Re: [Usability] Gnome's biggest failure. By far. Stone-cold evil.

[Simos Xenitellis <simos lists googlemail com>]

On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 2:37 PM, Andy
Owen<andy-gnome-usability ultra-premium com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-08-19 at 19:08 -0700, Jim March wrote:
>> My laptop runs 1280x800 resolution.  I just ran an app that seems to
>> have re-sized me a lot smaller while it was running - 800x600 at a
>> guess.  When I came back out, resolution went back to normal but my
>> panel is absolutely scrambled to hell and gone.
>
> Is this the bug?
>
> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492315
>
> That seems like the closest I can find to it on bugzilla... so if that
> isn't it, then a much more constructive way of getting it looked at
> would be to create a bug report. Or add any related information to that
> bug report, if it is describing the same thing.
>
>>
>> PLEASE, for the love of God, there has to be a fix for this?  It's
>> intolerable.  And after three years that I know of and likely over
>> double that with this insane glitch, there's just no excuse.
>
> We all have our own frustrations. Obviously this bug isn't intolerable,
> because plenty of people tolerate it (or are like me and don't even
> realise it exists). What I would suggest as a better way of getting it
> fixed is to take your request to the right people. I don't think the
> usability list is a great place for bug reports (e.g. if your mouse
> doesn't work, although that is a bit of a usability problem, this list
> probably isn't going to be much help).
>
> Bugzilla is the best way to start out. Otherwise, you might be able to
> catch a developer on irc and if you are extra nice to them, maybe they
> will hear your plea and take some time to fix it for you. But just
> remember that this is probably not a bug that affects them, since
> otherwise they would have fixed it already.
>
> When I think about the problem, it is somewhat tricky, in that there are
> some corner cases which are tough to figure out. For example, what if
> your panel is really full, and you bump the resolution down? What if you
> change resolution from A to B to C and back to A. Should this return all
> your icons to exactly the same spot? What about if you go from A to B,
> move an icon, then back to A? Answering these questions comprehensively
> is difficult, even if your intuition says that it is obvious.
>

The way to push this forward is to contribute something towards the
relevant bug report.
A contribution that Jim could make is to describe verbosely what
behaviour should be expected
for the cases that you describe above. This can initiate discussion,
lead to agreement and a developer
can take up and implement.

I have been hit by this bug as well. It's sadly common when you have
dual head configurations,
where the size of the external monitor is smaller. When the panel gets
crowded, you cannot move it to another
screen; there is no free space on the panel so that you drag it
around. How can we solve this issue in usability terms?

Simos