Re: Patch for message read window size

["M . Thielker" <balsa t-data com>]

Hi,

On 2001.07.10 17:42 christophe barbi wrote:
> I guess that you are not using the last cvs code.
> I still believe that the default size should only be used the first time.
> So the option is not necessary, imagine if you add an option for each
> behaviour like this. 

Well, I think that there can't be enough things in prefs. In my opinion,
Balsa should be as configurable as possible to fit different people's
style. If I had my way, I'd have not only this little checkbox, but also an
option to specify a fixed default size in prefs, so I can resize a message
window and not have the next one come up in that size.

All window size saving/restoring that should be done by the window manager
does not work on my system. I'm using RedHat 7.1 / Sawfish / Gnome /
XFree86 4.x. I am using the CVS version of balsa, updated only minutes
before I finally wrote this patch, because I noticed that my message window
was back to that atrocious 400 x 500 size. I had, in previous versions,
just changed the hardcoded default to 800 x 500 and lived with that. This
time it got on my nerves and I made a change that would stay across version
changes.

In my opinion, anything anyone suggests that another doesn't like should
have a chance to make it into prefs. Relying on external programs (the
window manager, for instance) always incurs the risk of it not working on a
particular system. Even if it does, it may not be desired by all users. So
why not put it in prefs and let the user decide?

Everyone here is concentrating on functionality and standards conformance.
That's fine, but there's other things in a program besides that. I would
like to see Balsa become a commercial grade application, feature packed,
reliable, stable and customizable.
The final product will not be used by developers like us, but by users who
probably don't know or care what component of their desktop environment
saves what settings, they just want it to work, every time, on every
system, for everyone.

I would take everything one step further and actually control the placement
of all popup windows from balsa. It gets very annoying when I write a
message on screen 3, click to open the address book and it pops up on
screen 1! I have to move my mouse quite a ways to reach the address book
and pull it onto the same screen the message is on. After I close it, it
may pop up on any screen next time I use it, it's not saved, nothing is
saved!

There really should be an option to keep all Balsa windows on one physical
screen, by making sure that such related windows as "Choose identity" od
"Address book" appear centered relative to the window from which they were
opened, constrained to the physical monitor they're on.

Ok, sone of you will now point out that an application has no knowlede of
the size of the physical screens or their placement, relative to each other
and on the users table.... but I'm sure there is be a solution and if it's
implemented, it will improve the usability of Balsa a lot.

Also, for example, the default D&D action should be in prefs - I prefer to
_move_ messages by D&D, I hardly _ever_ copy a message. Others always copy
messages. Now I have to use the transfer menu and as I pointed out once
already, Balsa sometimes lock up when it's being used.

I would change things around to either have a flat menu, rather than a tree
widget that lists all the mailboxes within a menu, and/or to have RightDrag
menus for selecting between move/copy ops.

Also, it would be a good idea to have a menu button that pops up the last 6
or 8 most recently used copy / move destination to move emails there with a
single click.

Just think about what others might want before you discard this.

Melanie