Re: [Setup-tool-hackers] Re: networking.glade

[jacob helixcode com (Jacob "Ulysses" Berkman)]

Anna Dirks <anna@helixcode.com> writes:

> Hello Jacob, 
> 
> Wow. First of all, I want to say that you've done a great job with
> the networking stuff thus far. There are a few places where I think
> the flow could be improved, but the overall layout is
> impeccable. Kudos.

Danke.

> 1. The networking settings dialog is great. The only page which I
> find non-intuitive is the DNS page. Specifically, it isn't clear to
> me how the user should enter text into the large text boxes ("DNS
> Servers" and "Search domains") --if I want to enter two domains into
> the list of search domains, would I delineate them with commas? line
> breaks?

There are quite a few advantages to the plain text box.

1.  it's pretty simple.  no buttons etc.
2.  you can cut/paste from it easily (this is the big thing for me)
3.  it's simple

So, yeah.  It is a little too simple.  Miggie brought up the idea we
had been talking about, but I think our view is a little different.

What i see is this:

  IP Address:   [|____________]

  Network Mask: [_____________]

  /-Description-------------------\
  |                               |
  | The IP address is something   |
  | lame.  it looks like this:    |
  | "i.am.la.me"                  |
  |                               |
  \-------------------------------/

and the description changes depending on what has the focus.

So, it is like a tooltip in that it is transient but unlike one in
that it is not annoying and can have more info.

Anyway, we can use this to explain stuff in a way that doesn't take up
too much screen real estate.

I need to see what this looks like in action though.  :/

> In the rest of the HST, when the user is asked to add items to a
> list, we use a format such as on your Hosts tab...with "add" or
> "insert" buttons and small text entries. I'd like to see this format
> preserved where possible, to reduce the HST's learning curve.

What I would rather see is in-line editing of the hosts file, like the
table view of the addressbook.

I guess I am not a big fan of a view / edit split.

> 2. The connection dialog worries me a little; I'd like to see us
> come up with a better flow for these pages. That is, each of these
> pages has a long, ungrouped list of fields to fill in....I fear that
> users will find this a bit daunting. (I know that you guys probably
> have no problem at all with any of these fields, but we *cannot*
> consider you to be average users.)

Two thoughts:

1.  I am guessing that most of the time people will be using DHCP, so most
    users will be using "automagic configuration".

2.  These are not very exciting config things UI-wise, like in general.

Those aside, I am in agreement with you.  I wasn't sure how to make
things really nice, but was mostly trying to flesh out which things
would end up where.

We can probably add some grouping to the IP page.  The tooltip-like
thing above would maybe help also.

So, I don't have any comments really on the rest of your stuff, but I
did read it :)

Jacob
-- 
"I've got nothing to say but that's ok." -- John Lennon




_______________________________________________
Setup-tool-hackers maillist  -  Setup-tool-hackers@helixcode.com
http://lists.helixcode.com/mailman/listinfo/setup-tool-hackers