Re: the about-me capplet

[Diego Gonzalez <diego pemas net>]

On Thu, 2005-07-14 at 19:53 -0400, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> Today some folks here at Red Hat discussed the new about-me capplet,
> and we decided to disable it for now and stick with our homegrown
> usermode capplets for now. Maybe the main points of our discussion
> are of interest and can help to improve the about-me capplet.
> 
> Matthias 
> 
> Pro:
> - reduces menu clutter (allows us to replace the "login photo",  
>   "password" and "about myself" capplets with a single one)
> 
> - the first impression of the UI is much nicer than the usermode
>   capplets (for some details see below)
> 
> - it is nice to have all this user-related data stored in a central
>   place
> 
> 
> Contra:
> - doesn't update information in /etc/passwd (like the usermode "about
>   myself" capplet does), so there will be divergence between the
>   information in e-d-s and /etc/passwd
> 
I can change the capplet to also update the related GECOS fields.

> - doesn't allow to change the user's full name
> 
In debian i can't change the full name of the user (i need to be root to
do so), show me a way to do it and i will have no problem implementing
it.

> - when we experimented with changing the contact in the evolution
>   contact editor, the about-me capplet did pick up most of the changed
>   fields, but wierdly, the full name is taken from /etc/passwd

This is done on purpouse, because i don't know how to change the full
name field on the /etc/passwd file chfn doesn't allow me to change the
said field.

> 
> - is a bit heavy on work-related fields. I mean, who really wants to
>   know about my assistant (if I had one) ?
>
> - the "Personal Info" tab looks intimidating with all those long
>   entries
> 
I just copied the layout and fileds in the evolution contact dialog to
make them as similar as possible. If we agree to remove some of the
fields i'll do it.

> - the "Change Password" dialog has an odd layout, with the entries 
>   above the icon. Also, we felt a bit unsecure, since the icon was not
>   the padlock image we would have expected in a password dialog.
> 
There is already a patch in CVS to fix the layout of this dialog, i'll
take a look at it tomorrow.

> - its not clear if the style of the dialog (with entries for old and
>   new passwords in one step) can accomodate the variation that is
>   possible with pam setups (the usermode dialog first prompts for
>   the old password, then for the new one, like passwd does).

This might need to change, i was just trying to avoid several dialogs
and make this as user friendly as possible, but if there is no other way
to integrate with different PAM setups i will have to do what you
suggest.

> 
> - it was not immediately clear to me what kind of data I am expected
>   to enter in the "Calendar" field

> - why is the ui so different from the contact editor in evolution,
>   do we need two different uis for essentially the same task, or could
>   we just open the contact editor here ? Admittedly, the contact editor 
>   has its own ui issues...
> 
The UI is not *that* different, is almost the same in the "personal
info" and "address" tabs, The first one is a bit different because i
didn't find some of the field of real use when setting one self
information: things like categories, where. And i had to accomodate the
"change password" button. Also i find really weired to use the combo
boxes that evolution has on the "contact" tab.


Diego