Re: [Usability] preferences, sessions, etc. notes

[MM <root MM BTPLEIN>]

Hi Havoc

It is a large problem, and can be really iritating. I think that most users 
don't want to configure a lot of these things.  They should just work without 
people even thinking about them (in the ideal situation). People tend to 
leave settings at their defaults, standards are important here. You don't go 
changing to you favorite setting with every program you install. This would 
take time and to much effort. 

I started out putting de different configuration possibilities in different 
categories. This makes it more manageble

Global settings or settings that are standard the first time a program or 
gnome is used. These are often used settings by programs and are very 
important to be set to the right or comfortable levels. Whatever they are
-fonts, 
-language.....
-Standard programs to start up: panel, applets, programs 
-bookmarks/favorits (who cares how you call it)
-animation speed
-home URL
-standard metatheme

Specific user settings (session settings). 
-Programs (whith opened documents) opened on logout
-bookmarks/favorits

Aplication specific:  
-webbrowserfonts abiword documentfont
-application specific theme

Windowmanager settings
-Window placement and size sould always be the resonsibility of the 
windowmanager. Never hardcode window size in program. Remember window size 
and position. If the user left it like that he probably likes it like that 
(stupid or not :).
- I always have the problem that windows do not apear maximized when I close 
them maximized. Why would anyone want to use less than his full screensize. 
If you got space I want to use it.(oops bugreport sorry)

It could be like this:

-Global user Gconf file accessible trough gnome control centre

-Standard Gconf file for each application and user editable bij user. 
Contains at least last windowposition and size, last 3 worked on files and 
open file on the moment of logout





On Wednesday 19 September 2001 23:49, you wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Trying to systematically think through what work needs doing on
> session management, GConf, control panels, etc.
>
> Here are some notes, all questions so far. Comments much appreciated.
>
> Havoc
>
> Things users might want to do
> ===
>
>  (pure speculation)
>
>  - have state specific to a display (monitor/mouse/keyboard
>    combination, i.e. typically a single physical computer)
>  - explicitly create a set of apps that normally launch when they log
>    in
>  - have these apps they saved come up at a specific size/position
>  - be able to log out, and log in again, automatically/implicitly
>    restoring the apps they had open on logout
>  - have apps restore their size/position each time they are launched,
>    a la MacOS (different from restoring size/pos of a particular
>    instance, as with session management)
>  - temporarily log out, let someone else log in, then go back
>    to their session (as with Windows XP)
>
> A sampling of preferences, settings, state, whatever
> ===
>
> panel -
>   - animation speed for hiding
>   - tile style
>   - size of icons in menus
>   - menu contents
>   - keybindings
>
> properties of specific panels -
>   - panel type
>   - size
>
> nautilus -
>   - icon/list view
>   - fonts to use
>   - open files in new window vs same window
>   - window contents (toolbar, sidebar)
>   - manage the desktop
>   - single vs. double click
>   - home URL
>   - search engine URL
>   - news panels
>
> gedit -
>   - show statusbar
>   - toolbar style
>   - font, colors
>   - print setup (word wrap, banner, line numbers, paper size)
>
> generic properties of any app's current state -
>   - number and type of open windows
>   - window size/position
>   - window desktop
>   - documents opened in each window
>
> desktop-wide preferences/state -
>   - theme
>   - background/wallpaper
>   - default font
>   - mouse acceleration
>   - key repeat rate
>   - screensaver
>   - favorites/bookmarks
>   - recently-used documents
>
> Current infrastructure
> ===
>
> Session management: we have a unique identifier for each application
> instance, which allows apps to save per-instance state. Also, a
> mechanism for window managers to save application window state.  Could
> trivially add an ID for a global named session, allowing us to save
> per-session state. (But importantly, in the current codebase, you
> can't store per-session state; only
> per-instance-of-an-app-that-is-in-a-session state. A subtle
> distinction, but it means that currently a global setting like
> background color can't be per-session. We'd need a trivial SM protocol
> extension for this.)
>
> GConf: Stores preferences in a global process-transparent way.
>
> gnome_config_*: Stores simple text files.
>
> bonobo-config: stores key-value pairs in a variety of locations
> including GConf or text files.
>
> Archiver: stores XML files with date-stamped dumps of current state,
> and can stuff the snapshot from any date back into the config
> system. (right?)
>
> Questions
> ===
>
> What do users really want to do?
>
> What should the UI for doing that look like?
>
> How do we reliably and consistently implement it across the desktop?
>
> How do we do this while still providing the admin benefits of GConf?
>
> Can we divide the list of sample prefs/state given above into some
> sort of categories? Do we treat some of them differently?
>
> Did we answer any of the above questions with something overengineered
> or overcomplicated?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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