Re: user interface niggles

[David Scotson <davidscotson mac com>]

On 2003.04.10 12:14, Carlos Morgado wrote:

>> There is a 'grippy' on the separator between the To, Subject etc. 
>> fields and the main body of the email that appears to have no real 
>> function.
>> 
> confirmed works on 1.4, don't have a 2.0 handy to check, but it
> should move separator and resize the panes
> 

On my installation, RH9 - Balsa 2.0.10, the grippy moves but either 
creates a large empty space below the textareas for To:, Subject: etc. 
or crumples them together in an ungainly manner, sometimes allowing 
them to overlap the message text. Only Attachments: seems designed to 
resize vertically, the rest simply scroll horizontally when full.

> the message list show the first unread message if no message is
> selected. most people read older -> newer, not the other way around

My expectations may have been confounded because I have recently been 
accessing my mail through a web interface that has to redraw to show 
new mail combined with the fact that 2 new mails in a 1000+ email inbox 
wasn't enough to give visual feedback via the scrollbar thumb that new 
mails had now appeared off-screen.

>> non-destructive, rather than the current [No].
> 
> HIG nowadays believes the user is a fumbling idiot most of the times.
> Balsa believes the user is right most of the times. This I have 
> stronger feelings about.
> 

I don't consider myself 'a fumbling idiot' (at least not in regards to 
using a PC) but this dialog really stopped me in my tracks. It simply 
didn't follow the conventions I am used to, even in general appearance, 
size etc. Obviously, I am more accustomed to Mac OS X which, like the 
Gnome HIG, frowns on Yes/No/Cancel, and has much more obvious 
indications of which button is the default.

I had to work out what the dialog meant from scratch, which inspired my 
original email. If I had been aiming to save rather than discard I 
think I may have assumed save to be the default action, which of course 
would be the wrong thing to do in this case.


> hum, yeah the '' looks odd. any sugestions ?
> 

Nothing spectacularly good.

Perhaps simply change "The message to '' has been modified." to "The 
message has been modified." in the case where the mail has no 
recipients?

Or change the original to become "the message addressed to 'person x'", 
and the case with no recipients can become "the message addressed to 
no-one".

regards,

david scotson