[Evolution] +cvs.2001.03.22.09.00 observations.

[Craig Longman <craigl begeek com>]

ok, i've been using the new build for a little while now, and noticed a
few things i would like to mention.

- the gtkhtml stuff seems to run a lot slower now.  i know that
developers hate such vague reports, but i'm not exactly sure why, but it
just feels _much_ slower

- i get frustrated often by the fact that the to/from email addresses
are now some sort of second-class citizen in the gtkhtml view.  i cannot
highlight them with the mouse to copy and past them.  they appear to be
separate floating elements somehow.  the font layouts are also pretty
weird, the comma character appearing way below the baseline of the rest
of the txt.  this baseline mixup might be related to the floating thing,
as the commas appear to be normal text, but the addresses are not.

- the new status indicators on the get/send email dialog box i think are
much less useful that what was there previously.  before, i had a
progress meter indicating a reasonable estimate of the time it would
take to complete the download.  now i get a bar that simply pops from 0
to 100% an unknown number of times before the download is complete.  i
suppose if i recieved many very large emails, then this would be more
useful, but for the most part i just receive many small emails.  also,
the numbering is a little weird.  because evolution is beta, i tend to
leave the mail on my server, then go back and purge it from time to
time.  but now evolution tells me its reteiveing email #454 for example,
and that means even less to me.  if this is up for any sort of a vote,
then i say it should go back to the old way, a meter indicating the
_total_ download status of all emails, not the individual emails.
perhaps if the download is taking a while ( > 5 seconds or so ) the
graph could switch to show the progress for the current email download.
or, if you know the full sizes of all the emails to be downloaded, the
progress meter could be updated to show both the overall progress and
the progress on the current download.  it could make the over all
progress a lighter background that would jump to the point on the meter
that the progress would be when the email download was complete, then as
the actual download happens, the real gauge part of the meter could
slowly climb up.  this way we get the best of both worlds, but with only
one meter taking up space.  does this make sense? any thoughts?

- when i have a folder full of a bunch of emails ( multiple screens full
), then starting from the top, i select an email halfway down the
visible portion, then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list
( so that the emails that won't be deleted are not visible ) then click
'delete' then 'expunge', i get a fairly reliable crash.  can anyone else
confirm this?

- speaking of expunge, i find the forced two-step delete very annoying.
i'm not sure why it is like this, and i hope that in the end product
there will be a way to delete in one step, perhaps moving the deleted
item to the trash.  then upon exit the trash can get purged, or perhaps
some time/size rules for dumping the trash

- i have mutiple email servers that i get email from.  when i use the
get/send email button, i regularly get crashes, presumably because two
threads are fighting for the same folders, perhaps updating elements of
a folder behind the other thread's back, and then the other thread
doesn't check to see if things have changed.  i have tried very hard to
see if i can see exactly what is happening just before the crash, but it
cannot.  normally, it happens when the email is being downloaded, but
sometimes it seems like one server has completed the download and
appyling filters or just waiting, and the second is still downloading.

- it often gets confused about some of the preferences.  for example,
more than once now i've found the smtp server name get screwed up to be
something like:

;auth=PLAIN10.1.0.12

instead of the correct 10.1.0.12 server address.  the only solution is
to actually edit the real config file.  however, it often comes back; i
fix the config file, restart, work fine for a while, then suddenly get
an error saying it couldn't connect to the server, and the server name
has that other stuff in front of it.  editing the profile and looking at
the server name also shows that auth=xxx stuff.  in fact, to send this
email i am going to have to do this now.

sincerely,

-- 

    CraigL->Thx();
    Be Developer ID: 5852
    Check out <http://www.begeek.com/>!