Re: Proposal for a new Preferences window

[Carlos Morgado <chbm chbm nu>]

On Sun, Nov 17, 2002 at 10:10:48AM +0100, Steffen Klemer wrote:
> Am 2002.11.17 01:37 schrieb(en) Carlos Morgado:

> 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 ;-)
> 

oh. repeated. good point :)

>    >   >   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...

i said *I* hate, not all of us.

> 
> 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"
> 

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").
> 

i think "Advanced" is quite explicit enough to make newbies go away :)

> 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 

why ? as long as stuff reasonably work without needing to mess with
Advanced I don't see it being there being all that bad

> 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.

Humm, if you don't know what it means, you're not. Simple enough.
"i wonder if i'm advanced or not, i'll try the advanced sky slope anyway"

> 
>    >   >   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?

NFS.

> But I think even better would be the new idea with online/ offline (see 
> the other thread)
> 

online/offline has implications we don't support

>    >   >   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... ;-)
> 

well, gimp doesn't handle pop and imap does it ? it's currently
Hard to interrupt an imap operation

> 
>    >   >   >   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.
> 

oh ok

-- 
Carlos Morgado - chbm(at)chbm(dot)nu - http://chbm.nu/ -- gpgkey: 0x1FC57F0A 
http://wwwkeys.pgp.net/ FP:0A27 35D3 C448 3641 0573 6876 2A37 4BB2 1FC5 7F0A
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