Re: [Geary] "Always watch for new mail" preference: better alternatives?

[Federico Bruni <fede inventati org>]

Il giorno sab 16 dic 2017 alle 4:50, Michael Gratton <mike vee net> ha 
scritto:
> [...]
>
> NB there's some historical discussion of this at: 
> <https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=742244>

Ok, I'll add a link to this discussion.


> > The real meaning is another one, as you know: keep checking for new 
> > mail *even
> > when Geary window is closed*. Here's how it's described in the user 
> > manual:
> >
> > > Geary will watch your accounts for new mail even when the main 
> > window is not open.
> > > To do this, it will silently start when you log in to your 
> > computer, and it will
> > > continue to run after you close the main window.
> >
> > How to better summarize it in a short sentence?
>
> Although the help text doesn't mention it, the whole point of the 
> pref is basically to make sure you get desktop notifications of new 
> mail pop up, even when the main window is not open. So I think any 
> improvement should at least mention notifications.

Definitely. But I'm not sure that this is how really works.
I remember I used that preference for a while maybe last year and I did 
not receive any notification. Perhaps I checked only "watch for new 
mail" and not "Show notifications of new mail"? That would mean that to 
have notifications in background you need to check also the other 
preference. I can't remember if Notifications settings were already 
present in older versions of GNOME (3.24 or 3.22).

For me the purpose of "always watch for new mail" was downloading 
messages while I was doing something else, so when I opened Geary I 
didn't have to wait for the sync and I could start reading right away.
I have the feeling that this may be the main feature to offer, and 
leave the other options (launch at login, notifications) handled by the 
desktop as in any other app. No overlap of configurations: if I can 
enable/disable the same configuration in two different places, it's 
going to be a mess.
This is what I would describe as:
Preference: "Keep downloading new mail after quitting"
Tooltip: "Geary will keep running in background when closed (new mail 
ready to be read right away)"

(too long tooltip, I know, but I'm sure you can find better wordings...)

> So my suggestion would be something like:
>
> Preference: "Always notify when new mail arrives"
> Tooltip: "Geary will automatically start and keep running in the 
> background when closed"
> Help manual:
>
> > Geary will always watch your accounts and notify you of new mail, 
> > even when the main window is not open. To do this, it will start 
> > hidden in the background when you log in to your computer, and it 
> > will continue to run after you close the main window. Note that you 
> > should also have notifications in your desktop preferences enabled 
> > for Geary so that its notifications are shown when new mail arrives.
>
> Here the preference text alludes to Geary auto-starting and 
> continuing to run, the tooltip confirms that yes this means it will 
> start automatically and keep on running in the background, and the 
> help manual text goes into this in more detail.
>
> I'm happy to hear more suggestions however.
>
> A different approach altogether would be to remove the auto-start 
> aspect, but keep the hidden-in-the background feature, and let people 
> manage launching it themselves — either by launching Geary manually 
> or by using their desktop's built-in tools/preferences to enable it 
> to auto-start. This would allow the preference and tooltip text to be 
> simplified to something like:
>
> Preference: "Notify of new mail in the background"
> Tooltip: "Geary will remain running even when the main window is 
> closed"

I like more this approach, but as I wrote before I would take away the 
notification and focus on the advantage of not having to wait for mail 
sync.