Menu system - Index, Add Volume

[ChrisGreaves]

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What does this menu section give you that Tools, Options, Indexes, FAT (and Folder) does not?
The drives show here are FAT drives:-

A: is SUBSTituted to a folder on my NTFS boot partition C:
E: is a DATARam RAM disk
B:, V:, and W: are SUBStituted to folders on my decrypted data partition T:.

I know that I am the only person in Bonavista still using the SUBST command at boot time - perhaps in the entire Bonavista Peninsula

Perhaps if I were doing a lot more SUBST on folders throughout the day the menu here might be useful?

Perhaps this area is a relic from a much earlier version of Everything that is somewhat redundant with a newer (?) Tools, Options, Indexes?

(Coming soon to a forum near you: "Suggestions for Decommissioning" )

I am growing in favour of reducing the complexity of Everything's User Interface which I, a tenacious nit-picking curiosity-driven explorer sometimes find confusing.

Thanks, Chris

[NotNull]

(Coming soon to a forum near you: "Suggestions for Decommissioning" )

I'm all for it! All code that is not included does not require maintenance and does not contain any bugs!

But it is an alpha version, and those are for writing and trying out new features. Some will not make it or survive in another form.
I also do have some entries to add to your "Suggestions for Decommissioning" list. But that has to wait as Everything is still evolving and not all puzzle pieces have fallen into place.


(I think the Add Volume entry is mostly intended as an easy way to add external USB disks/sticks)

[ChrisGreaves]

But it is an alpha version, and those are for writing and trying out new features. Some will not make it or survive in another form.

Yes. I feel twinges of guilt when I post Suggestions in Everrything1.5a instead of Suggestions. I claim leniency (grin!) because Real Soon Now we will have version 1.5 rather than a 1.5a, and then most of my posts will be history.
Also I think that 1.5a is fairly stable and we have an adventurous bunch who are robust and knowledgeable ...

I also do have some entries to add to your "Suggestions for Decommissioning" list. But that has to wait as Everything is still evolving and not all puzzle pieces have fallen into place.

I shall start a thread "Request for Decommissioning" where, following a post which claims that "this feature used to be useful when ...", a user can lodge a short request for decommissioning with a reference to an existing topic or post.

(I think the Add Volume entry is mostly intended as an easy way to add external USB disks/sticks)

It doesn't take much to get me out of my depth, does it?
Everything has inline macro-expansion, search commands etc.
Is there a way to map, say, a menu system such as "Tools, Options, Indexes, FAT" (or "Tools, Options, Indexes, Folders, Add" to a shortcut key?

Just askin'

Thanks, Chris

[tuska]

Is there a way to map, say, a menu system such as "Tools, Options, Indexes, FAT"
(or "Tools, Options, Indexes, Folders, Add" to a shortcut key?

Just askin'

You usually find something like that in this mask - and if there is nothing there, then this function does not (yet) exist.
 

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[NotNull]

It doesn't take much to get me out of my depth, does it?

Deepl and I are not familiar with the expression "it doesn't take much to get me out of my depth".
Deepl thinks I am helping you out of a depression (when translated to Dutch); My guess is that you are running out of options/replies/ ...
(But please don't simplify your wording; I really like your writing style. It is a pleasure to read)

[ChrisGreaves]

Deepl and I are not familiar with the expression "it doesn't take much to get me out of my depth".

Think back to your childhood (I am in my fourth or filth childhood right now )
Down at the seaside, or on the river-bank, you would "put your toe in the water" to test the temperature.
If the water temperature was appealing (or if your big sister was daring you), you would then walk into the water, with your mother screaming at you "Don't get out of your depth!"

"It doesn't take much to get me out of my depth" draws its meaning from those scenarios. I am so TINY in terms of knowledge, that once I get past my toes I am in danger of drowning. (that is a desperate effort to stay on-topic regarding Volume

In my case, knowing so little of how Everything has developed, as I work my way along the menu system I am putting my toe(s) in the water with each item: Looking at the options, then searching the forums and Wikis for discussions on the specific items on the menus (hence I often remark "I recall seeing that somewhere ..."), always testing the waters at different spots with my toes.
Of course, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, as is swimming outside the designated zone, so with my little knowledge I might soon find that I have stepped into a hidden pool (Volume again) and am thus "out of my depth".

Having set my goal to know more about Everything than does Void, I am forever getting out of my depth ...

I hope that clears up that little issue.

I am anxious to get through this phase of learning while I am still a beginner, otherwise I will develop into a knowledgeable person and lose the ability to see things as a beginner sees them. I know that you understand that!

Thank you for the compliment on my writing. I owe my style to Alan Coren, Miles Kington, Garrison Keillor, Bill Bryson, Michael Palin, John Cleese, E.F. Benson, A.A. Milne, P.G.Wodehouse and many other writers.

Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

You usually find something like that in this mask - and if there is nothing there, then this function does not (yet) exist.
 

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This is very disappointing
Every time I think that I have uncovered a serious deficiency in Everything, not a new feature, but a Whole New World is opened up for me.
What could please a programmer better than a hot key to open up a dialogue box to assign more hot keys? Recursion at its finest!
"Stunning" will have to do for now.

Thanks for this, Tuska.
My response is delayed because I took time off to write a little VBA code that ferrets out a list of all unassigned shortcut keystrokes to save myself the embarrassment of trampling all over the existing assignments.

Cheers, Chris

[void]

Everything 1.5.0.1342a trials removing the Add Volumes menu item.

Ideally, adding volumes should be setup once under Tools -> Options -> Indexes.

[ChrisGreaves]

Ideally, adding volumes should be setup once under Tools -> Options -> Indexes.

Hi Void. I can see this in my simple home installation.
The laptop comes with an SSD (partitioned into Boot and Data) to which I occasionally add my daily and weekly backup drives, and I have a collection of half a dozen memory keys.

I will set up indexes for each of about ten volumes, and with that I am done. Nothing in the house will change for ever. That is your "adding volumes should be setup once" scenario.

But if I worked as a traveling USB-drive mechanic (not likely!), then presumably I would spend eight hours a day adding/removing volumes as i visited each client site.
Is that correct?

I ask only to make sure that I have understood your meaning behind "adding volumes should be setup once"

Thanks, Chris

[Thy Grand Voidinesss]

[...]
I shall start a thread "Request for Decommissioning"
[...]

Well, where is it?

[ChrisGreaves]

Well, where is it?

It's coming, it's coming.
I just haven't found Anything in Everything that I would want to get rid of!
Cheers, Chris

[void]

But if I worked as a traveling USB-drive mechanic (not likely!), then presumably I would spend eight hours a day adding/removing volumes as i visited each client site.
Is that correct?

Yes, which is tedious.

Removing the Index -> add volume menu item was likely a mistake.
The amount of times I get asked how to add an external exFAT drive.

The old add volume menu was missing a confirmation dialog.
I will likely make some changes and add it back.

[ChrisGreaves]

I will likely make some changes and add it back.

Thanks for this response, too, Void.
I am now going to wade out of my depth. Again:-

In a matter unrelated to Everything, I have been looking at Volume Labels.
Volume Labels were vitally important back in the days of reel-to-reel magnetic tapes on mainframes, and still have importance now, but their use is not popular among the masses.

My USB memory keys are all labeled (with my phone number in case some kind person finds one left behind on a table in a coffee shop).
My weekly Backup.BAT file is being trained to work hand-in-hand with VeraCrypt so that I now longer have to use the Device identifier “\Device\Harddisk1\Partition1” but can instead refer to “Red463GB” because my daily backup drive has a piece of red electrical tape on the case (as distinct from “Blue931GB”)

Will Everything be able to read a volume label and tie that into an index, so that when, for example, I slide the 64GB key “4166219348AL” into the USB socket on my laptop, Everything notices that the key is slid in, and locate and begin using the appropriate database, EFU, index or whatever so that the current, or at worst, future searches make use of the latest objects from that memory key? And of course drop the data when the memory key is removed?

I suspect (but have not thought this through) that adding a device (USB memory key, USB drive, CD/DVD or what have you) to a computer and having near-instant recognition of the device might be very useful, especially for someone using external devices frequently and interchangeably.

Thanks, Chris

[Thy Grand Voidinesss]

[...]
I suspect (but have not thought this through) that adding a device (USB memory key, USB drive, CD/DVD or what have you) to a computer and having near-instant recognition of the device might be very useful, especially for someone using external devices frequently and interchangeably.

I do not get it- what is the problem?

On Windows 10 [and on XP and 7] I can just add a device, assign to it whatever letter I wand and after disconnecting and reconnecting it see it with the same letter- thus automatically [basing on my brain memory] know what device is in my system under this volume T or X or whatever letter

Or do you all together have dozens of drives and pens and frequently used optical disks than it was a long time ago when you have run out of individual letters to assign and are forced to use letter Z for more than one data storage item?

[NotNull]

I don't think there is any problem. @ChrisGreaves is curious about the 'mechanics' behind all this.
But yes, there are indeed people using Everything with *lots* of external disks. (Semi-) random example (check the scrollbar ...)

Will Everything be able to read a volume label and tie that into an index, so that when, for example, I slide the 64GB key “4166219348AL” into the USB socket on my laptop, Everything notices that the key is slid in, and locate and begin using the appropriate database, EFU, index or whatever so that the current, or at worst, future searches make use of the latest objects from that memory key? And of course drop the data when the memory key is removed?

Yes, yes and yes. However, dropping the data is optional. You could opt to keep the data in the index, so searching for "cat picture" would reveal that it is located on disk P: with label 4166219348AL.
(in the pictures above, Automatically remove offline volumes is unchecked to accomplish that for NTFS volumes)

[ChrisGreaves]

I do not get it- what is the problem? ... Or do you all together have dozens of drives and pens and frequently used optical disks than it was a long time ago when you have run out of individual letters to assign and are forced to use letter Z for more than one data storage item?

It might be described as an Academic problem.

In my fire-resistant box I have eight USB drives
In a small cardboard box I see six USB memory keys and three SD Cards.
(There are numerous others that I will never see again, sitting in libraries, coffee shops etc )
I estimate that I have 70 to 100 CDs with computer related stuff - photos and backups, MP3 files, installation suites etc, but I index none of these.

Of this mass of devices I index ONLY two USB drives Y: my daily backup and Z: my weekly cumulative backup.

My true non-problem is writing a User Tutorial where i try to portray Everything 1.5 from the viewpoint of other users. As a user I am insignificant - laptop, no LAN/WAN, no paid business, retired, on holiday, with the gardening season only two months away!

Most times I study a facet of Everything, then I use that feature on my simple isolated little setup, and then write what I think will make sense to future readers.

On Windows 10 [and on XP and 7] I can just add a device, assign to it whatever letter I want and after disconnecting and reconnecting it see it with the same letter- thus automatically [basing on my brain memory] know what device is in my system under this volume T or X or whatever letter

Minor point: In this you suggest that you manually assign a drive letter and make use of your brain-memory.
I think my drift was towards Everything taking over that Boring and Repetitive task for me. I was trained in the belief that computers are here to relieve us of Boring and Repetitive tasks.

If Everything saved you the time it takes to manually assign a drive letter and you didn't have to make use of brain-memory, then you would reduce the likelihood of an error/mistake, and I believe that correcting errors/mistakes takes up far too much of our time.

Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

I don't think there is any problem. @ChrisGreaves is curious about the 'mechanics' behind all this.
But yes, there are indeed people using Everything with *lots* of external disks. (Semi-) random example (check the scrollbar ...)

Spot On!

What to me today is An Important Project is to most people a non-user documenting a tool that has zero impact on his monthly (pension) income, and I am aware of that.
But too I am aware that as soon as I think I am unique, or at the peak of development, I find that there is someone else with twice as many problems, a bigger SSD, or weirder clients. 'Twas ever thus!

Will Everything be able to read a volume label ...

Yes, yes and yes. However, dropping the data is optional. ...

NotNull, thanks for this too. FWIW I can imagine myself as a teacher/lecturer in a large academic installation. In that case I might have hundreds of student memory keys cross my desk each month. I can easily dream up a scenario where, to save myself hundreds of five-seconds of time each month, I want the ability to slide a memory key into the USB socket and have a lot of whirring and clicking going on, as Everything recognizes the key and Everything has been programmed to fire up (say) a batch script to open up a database and locate the student, migrate to an appropriate student folder on my data partition, and so on.

There were 200+ students in every 1st year Physics class at University, and half the BSc. students and all the B.Eng students took Physics 1.0, so perhaps one thousand Physics 1.0 students.

Another scenario would be the 2,100 TTC buses, let alone streetcars and subway train drivers, each with a memory key ...

Cheers, Chris

[Thy Grand Voidinesss]

I do not get it- what is the problem? ... Or do you all together have dozens of drives and pens and frequently used optical disks than it was a long time ago when you have run out of individual letters to assign and are forced to use letter Z for more than one data storage item?

[...]
If Everything saved you the time it takes to manually assign a drive letter and you didn't have to make use of brain-memory, then you would reduce the likelihood of an error/mistake, and I believe that correcting errors/mistakes takes up far too much of our time.

Now that makes sense

Thanks for taking time to draw the big picture

[ChrisGreaves]

Thanks for taking time to draw the big picture

I once read a report that said that 90% of our time spent at a desktop computer keyboard was fixing/correcting/modifying existing material. I do not have the report and it had no supporting data.
But for the next few weeks I started watching what I was doing, and I gained the impression that yes, a lot of my time was spent going over something written seconds or years earlier.
Made me think ...
Right down to being in Preview mode and going back to capitalize that "m" in "Made me think ..."
And fixing the typo in "Precview" where I explained about fixing capitalization
And then Previewing one final time.
Then correcting "what i was doing" by capitalizing the "i". Also in "where i explained "

What a waste of what is left of a brain!
Cheers, Chris

[Thy Grand Voidinesss]

Well, I for the last 4 months have been adjusting my system by writing BAT scripts, trying to write AHK scripts, adjusting various shortcuts / icons, reporting bugs for various programs, talking to ChatGPT about my old unrealized / failed Registry hacks, adding new profiles for fully programmable keyboard, setting up GUI in Everything etc.; treating this like a full time job - which I do not have, as I am sick

If I will keep using most of those upgrades for the next 20 years I am making my life easier and work more effective. If a drunk truck runs me over next month I am wasting the little time I have left

[ChrisGreaves]

B:, V:, and W: are SUBStituted to folders on my decrypted data partition T:.

I might be able to circumvent my perceived problems with adding my SUBSTituted drives to the indexes.

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I have created a bookmark whose search string points to the original folder on my data partition T:.

The folder “T:\Pers\Places\LivingInBonavista” is mapped to V:, so instead of trying to tell Everything to index V:, and then to omit “T:\Pers\Places\LivingInBonavista” from the indexes, I don’t tell Everything anything!
Instead a bookmark does the trick.

To locate documents (and contents of same) on my drive V:. I can use Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V.
This has been working well for ten minutes!
Cheers, Chris