Meta-questions about the list

NTFSD
1

First question: In light of a recent suggestion from an experienced
member to a less experienced member to go read the FAQ, could somebody
at OSR please add a link to this FAQ to the footer the listserve tacks
on to every message. I won’t discount the possibility that I’m an idiot
and can’t find something that everybody else knows about, but I can’t
seem to find an FAQ other than the “How do I join the list” FAQ. Even
if I am the only idiot out here who can’t find the FAQ, it might be nice
to have it handy, and it makes it impossible to miss, especially for new
people. If it’s linked in every post nobody has an excuse to not read
it first.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that with few exceptions people on the
list appear to be willing to learn for themselves when they can find the
information they need. Since it’s already pretty damn hard to find
relevant information, making it easier to find the answers to the stupid
questions might enable people to go longer without bugging the list with
something they know shouldn’t be terribly complicated. I would like to
think this would make less experienced people feel more empowered and
more experienced people less annoyed.

Incidentally, I have this: http://xkcd.com/293/ printed out and hanging
on my wall as a reminder to read up before I start pestering other
people about my problems.

Second question: While looking for this mythical FAQ, I went to the
list search page to see if I could find a link to it from the archives.
There appears to be a bug on the page
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=search that prevents Firefox
users from selecting anything other than the ntdev list.

Bug description:

I can open the dropdown, and mouse-over/highlight either of the other
two lists, but when I click on it to select it, the dropdown collapses
and ntdev is still selected.

Firefox version is:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8)
Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

(Straight from the help/about screen)

I’m running the latest Firefox, but this has been a problem for a while.
I know we’re all Windows developers here, but I find it hard to believe
I’m the only person using something other than IE. Yes, I could pull up
IE to search the list, but Firefox is my default browser, and everything
else I need to use works fine with it. I’m too HTML ignorant to know if
this is a bug in Firefox or the OSR page, but it would be appreciated if
somebody clueful could please take a quick look into it.

Sorry to put two stupid meta-questions in one post, but somebody has to
ask them once in a while :wink:

~Eric

2

http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?article=17

Pete

Kernel Drivers
Windows File System and Device Driver Consulting
www.KernelDrivers.com
(303)546-0300

Eric Diven wrote:

First question: In light of a recent suggestion from an experienced
member to a less experienced member to go read the FAQ, could somebody
at OSR please add a link to this FAQ to the footer the listserve tacks
on to every message. I won’t discount the possibility that I’m an idiot
and can’t find something that everybody else knows about, but I can’t
seem to find an FAQ other than the “How do I join the list” FAQ. Even
if I am the only idiot out here who can’t find the FAQ, it might be nice
to have it handy, and it makes it impossible to miss, especially for new
people. If it’s linked in every post nobody has an excuse to not read
it first.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that with few exceptions people on the
list appear to be willing to learn for themselves when they can find the
information they need. Since it’s already pretty damn hard to find
relevant information, making it easier to find the answers to the stupid
questions might enable people to go longer without bugging the list with
something they know shouldn’t be terribly complicated. I would like to
think this would make less experienced people feel more empowered and
more experienced people less annoyed.

Incidentally, I have this: http://xkcd.com/293/ printed out and hanging
on my wall as a reminder to read up before I start pestering other
people about my problems.

Second question: While looking for this mythical FAQ, I went to the
list search page to see if I could find a link to it from the archives.
There appears to be a bug on the page
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=search that prevents Firefox
users from selecting anything other than the ntdev list.

Bug description:

I can open the dropdown, and mouse-over/highlight either of the other
two lists, but when I click on it to select it, the dropdown collapses
and ntdev is still selected.

Firefox version is:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8)
Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

(Straight from the help/about screen)

I’m running the latest Firefox, but this has been a problem for a while.
I know we’re all Windows developers here, but I find it hard to believe
I’m the only person using something other than IE. Yes, I could pull up
IE to search the list, but Firefox is my default browser, and everything
else I need to use works fine with it. I’m too HTML ignorant to know if
this is a bug in Firefox or the OSR page, but it would be appreciated if
somebody clueful could please take a quick look into it.

Sorry to put two stupid meta-questions in one post, but somebody has to
ask them once in a while :wink:

~Eric

NTFSD is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule debugging and file system seminars
(including our new fs mini-filter seminar) visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

You are currently subscribed to ntfsd as: unknown lmsubst tag argument: ‘’
To unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com

3

Try osronline.com. Under contents select File Systems. It is a way down
the page but it says IFS FAQ. It couldn’t be easier with Firefox.

“Peter Scott” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntfsd…
>
> http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?article=17
>
> Pete
>
> Kernel Drivers
> Windows File System and Device Driver Consulting
> www.KernelDrivers.com
> (303)546-0300
>
> Eric Diven wrote:
>> First question: In light of a recent suggestion from an experienced
>> member to a less experienced member to go read the FAQ, could somebody
>> at OSR please add a link to this FAQ to the footer the listserve tacks
>> on to every message. I won’t discount the possibility that I’m an idiot
>> and can’t find something that everybody else knows about, but I can’t
>> seem to find an FAQ other than the “How do I join the list” FAQ. Even
>> if I am the only idiot out here who can’t find the FAQ, it might be nice
>> to have it handy, and it makes it impossible to miss, especially for new
>> people. If it’s linked in every post nobody has an excuse to not read
>> it first.
>>
>> I’ll go out on a limb and say that with few exceptions people on the
>> list appear to be willing to learn for themselves when they can find the
>> information they need. Since it’s already pretty damn hard to find
>> relevant information, making it easier to find the answers to the stupid
>> questions might enable people to go longer without bugging the list with
>> something they know shouldn’t be terribly complicated. I would like to
>> think this would make less experienced people feel more empowered and
>> more experienced people less annoyed.
>>
>> Incidentally, I have this: http://xkcd.com/293/ printed out and hanging
>> on my wall as a reminder to read up before I start pestering other
>> people about my problems.
>>
>> Second question: While looking for this mythical FAQ, I went to the
>> list search page to see if I could find a link to it from the archives.
>> There appears to be a bug on the page
>> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=search that prevents Firefox
>> users from selecting anything other than the ntdev list. Bug
>> description:
>>
>> I can open the dropdown, and mouse-over/highlight either of the other
>> two lists, but when I click on it to select it, the dropdown collapses
>> and ntdev is still selected.
>>
>> Firefox version is:
>>
>> Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8)
>> Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8
>>
>> (Straight from the help/about screen)
>>
>> I’m running the latest Firefox, but this has been a problem for a while.
>> I know we’re all Windows developers here, but I find it hard to believe
>> I’m the only person using something other than IE. Yes, I could pull up
>> IE to search the list, but Firefox is my default browser, and everything
>> else I need to use works fine with it. I’m too HTML ignorant to know if
>> this is a bug in Firefox or the OSR page, but it would be appreciated if
>> somebody clueful could please take a quick look into it.
>>
>> Sorry to put two stupid meta-questions in one post, but somebody has to
>> ask them once in a while :wink:
>>
>> ~Eric
>>
>>
>>
>> —
>> NTFSD is sponsored by OSR
>>
>> For our schedule debugging and file system seminars
>> (including our new fs mini-filter seminar) visit:
>> http://www.osr.com/seminars
>>
>> You are currently subscribed to ntfsd as: unknown lmsubst tag argument:
>> ‘’
>> To unsubscribe send a blank email to xxxxx@lists.osr.com
>

4

That covers how you find the FAQ, thank you. I still think there might
be some use to linking it in the footer, but obviously that’s OSR’s
perogative.

The problem with the search page, however, is separate. The issue is
with the select box that you use to choose which list you want to
search. With Firefox, you can’t use the mouse to pick the option in the
list. Instead, when you click, it defaults to the last one that was
selected. Interestingly, if you get focus on the control, and then use
the arrow keys, you can select a different option.

As near as I can tell from looking at the HTML, it looks fine, but what
I know about HTML is pretty limited. I can test with Opera and
Konqueror once I get home tonight and see if I can pin the problem on
Firefox. Obviously this isn’t a critical issue, but it is an annoyance.

~Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of David J. Craig
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 5:44 PM
To: Windows File Systems Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntfsd] Meta-questions about the list

Try osronline.com. Under contents select File Systems. It is a way
down the page but it says IFS FAQ. It couldn’t be easier with Firefox.

5

Actually, we tend to use firefox more than we use IE, which is why your comment surprised me. I know I’ve used this feature before without trouble, so I just tried it again and I can’t see this behavior - I trivially ran a search of NTFSD using the drop down box via the mouse.

I’ll see if anyone else can reproduce this issue in-house, but absent an easy repro this is, well, not something that I could even suggest how to “fix”.

Hmm. I could (and have) written that last paragraph about plenty of file system issues…

Tony

Tony Mason
Consulting Partner
OSR Open Systems Resources, Inc.
http://www.osr.com

6

Eric Diven wrote:

That covers how you find the FAQ, thank you. I still think there might
be some use to linking it in the footer, but obviously that’s OSR’s
perogative.

The problem with the search page, however, is separate. The issue is
with the select box that you use to choose which list you want to
search. With Firefox, you can’t use the mouse to pick the option in the
list. Instead, when you click, it defaults to the last one that was
selected. Interestingly, if you get focus on the control, and then use
the arrow keys, you can select a different option.

Hmm exactly the same here, Firefox 2.0.0.8… seems to be easily
reproducible.

Tried on safari and it seemed to be OK.

Tony