Re: [evolution-patches] [PATCH] IMAP preauth and subcommand connection.

[David Woodhouse <dwmw2 infradead org>]

On Wed, 2003-07-09 at 20:39, Ettore Perazzoli wrote:
> I don't think it should go in.  It depends on the user knowing too much
> about what he is doing, and it's not a common enough situation.

I see three classes of people. There are those who don't need it at all,
in which case they don't need to click on 'use custom command' and it'll
never confuse them. They're probably already scared by the stuff about
namespaces anyway and won't even _notice_ the option where it is at the
moment.

Then there are those for whom the default command of
'ssh -C $URLHOST -l $URLUSER exec /usr/sbin/imapd' works, and all they
need to do is click the button.

Finally there are those who need something non-standard. These people
are the only ones who really need to know what they're doing, but given
that their alternative was either to know that or use an alternative
MUA, that's not really a problem, surely?

So I disagree with you -- I don't think it depends on the user at all,
except in the case where the user _needs_ this. Naïve users can also
muck about with namespaces and completely break their setup. Should we
also remove that option on the basis that it 'depends on the user
knowing too much'?

Most truly clue-free users get the MUA set up for them by their support
staff and never touch the settings anyway, or at least do it following a
set of instructions expressed in words of one syllable or fewer. User
stupidity is a bad reason, IMHO, for restricting functionality.

> If there is a way to make it work automagically in all case (i.e. "[ ]
> Use SSH tunnel to connect") then it makes more sense, but it sounds like
> there isn't...

If your usability experts (Anna?) _really_ object to being able to enter
a custom command, then I suppose most people, myself included, could
live with a simple 'use ssh tunnel to connect' boolean and not being
able to change from the default command line  -- although that is
severely less optimal than my current implementation. At least it could
work like that though, whereas I can't use Evolution out of the box at
_all_ right now.

If you are vetoing it as-is but will accept it as a simple boolean, then
I'll do that and perhaps we can argue about customising the command
later. Personally, I think of the set of people who'll actually notice
the option and turn it on, a higher percentage will be perplexed if they
can't edit the command than will be perplexed if they _can_ edit it. But
evidently we disagree on that guess.

-- 
dwmw2