Re: control center plans, etc.

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 20Jun2001 11:44AM (+0100), Dick Porter wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 19, 2001 at 07:16:03PM -0400, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I'm considering implementing a simplified control panel scheme as
> > discussed in this thread:
> > 
> >   http://lists.eazel.com/pipermail/nautilus-list/2001-May/003210.html
> > 
> > Basically there are just a few simple features:
> > 
> 
> I think the whole control centre concept needs a complete revamp.
> 
> Instead of just being able to tweak settings of individual components,
> there ought to be "task-based" settings too. For example "set up desktop"
> would start with colour schemes and themes, gmc or nautilus, some settings
> for the file manager, and maybe some panel configs; another task might be
> "set up palm pilot", which would do the device config then go through
> conduits.
> 
> Then, instead of launching dialogs with scads of confusing options, and
> a navigation tree at the side, a wizard-style configuration would ask
> simple questions, one per screen, with lots of explanatory help text.
> 
> I'm thinking of the Ximian doorman here, but on a much more ubiquitous scale.
> 

I think that might be a good addition to a more traditional setup
where you can get directly to any setting, but not a replacement.

Strongly sequenced tasks can be helpful for new users, particularly if
the tasks have a natural sequence, but will probably be annoying to
users who only want to tweak one setting.

Also, some tasks are more amenable to sequencing than others. For
example "setting up your internet connection" is something that has
multiple steps, but one end result, and it does not matter much how
you order them. But setting up the appearance of your desktops is
likely to involve a lot of tweaking and back and forth; when I do
this, I change the background, and then the gtk theme, and then the
colors, and then maybe the background again, etc. Imposing a fixed
order on the steps would just make it harder to get a good overall
appearance.

Regards,

Maciej