Re: Proposal for a new Preferences window

[Steffen Klemer <masterofheap gmx net>]

Am 2002.11.17 01:37 schrieb(en) Carlos Morgado:
   > On Sat, Nov 16, 2002 at 05:45:11PM +0100, Steffen Klemer wrote:
   > > I searched through the web, read many documents and scratched my
   > mind...
   > >
   > > You can find it at http://private.addcom.de/moh/balsa_prefs.html
   > >
   >   > (i forgot to say tkx! on the previous mail :))
   >   >   - Quoting colors (aren't 3 levels enough?)
   >   > no :)

No, really, say that this was a joke :-)
Why the hell 6 levels? Ok, I have mails with around 15 levels, but there 
would even be no problem with 2 levels which are always repeated :-)
The main point: distinguishing between the levels is possible with 3 
levels, isn't it ;-)

   >   >   All options shall be applied immediately.
   >   > let's ignore this part of HIG. I hate it. Apply buttons make me 
happy.

Why?
Ok, if you all hate it...
But it's much more logical to a new user, that he changes something right 
after clicking on the button.
Also this makes balsa fitting better into the gnome framework.

And for the ones saying: "And if he decides that these changes were 
nonsense" - Yes there is the cancel button which cancels all his changes 
at once.

But even if you don't like it: "OK" "Apply" and "close" is not the way to 
go...
Then it should be (like in older versions) "Apply" "Cancel" "Ok"

   >   >   encoding  make 8bit default; perhaps config file
   >   > no. 8bit = potentially nonworking (refer to previous mails about 
hiding
   > in
   > config file)

OK, no problem with the advanced tab but perhaps we can hide it under a 
command line option ("--show-avanced-options" and then provide there an 
option to "always show advanced preferences").

To the config file: Following problem:

We want to clean up the interface and make Balsa more usable even for new 
users and people who just want to "use" a program-right?
They usually don't know anything about the internals of mail and computers 
and also they don't want to know. Every preference in the according window 
makes them even more unsure and hate the application because they simply 
don't understand all these nifty options.
If there now an always visible advanced tab it would be nearly as 
complicated as now. Then we could forget about all this and let everything 
be like it is-we wouldn't earn anything because all the complicate pfres 
would stay there. A user normally don't know whether he is advanced or not.
But if you hide the advanced options a normal user hardly ever need 
because he even wouldn't understand them ("all these prefs-why isn't it 
simply working") he is lucky :-)

And a really "advanced" user has no problem with reading the README (in 
fact they read the docu much more often than the newbie who should read it 
:-) and see there how to change it in the config/ gconf-editor/ whatever 
or that he has to apply --show-advanced-options to the cmd line.

   >   >   check upon startup do always check local, the others when 
hitting
   > check
   >   > doesn't that defeat the purpose of "check upon startup" ?

yes, thats why I wanted to delete it.
It's in this case senseless. Imagine why anybody doesn't want to check 
locally?
But I think even better would be the new idea with online/ offline (see 
the other thread)

   >   >   The progress of sending and retrieving should always be 
displayed in
   > the
   >   statusbar with a cancel button and the msg that it is done.
   >   > there can be no cancel button.

I'm sure there can - gimp has one, too... ;-)

OK in this case the HIG says that the butto to cancel should be next to 
the "check-button" but I don't like this idea...

After reading it again there has to be an option to make the statusbar 
inteactive because they also describe what to do if some parts are 
interactive and others not (in this case everything except the interactive 
part has to be flat).

   >   >   >   No trailing "..." after Prefs
   >   > don't understand this one

Simply speaking about the menu - there shouldn't be these ellipses after 
the words "Preferences", "Customize" and "Identity" because they don't 
need further interaction to be performed - they simply open new windows.



cu
/Steffen

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