Missing Bibliography and Locked Resources
As far as I can tell at this point, there is no way to be able to count the number resources I have available. I find this important because, over the years I have lost a few books. Usually it's because of a problem with a file. One needed only to delete the file and reload it from the FTP site to restore the resource. Now there appears to be no way to keep track of what we have unless you go looking for a specific resource and can't find it. Not very satisfactory when you have thousands of resources.
Another feature I don't see is the locked titles. Granted a lot of people don't keep these in their library but some of us do - after all, you can easily find the contents of the locked resource and see if it might meet a current need.
As to the interface, I'm afraid I don't share the enthusiasm of many - I find the thing drab and colourless, made worse by the fact that there are no defining margins so that the whole thing becomes one amorphous blob. Might as well have a black and white monitor for this.
I still haven't had much of chance to look at the functionality, and it's still indexing my library 24 hours later. It has also bogged down my computer to a crawl, but I expect this is a temporary phenomenon (hopefully).
Longtime Logos user (more than $30,000 in purchases) - now a second class user because I won't pay them more every month or year.
Comments
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We're planning to add a resource count; it should make the 4.0 release.
One of our big goals for 4.0, though is that you should never have to worry about your resources, FTP sites, etc. The system will check your licenses, see if/when one is missing or out of date, and then queue up a background download from our server, siliently installing/replacing the missing/outdated resource.
I know a lot of users are experienced with 3.0, and some even seem to like managing their resources folder, checking the FTP site, etc. But our impression is that most users don't want to have to learn all this -- they want it to "just work", so that's what we're aiming for now.
The bland user interface chrome is an attempt to get the software out of the way of the content. Our assumption is that you're interested in the books, not our toolbars and menus, so we've tried to make them "fade away" so that your books can be the focus of the application.
Where would you like to see better margins? On books or on the app frame as a whole?
-- Bob
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I feel happy to hear that you plan to keep the resource count in 4.0; this is not b/c I check resources to make sure they're still around, but simply to see how many books I have. To me, it's just fun.
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I really have not interest in a census of how many resources I have or how many the next user has for that matter. For me the number would only be important in terms of ensuring I wasn't missing any resources, but I am happy for the system to manage that process for me so I can focus my time on using the software for its intended purpose. But even given that I still think as a check and balance to make sure the system is actually doing a good job of managing that process having the number of resources available is important. Its a little bit concerning to here about things that are not going to be in the four release some of them in themsleves may be small things but what other things are we going to be missing (sentence diagramming we know no about ) and how long before we will get them back. I'd rather wait longer for 4.0 than to have it pushed out the door with bits and pieces missing.
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Hi Bob, a couple things.
You wrote, "The system will check your licenses, see if when one is missing or out of date, and then queue up a background download from our server, siliently installing/replacing the missing/outdated resource."
Why not meet in the middle. Let Logos manage all that you say it will, but maybe a small pop-up window that says, "these books, "NAME" were updated" "These books "NAME" were missing and added to your Library. Sounds like a win win.
You wrote, "The bland user interface chrome is an attempt to get the software out of the way of the content. Our assumption is that you're interested in the books, not our toolbars and menus, so we've tried to make them "fade away" so that your books can be the focus of the application."
True, we are interested in the books, but if I can't see the arrows, and buttons because it is so faded that my eyes cannot see the toolbars or hurt after trying to see them, then I can't enjoy the books either.
Why not provide a couple skin options? Some bland some with some zest and allow each user to select the one that suits their taste and also, in the case of us with bad yes, one that suits our needs. BUT if there can only be one option, it really needs to be less faded and more readable.
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Thanks. Bob, for your responses, and those of other Logos employees. They are both helpful to us, and for the most part hopeful. I hope that all our input, both positive and negative, is helpful to you as well.
I'm glad to hear about the automatic checking of resources and licences. While I'm pretty consciencious about keeping track of my own resources (I'm a bit of a control freak I guess), that feature is something that has been made on a number of occasions by others if I remember correctly.
As to colour, I can live with bland. I just prefer bright colours. After all, God surrounded us with them and the ability to see them. Only the animals are relegated to shades of gray, or at best subdued colours.
Where would I like to see better margins? I guess mostly on the frame, but there's not much there is there. Again, it's something I could live with. It's just that I like well defined order I guess. Architectural design was something I considered years ago so it's probably something in my personal tastes.
My indexing finally completed after some 36 hours, but it's a large library. The latest download of resources finished quickly and without a problem.
Alex.
Longtime Logos user (more than $30,000 in purchases) - now a second class user because I won't pay them more every month or year.
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Hi Bob,
This automated function is one that has been requested now for some time. However it would be great to be advised about what is happening.
In my situation I sometimes will log in on DSL, other times on cellphone 3G technology and at other times not at all. The problem is that I have 150meg (yes you read correctly [:)] ) cap on my 3G connection. If I go over the cap I am billed at R2.00 per meg that I use, and it could be rather expensive if a download uses a lot of my bandwidth. I use this only when I am away from home, in the bush etc.
It would be great to know that there is an update available but I would like to choose when I do it. For this reason I must have control over the access to traffic utilization.
This alone would be a reason for me to be wary of 4.
The program looks great as far as I have seen and tried.....searches very quick. I am sure that there is still months of development ahead before version 4 can be seen to be as complete as 3 at the moment.
Bert
Bert Barnes
Acer Extensa, 4gig Ram, 160gig 5400 HD, Core 2 duo processor, WinXP
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