Re: [Evolution] Reply-To: field on the evolution list

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam opengroupware us>]

> > The most important things to users are,
> > 1) Reliablity. A program should work all of the time, it should never
> > crash or hang. Nothing else matters if a program is as unstable as
> > Evolution has become.
> I agree. While it's true that I haven't seen many crashes in recent
> versions, Evo does hang more often than one would like (though again,
> less than it used to). Frequently these hangs are network-related and
> eventually go away, but sometimes they don't. Just yesterday I found Evo
> trying to update folders from a couple of IMAP servers where it had
> clearly been sitting *all night* without timing out or getting an
> answer. When I killed and restarted it, the servers responded and
> everything was fine. Evo has been like this in every version since I
> started using it something like 8 years ago. It doesn't seem able to
> cope well with servers timing out or networks disconnecting.

I do see the Send/Receive window just 'sit there' sometimes.  But I can
always just hit cancel and move on.  This is definitely related to flaky
network connections.  On a cellular connection, for example, I usually
go online with evolution, then click off-line, say yes to synchronize
folders, then do what I need to, then rinse & repeat.  Not perfect, but
it is workable.

> Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that when it gets into this state
> you can't even kill it wihout going to a terminal as it won't respond to
> Quit or Work Offline.

I used to have a button linked to "evolution --force-shutdown" (easy
enough to create).  But I haven't needed than since upgrading from
openSUSE 11.0 to 11.1.

> I understand the Bonobo-free version will go a long way to fixing this
> kind of thing, or at least lay the groundwork for fixing it. It's simply
> not acceptable in a user-level application.

I'm a developer [not on Evolution].  And I have to say that saying
things like "simply not acceptable" tick me off, even vicariously.  My
response to my customers would be "Then @$&*&@ pay me more, @*&&@$!"  At
least that is what I would mumble under my breath. :)

Ever spent much time testing Microsoft Outlook extensions/plugins?  I
have.  I can assure you that the occasional hang is apparently very much
acceptable in a user-level application. :)  That isn't a dis on Outlook
[recent versions are actually pretty good].  It is meant to point out
that building network applications that roll smoothly through all the
things that can go wrong is REALLY REALLY HARD!