Re: [Evolution] Current pet-hates for evolution

[Pascal DeMilly <list evolution newgenesys com>]

On Wed, 2001-09-19 at 00:57, Ross Burton wrote:
> I can't speak for the developers but I can add comments to the
> mail/shell issues:
>
> >         1. Focus. something seems unintuitive (at least for me) in
> >            regards to focus in Evolution. While I usually agree that not
> >            everything should be a la Microsoft and that not all dialogs
> >            should be modal, I think the focus should have a stack kind
> >            of memory. If I don't specifically click on a lower dialog,
> >            when the focus is brought back it should go the the highest
> >            dialog on the stack and if I close that window on the one
> >            before that. The one that dialog originated from
>
> I've got a feeling that is a window manager issue.
Might be but here is a very simple example that you can try on your
system and let us know if you have the same problem.

Open an e-mail message. Then go back to the main evolution window and
press send/receive button. The focus logically, at least for me, should
stay with the main window. On my system it is send back to the message I
was viewing. Not really a big deal but still disconcerting.

> >         2. While I love Evolution and will promote it at my customers'
> >            as a replacement to Mozilla mail and balsa as soon as 1.0 is
> >            out, I am afraid that some instability issues might persist
> >            (which is completely normal). The fact that there is no easy
> >            way other than killev to restore it to a stable state is far
> >            from being acceptable. As you can imagine this is not
> >            possible at our customers' as we don't give access to shell
> >            to our end-users as they will not know what to do with it
> >            anyway. So this is something that needs to be addressed
> >            before deployment. Note that I could make a shell that killev
> >            before running evolution but what about oaf-slay ?
>
> My "Evolution" button on my panel runs the command "killev ; evolution".
>
> >         3. Have copy works from the message preview pane and other
> >            read-only dialog. (At least disable the menu option if you
> >            cannot copy). And have paste works in all fields (like the
> >            search criteria edit box). PS: Whatever is copied from the
> >            preview pane can be paste on an xterm but cannot be paste
> >            anywhere in Evolution. I just don't understand why !
>
> Are you using control-x/c/v or highlight/middle-click?  I always
> highlight to copy, and middle-click to paste and have never found an
> instance of non-pasting.
I am using ctrl-x/c/v or the menu items, cut/copy/paste. For example, I
have my compose window opened to write that message. I go back to my
main evolution window, select a word in the preview pane and highlight
it. Then I select copy from the menu (or ctrl-c for that matter), go
back to my compose window and select paste (or ctrl-v). Nothing. Now I
open xterm and select Paste. The word shows up.

> >         6. Multiple selection of messages. Wish I could use the control
> >            key to select non adjacent messages. Maybe there is a way but
> >            I don;t know it.
>
> Control-click.
Doesn't work for me. Let say  have 3 messages, I click on the 1st and
shift-click on the last one. If I want to deselect the 2nd one, I should
be able to ctrl-click on it. In all instances, evolution will always
select only that message.

> >         7. View shortcut bar and folder list width size.
>
> IIRC, a known bug.
>
> >         8. If there is only one folder under a header in the folder
> >            list, make the header the folder. For example, I have an IMAP
> >            folder for the Evolution mailing list. I am only subscribing
> >            to the Inbox of that folder. In the folder list it shows,
> >            Evolution then underneath INBOX. I wish it would just show
> >            one line named Evolution -> Inbox or something like that. As
> >            I have an IMAP folder for each mailbox I have it would save a
> >            lot of real estate and I would not need to scroll that much.
>
> Weird IMAP behaviour, there should only be one INBOX.  What IMAP server?
Actually nothing wrong here. I just wish, Evolution will save
real-estate in the folder list by combining the name of the IMAP server
and the name of the Mailbox on one line, instead of 2, when I only
subscribe to one folder in IMAP.

So Instead of

+ Evolution Mailing list
  +- INBOX

show

Evolution Mailing list: INBOX

Or something like that. When you have a lot of IMAP folders as I do, it
would save a lot of scrolling.

> >         9. When loading evolution, if there are messages that were saved
> >            automatically before the last crash, let us know right away.
>
> Good point - I think this should be in bugzilla.
>
> >        12. Be able to see if a message has been forwarded or replied to
> >            and to whom. Would be nice to see the response underneath the
> >            originating message.
>
> I'm not sure what you mean here.

When I reply to a message or forward it for that matter, I can't tell
without doing a manual search for that message.What would be wonderful
is to have under that message, my reply, in a threaded tree, or at least
when I open that message a link to that reply. I know that I might have
to wait for that one.

> > COMPOSE
> > -------
> >
> >         1. When replying to an e-mail, the default reply address should
> >            be the one defined for that folder (very important when you
> >            have a lot of e-mail addresses like me).
>
> That used to work, but broke recently.
>
> >         2. Have spelling working in snapshots by default.
>
> In Red Carpet get aspell/pspell/gnome-spell and it works.
>
> >         4. Set status flag, like important, for your review, please
> >            reply, confidential  etc ...

What I meant here is that those packages should be default dependency of
Evolution. Can't imagine, people will not want to use a spell checker
when sending e-mails by default. Especially for us, ESL.

> These flags are non-standard so cannot be guaranteed to work.  However,
> IMAP at least does support custom flags.  Evolution is in feature freeze
> however, so I suggest filing WISHLIST bug.
>
> The key point is that the developers do not read all of the messages,
> and even if they do a bug report they see may not get fixed.  If you
> find a bug or have a feature request, it should be filed in Bugzilla at
> bugzilla.ximian.com.

I will when I get more feedback from people.

Also I have some to add to my list:

LDAP
----

9. In the compose window, Evolution should look for contacts in
predefined LDAP databases for a matching name.

Thanks for taking the time to answer

Regards

Pascal


> Regards,
> Ross
> -- 
> Ross Burton                     Software Engineer
> OneEighty Software Ltd          Tel: +44 20 8680 8712
> Cygnet House                    Fax: +44 20 8680 8453
> 12-14 Sydenham Road             r burton 180sw com
> Croydon, Surrey CR9 2ET, UK     http://www.180sw.com./
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