this sort of instant feedback to our issues.
So if the remote version of the installer is not the same as the local version, will a download be forced upon the user? The web download page indicates Installer for the latest Open AT Software Suite components (no internet connection required) - but this is obviously not correct as the installer connects to the wavecom update repositories BEFORE asking the user which version is to be installed. Would it not be better to query the user if they want to check for the latest version on the web - as there may be a valid reason for NOT wanting the latest version (i.e maintaining existing code compiled using this particular version of Open AT). Some industrial products have extremely long lifespans - I have equipment in the field that is 15 years old - and a projected lifespan of 10 years is not unusual in some process control applications, so it is important to be able to re-create the development environment used many years ago.
Yes, I often find the need to browse a small section of a sample file to see how things are done. Previously it was easy to skim the html help file and search through or open the required source - now it’s not as easy to find the html - and almost impossible to find the source. I also have had reason to look through the adl & wip header files looking for ENUM declarations etc - and these files are now extremely well hidden away…
No, I wasn’t aware that this was possible. But, as target connection inside M2M studio is so flaky, I wouldn’t risk an important task such as doing a firmware update from within M2M studio - as evidenced by chiduprakash’s post.
I too also have multiple PDF’s open simultaneously. Also, opening the PDF’s in the M2M help viewer really reduces the amount of screen space available for the actual document - by the time there is the M2M Help index down the left hand side, then the PDF bookmarks (required to navigate the documents) there’s not much area left to read the document in.
Anyway, for me the whole point of using M2M studio V1.1.1 is now moot. I spent a couple of hours fighting with it and have had so much grief with the target connection perspective that I’ve uninstalled it and gone back to using 1.0.2…
Ok, so you all clearly still need to have an access as direct as possible to the resources included in a given package, as you were able to do before.
However, reworking the directory layout one more time will give us a real headache, considering compatibility maintenance with the current (and older) release.
I propose you two possibilities:
Include a resource explorer in the Package Manager perspective, allowing to browse resources included in a package.
Add the possiblity to open the Windows explorer directly on the resources directory of a given package (would be an action available in the Package Manager too…)
Or maybe both? Please let us know.
Concerning the installer stuff, it’s true that the full installer (the 400MB one) defaultly checks and will install the more recent online versions. But you will always be able to choose the option of installing only the packages available in the .exe (and not downloading anything): cf. the radio buttons in the top area of the software selection page of the installer.
Moreover, we will maintain the complete history of delivered packages on the online repository accessible from M2M Studio.
Or how about simply place shortcuts or make copies of the folders/files in a user defined location? After all, disk space is cheap…and making a copy means that if someone accidentally edits a sample then it won’t break the project creation functionality built into M2M Studio (and you won’t have to mess around with the directory layout again )
I personally would prefer that it defaulted to asking me if I wanted to check for updates, rather than checking the internet, then asking me which version to install…
That’s comforting to know.
Thanks again for taking our concerns into consideration - it must be hard enough to do design work without having to deal with all our carping
)
) more time reading you than working on M2M Studio, it’s OK