Re: Improvement suggestions for Epiphany

["Tony Yarusso" <tonyyarusso gmail com>]

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 2:06 PM, Alexander Foss <alexsfoss gmail com> wrote:
> General Browser Stuff
>
> Make the default look a little more compact – All of those functions could
> easily fit onto one tool bar, thus removing clutter. Some of the buttons
> could even be removed by default, such as the zoom buttons and the history
> button. Set the font sizes to a comfortably readable resolution (the default
> is a little small, by the way), and if the reader wants access to buttons to
> make the font larger/smaller, he/she can add them. The "Go" button can also
> be removed, since most people use the enter key.

I'm not really sure what this is getting at.  I currently have one row
of buttons and the URL bar.  Alexander, do you have a really low
screen resolution or something?  I will agree that default font sizes
are a bit on the small side currently.

> Set a much smaller maximum size for the icons for bookmarks added to the
> tool bar.

Smaller maximum, or smaller default?  I see little point in
restricting what people can do, especially since some may need large
icons due to visual impairments.

> When a new tab is opened with CTRL+t, the default position of the cursor
> should be in the URL space.

Agreed.

> Instead of letting users choose a maximum size for the cache folder,
> temporary files should just be cleared when the browser exits.

This I strongly disagree with.  Again, I'd be happy to let this be a
suggestion for default behavior, but removing the capability entirely
would be a downright terrible idea.  The primary reason for this is
that there are still a large number of people who do not have access
to superfast broadband internet, and for them to have to reload all of
the images of a web site they visit every day each time is an
unnecessary burden.  Caches are designed for exactly that kind of use,
and should be kept around for them.  I would propose instead a
checkbox next to the field for maximum size, that when checked, would
grey out said field and cause the cache to be emptied on browser
close.

> Add native RSS support – Epiphany does not have any way by default to use
> RSS feeds, a now very standard method of syndication for web content. Not
> even clicking on a direct link to RSS feeds will prompt any method of
> subscription. One way of doing it might be making RSS feeds appear as topics
> in the Bookmark Manager and having each RSS item appear as something in the
> title menu, or allowing RSS feeds to appear as a tree view in the title
> section (such as when you view directories in Nautilus in list view). There
> should also be an icon somewhere in the URL bar or the status bar to
> subscribe to the RSS feed.

This is true - Firefox handles RSS much more elegantly, offering to
either add it as a "Smart Bookmark" or add the feed to an external
application such as Liferea, while Epiphany just offers to download
the feed file.  At least building in the ability to detect common
external readers and integrate with them would be a good start; I'll
leave the bookmarking thoughts to someone else.

> Extensions – While you can install the epiphany-extensions package, one
> cannot install extensions directly in the browser. Users shouldn't have to
> drop mysterious files into mysterious folders; they should be able to click
> "Install new extension..." and browse for the file (are there any Evolution
> and Rhythmbox developers reading this?).

Hmm, mixed feelings on this.  On the one hand, easily accessible
extensions are a big part of what has made Firefox so successful, but
on the other Epiphany is built on the idea of sane integration, and
this sort of thing requires bypassing the package management system.
I would prefer seeing some sort of basic functionality built in plus
handlers for the major PM types, such as the relatively new apt-url in
Debian/Ubuntu that would accomplish both things.  (No idea what
equivalents are available for RPM and others at this time.)

> When typing something in the URL space, pages that are bookmarked are not
> distinguishable from simple browser history. Firefox accomplishes this by
> putting a star next to bookmarked links. Perhaps we could use something like
> bold font, or something that is still a little more obvious then a star?

I'd also like to know how to make the list update faster - with my
typing it's usually easier to type out an entire URL than wait for it
to show up in the filtered list, whereas in other browsers it's
quicker to type a few letters and the down arrow.  Am I just missing a
setting somewhere, or is that hardcoded?

> Preferences Related Stuff
>
> Turn off by default "Automatically download and open files," so that people
> can know for sure where the file is being saved. It was nice having the PDF
> I downloaded open right away, but not nice not knowing where it was saved
> (it was not saved to the desktop). It was also not nice having theme
> archives that I downloaded from Gnome-Look.org be opened instead of just
> saved (extracted theme archives and not that useful). The files should just
> be downloaded to where the user chooses to save them, and then be able to
> click "Open" in the download manager when it's done.

Eh, I kind of like this as is.  If I ever lose something there's
always various desktop search tools, and frankly people should figure
out where to look for such things anyway.  Not a big fan of slowing
down my browsing with extra "Ok" clicks.

Also looking forward to how the webkit thing shakes out.  :)

-- 
Tony Yarusso
http://tonyyarusso.com/