[Ekiga-list] Ekiga 3.0 questions/problems

[Jan Kasprzak <kas fi muni cz>]

	Hello,

I have just compiled ekiga 3.0 on my Fedora 9/x86_64, and I have some
questions and problems:

* When starting up, ekiga displays two error pop-up windows - one says
	"Invalid array index", and the other one says "Operating System
	error". Also two "FIXME" strings are printed on STDERR.

* The contacts from the Address Book apparently retained only the name,
	but not the phone number or the SIP URL, when migrating
	from 2.0 to 3.0. When I try to add the SIP URL to an existing
	(incorrectly imported) contact, I then get the same two error pop-ups
	as above, and another two new pop-ups with the same error messages
	are created every two or so seconds.

* How to get my contacts from the address book (the window available
	by selecting Chat -> Address Book menu item) displayed in the
	"Contacts" roster in the main window? (This may be related to the
	problem above - my contacts apparently lost their SIP URL
	when migrating to 3.0).

* I would like to have a "side-by-side" video view restored.
	as this is the only mode which can display full view of the remote
	camera, while still having a feedback from the local one.

* When I open the address book and then close it using the window manager
	"x" (delete) button, a subsequent attempt to open it again
	from menu (Chat -> Address book) fails with the following printed
	to STDERR:

(ekiga:983): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid unclassed pointer in cast to `GtkWidget'

(ekiga:983): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_show_all: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

* When making an outgoing call (e.g. to 500 ekiga net), ekiga (or PA) says

*** PULSEAUDIO: Unable to create stream.
Cannot set parameters Input/output error

	but then the call works without a problem. I have all three
	audio devices in Edit->Preferences->Audio->Devices set to
	"Default (PTLIB/ALSA)".

Now some usability problems:

* I don't think "Chat" is the right name for the leftmost menu item,
	especially when there is no way to start the _chat_ from there
	without selecting the contact from the roster first (and even then,
	the "start chat" action is named "Message" instead of "Chat",
	and is hidden in the "Contact" submenu.

* IMHO, from the UI point of view, the chat should be treated the same way
	as a call. In 3.0, there is a separate Chat->Call menu item,
	but no Chat->Message or whatever.

* The Chat->Call option (and the green phone icon in the main window)
	is still available even when there is no valid SIP (or other)
	URL entered in the URL input box. Selecting it (or clicking the
	green icon) provides no audible feedback, and almost no visual
	feedback (apart from the status line message "User is not available").
	I think the "User busy" ringtone should be played, and maybe a
	error pop-up should be displayed, with a more meaningful message
	(such as "`sip:' is not a valid URL"). Or the green button should
	be disabled altogether, until a valid URL is entered.

* I have not found a way how to send a message to the SIP URL in the
	URL input box (e.g. when this URL is not in the Address Book as well).

* The URL input box no longer has a history drop-down button
	(I used almost exclusively this one for making calls, because
	I mostly call only two or three SIP contacts). Can it be restored?
	The "Call history" tab is not sufficient, because it also
	displays incoming and missed calls, and does not display the
	presence status - I would like to keep a "Contacts" tab opened
	by default instead of "Call history".

* Shouldn't the "display the address book" action be under the View
	menu instead of "Chat" menu? After all, I want to _view_ the
	address book, not _chat_ it :-)

* (I have written this one before:) I think it would be less confusing
	if the local video was displayed vertically flipped (like as
	the user is looking at himself into the mirror) - this way it
	would be easier to "stay in the center of the frame".

	Anyway, thanks for developing ekiga - let me know what do you
think about the above problems - I am willing to fill them to the bugzilla,
just tell me which of them do you consider valid.

	Thanks,

-Yenya

-- 
| Jan "Yenya" Kasprzak  <kas at {fi.muni.cz - work | yenya.net - private}> |
| GPG: ID 1024/D3498839      Fingerprint 0D99A7FB206605D7 8B35FCDE05B18A5E |
| http://www.fi.muni.cz/~kas/    Journal: http://www.fi.muni.cz/~kas/blog/ |
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