[drats_users] Report on various D-RATS "stuff", including Alpha 11

[Dan Smith]

> Yeah, I think at least once someone started sending me a file while I was in
> the settings screen.  That probably started a "session".

Yep, that'd do it.  That's been around for a long time and is a more
fundamental issue that I need to solve.

> Obviously I was still setting things up and wasn't ready for that... so it
> probably locked things up.  That's probably ONE scenario.  There was also a
> lot of chat traffic on the frequency when I was going in and out of the
> menu.  (Well, I think I only successfully exited the settings menu once,
> every other time I had to kill it.

Well, regular chat traffic won't poke the issue above.

Oh, another thing could be a race to let go of and re-acquire the
serial port.  Windows is finicky about that.  A debug log will help.

> Oh, on the file transfer window, (perhaps this is a sign of the
> lockups and not a UI issue), I could never type into the field on
> the top right... no cursor, no ability to type there, even after I
> clicked in it.  (So that would indicate that the lockups were
> occurring in that screen also, perhaps?)  I could usually change
> tabs, but that screen's right side seemed "dead".  The left side
> would update properly if I would toss a new file into the dir and
> hit refresh, so the UI on that tab wasn't completely dead... that
> one will probably need some more play...)

Well, most of the right side should be greyed out initially.  However,
the field directly to the right of the toolbar buttons should allow
you to type in it...

> By the way, I definitely DON'T think the Mac weirdness was a D-RATS
> problem.  I poked through the logs today, and even after loading the
> Mac drivers for the GC232A from Iogear, and I never see any
> indication that the Mac ever "saw" the device get plugged in.

Ah, yeah, that's a problem :)

> If Debbie or anyone else who's on the Mac has any hints on where to
> see that -- I hunted just about everything in /var/log) -- or where
> theirs show up -- or good recommendations on a USB/serial adapter
> that actually works without brain damage on OSX 10.5.x -- it'd be
> nice to get that box working... but no big deal if I don't...

I like KeySpan adapters a lot.  I think they have the best hardware,
but you do pay for it.  Any prolific-based device should work fine as
well, but you have to install drivers for it.

Debbie would obviously have more and better information than I.

-- 
Dan Smith
dsmith#danplanet.com, s/#/@/
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS