Re: GNOME Usability Improvements - Fix the window manager!

["James M. Cape" <jcape jcinteractive com>]

Matthias Warkus wrote:
> 
> +++ Mon, Aug 02, 1999 at 07:36:47PM -0500 +++
> James M. Cape e-mails me. Film at 11. Reply right now, after the break.
> > Matthias Warkus wrote:
> > >
> > > +++ Mon, Aug 02, 1999 at 02:54:53PM -0400 +++
> > > jack wallen, jr e-mails me. Film at 11. Reply right now, after the break.
> > >
> > > >       More simplistic mount/unmout of removable media
> > >
> > > Same question: how much easier do you want it? You can use desktop
> > > icons or the mount applet.
> >
> > I personally think that some sort of autofs configurator should be
> > coded, so new users never have to mess with the mount command.
> 
> I think that's out of scope for a desktop environment. This reminds me
> of the people who wanted Gnome to implement an unbuffered floppy
> access method on its own so that you wouldn't need to mount floppies.
> 
> There's nothing wrong about mounting and umounting media.

And there is also nothing wrong with providing a UI to configure the
system to do it automatically.

> > > > System:
> > > >
> > > >       Friendlier upgradability
> > >
> > > Distribution issue.
> >
> > GNOME needs an installer of the caliber of Internet Explorer 4/5. Coded
> > in xlib, it will check your distribution/package format, check with your
> > vendor for the latest versions, and go download and install the packages
> > you select.
> 
> What? Are we going to implement our own package management system,
> too?

Read what I wrote. A GNOME installer UI that checks with your
vender/distro for the latest versions, then downloads/installs the ones
you select. Perhaps I should've appended "from the vendor, using their
package format". What I am suggesting is just an FE to the vendor's
console tools that checks with your vendor and downloads the ones you
want from the vendor's site. (whether that is rpm, dselect, or
whatever).

Basically, I am thinking of something along the lines of the debian
tools which an automatically check for upgrades to any packages, except
this is a UI, and is GNOME specific, so you download "get-gnome", run
it, select the packages you want to install, download them, and install
them.

I'm not suggesting we throw out everything Unix just because it's Unix.
What I am suggesting (with all of these suggestions, BTW), is that we
provide a GUI wrapper for doing it.

> > There is a way to change the global GTK+ Fonts with the Control Center,
> > but I've had 3 people already personally ask me to add this to the
> > wishlist. The ability is there, but a poor UI has stood in the way for
> > these people.
> 
> I wonder how; maybe there should be a GNOME_STOCK font icon ("ABC") on
> the font selection button. It doesn't look like it's actually a
> selector.

Well, I think that the best solution would be to ditch the theme
selector as it stands now, and go for a cappletized hybrid of the rcedit
program posted to this list (and my UI for it) and the Theme Selector.

    Jim Cape
    http://www.jcinteractive.com

    "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them
     pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."
        -- Winston Churchill