[Columba-devel] =?iso-8859-1?Q?Re:_[Columba-devel]_About_configuration_complexity_and_end_?= =?iso-8859-1?Q?users.?=

[<fre...@we...>]

> Hello,
> 
> as far as I have seen, the majority of open source projects h=
as seen a high 
> degree of customization, rarely found in commercial appli=
cations. Rarely 
> found in Windows=AE at least.
> 
> This because a good sha=
re of open source users are developers themselves, 
> so they can add featu=
res they want and then provide patches to the project.
> 
> On the other ha=
nd, it's true that end-users (here used in an offensive way) 
> are scared =
by options and customization. I say that it is because they are 
> used to =
bad UI and they are used not to know where to search for 
> customization (=
being absent!).
> 
> At first they are scared, but after they educate thems=
elves to 
> customization and open sourceness, they like to change every si=
ngle bit of 
> behaviour or look.
> 
> This has brought to the problem of "=
Should I add this option, or will it 
> add the scare-level of end-users?".=

> 
> This happened in Miranda, where people said it was scared by all thos=
e 
> options and preferred ICQ or MSN (would you believe it?). The first "m=
ove" 
> to solve this was to add a checkbox in the options. It was labeled =
"Expert 
> mode" and checking/unchecking it caused some options to be hidde=
n. Both 
> items in the main option tree, and items in single pages.
> It w=
as a neat routine... ;-)
> 
> Unfortunately, people started complaining "Oh=
, this program is bad, I can't 
> configure X". "Have you enabled the exper=
t options?" "How?" "Check the 
> expert checkbox (you dumbass!!)".
> 
> Lat=
ely I disagreed with one of Miranda's main developers about an 
> instructi=
on which sent the process into swap space: it was useful to 
> someone, but=
 not to me!
> So we agreed to have a database setting with default value "O=
FF" and with 
> no GUI to change its value.
> Being hidden, only people who=
 know what is the meaning of "swap space" 
> understand its purpose and may=
 feel to change it. To do so, they should get 
> a plugin which lets you ma=
nually edit the configuration settings.
> 
> Since I like UIs, I made a plu=
gin called "TweakMiranda" which adds an 
> option dialog where you can enab=
le or disable this setting and other hidden 
> settings we added later on.
=
> 
> Although I did't consider all of the possible conseguences when I wrot=
e it, 
> it comes that it may be the right way to allow deep configuration =
to 
> experts and show a friendly configuration to end-users!
> 
> The basi=
c program (Miranda or Columba) would then have GUI for basic 
> configurati=
ons. The most important things, the things which the majority of 
> people =
wants to customize. The SMTP port is NOT one of these things, as 
> example=
 The majority of people does not even want to type the SMTP 
> address. :-=
)
> 
> Something else (being a plugin like my TweakMiranda or an external 
=
> application like TweakXP) would present a GUI which allows a deeper 
> cu=
stomization. SMTP port, fonts for the quoted text, milliseconds to sleep 
>=
 after a network failure... everything which would make an open source 
> d=
eveloper or customization freak happy.
> 
> This solution would increase so=
ciety's satisfaction. :-) [27/30 at 
> Economics a week ago...]
> 
> We cou=
ld do something similar in Columba. Either a plugin which adds 
> controls =
to existing dialogs (but don't ask me how to do such a thing or if 
> it's =
even doable...) or which adds some new option dialogs to the "General 
> Op=
tions".
> Or a complete application with its cool tabs like TweakXP.
> 
> T=
he settings would be documented somewhere (maybe in a file 
> "hidden_setti=
ngs.txt" available in the Wiki too) so that people can know of 
> their exi=
stence and set them up without the need of the GUI part. They just 
> read =
the place the setting must be wrote to and the range of values, then 
> ope=
n the appropriate config.xml file and he reboots Columba.
> 
> What do you =
think about this?


Lets make this clear: The philosophy of Columba (at lea=
st how Timo
and me see it) is to have very good default values and a clean
=
good looking, fun-making graphical interface. 

I like very much to have op=
tions, which the user can change by 
changing xml-configuration files. Infa=
ct, this was mainly the 
reason as I first wrote the xml-configuration stuf=
f. Having the
possiblity to add thousands of options. 
But I don't want to =
have those options visible for the user in
Columba. I think Michael, Timo a=
nd me have a very close opinion
to each other here.

Anyway, I like the ide=
a of a Tweak-Columba gui-application. This
would be a very nice example for=
 an action-plugin :-)
But this won't be shipped in the default installation=
 of Columba.

Cheers,
Frederik