Re: WISH: An attachment reminder - Good idea!

[Fernan Aguero <fernan iib unsam edu ar>]

On Thu, 12 Apr 2001, urgrue wrote:

...[snipped]...

> since we're being snazzy, i think the snazziest way to do it would be for
> the reminder to pick up on a key phrase inserted into the text. this should
> be configurable. for example i could configure my keyword to be XXX, then i
> could type: "im attaching a file for you XXX that explains..."

I think the idea is good. However, not everyone use the same words when
talking about attachments. To make it worse, some people, like me, write
in more than one language.

Finally, and this has to do with the whole thread - not just with urgrue's
message - I don't like the idea of having Balsa behave like a M$
application: 'are you sure you want to save this file in this format?, are
you sure you are not forgetting to attach something?'. This has to do with
how the app sees the user. M$ thinks the user is an idiot so M$ apps are
always asking you stupid questions and warning you of stupid things. This
is not M$, this is unix. If you type 'cat a.txt >/home/user/mail/inbox'
you won't be warned. It is _implicit_ that you know what you're doing.

So, I would rather have a silent button than having to reply to a dialog
to dismiss it. Perhaps there could be two different 'Attach' buttons or
menus. One would be the classic 'Attach' command, that would work as
expected, prompting you to select a file. The other 'Attach later' would
prompt you to select the files after pushing the 'Send' button.
Alternatively, the 'Send' button can be made inactive (greyed out) until
you attach the files. This last option could be confusing if you start
writing a message and leave it in the draftbox ... a few days later you
won't remember that you asked to attach files and you won't know why you
can't 'Send' the message. In either case, we have what we want (attach
files later) but without treating ourselves like idiots.
 
I think this is a subtle difference: 'I wanted to attach a file but forgot
about that. I'm an idiot, Balsa should have reminded me' OR 'I want to
attach a file, but I don't have it ready yet, I will attach it
later...'. It is my personal opinion that Balsa should go for the latter
style of doing things.

My $0.2.

Fernan

--


Fernan Aguero
Bioinformatics
IIB-UNSAM
fernan@iib.unsam.edu.ar
ICQ 100325972