Re: has anyone had a chance to look at my nm-applet patch?

["Darren Albers" <dalbers gmail com>]

On 11/1/07, Peter Van Lone <petervl gmail com> wrote:
> On 10/28/07, Darren Albers <dalbers gmail com> wrote:
> > I am not a dev but my first thought was "Great idea" but then I
> > realized that it is probably way too much info for the user.   In
> > /most/ cases the user will see a large number of AP's and will pick
> > the one with the best signal and this is what NM does now
> > automatically.  I think it only confuses the issue for the user to see
> > all the different channels.
>
> I quickly am tiring of this attitude, as it finds expression in the
> gnome desktop. Far too much is assumed, far too little is tested (ie
> usability and user reaction) and the default impulse seems always to
> be "limit choice".
>
> In /MOST/ situations, I want and need to see what wireless networks
> are around and available. /occasionally/ there might be /too many/ for
> the interface. So, it would be good to:
>
> 1)offer the choice/ability to "see all" and
> 2)offer the ability to scroll the presentation to show more than a page-view
>
> <snip>
>
> > Maybe it would be better to make this an option that can be enabled by
> > changing a gconf value for advanced users who want to see this
> > information but otherwise leave it disabled?  Out of curiosity how do
> > other OS's deal with this?
>
> no maybe about it. But -- the choice should be in the NM interface
> itself. Choice must be a/the priority. Always.
>
> > I love the idea of the patch and I always like seeing more information
> > so if I had an option I would personally enable this feature but I
> > don't think it should be the default.
>
> To gnome devs, from a fan: Please do not assume the "average" or
> "default" user is dumb, or somehow less capable than you. Please do
> assume that there are a range of abilities, and try to design an
> interface that meets the needs of the broadest range possible.
>

First of all I am not a Dev so if you are upset at my comment do not
reference the devs but to me.   I don't want their hard work being
diminished by me  ;-).   I don't think you read what I wrote other
than the first part.   I did not just say "The user is dumb so we
should hide this" I setup use cases and evaluated the possible options
for this.   I appreciate where you are coming from but this was not
the situation here, my statement was not that the patch wasn't needed
but that it shouldn't be the default view.  It seems like we agree on
this and even for the same reason....

Katelin's tooltip solution is a great way to handle it since (imo)
exposing the channel information in the first view for every AP is
just unnecessary.  In /most/ cases the channel is unnecessary so it
should be available but not the default view.     If I used this patch
at work without the tooltip option I would see 18 SSID's plus all the
busted windows machines that broadcast out the last SSID they
connected to!  (We usually have 3 AP's for full coverage in every area
with 6 SSID's each for various purposes.)  My argument was not against
the feature but that it should be implemented sanely.

This is not a knock on Katelin in any way, people like this who see a
problem and provide a solution are the ones who make the open-source
movement great.