Re: [Gaim-devel] Usability issue and suggestion: remote file transfer requests

[Stephen E. <spe...@gm...>]

On 3/22/07, Ethan Blanton <ebl...@cs...> wrote:
> Andy spake unto us the following wisdom:
> > Look I don't want to be diverted by strawman arguments. My original post
> > was about an usability issue that others have supported. So can we keep
> > on topic?
>
> Both of those replies were on topic.  So was the other reply I sent to
> your message.  A reply that does not support your point is not
> off-topic.
>
> The fact that Gaim is not a GNOME app, or a KDE app, or a Windows app,
> or whatever, is in fact important; it means that if we identify a
> behavior in an environment which we believe is a flaw in the
> environment itself, we don't necessarily deal with it within Gaim.  In
> this case, there may be a usability issue that we want to deal with,
> but it needs to be separated from any substandard environment-specific
> concerns.
>
> Ethan

I've just had an idea (brace yourselves!).

An occasional file transfer popup shouldn't really bother anyone. So,
I believe the problem is with clients that let an user drag and drop
multiple files to the conversation window, in effect sending multiple
file transfer requests at once (MSN, I'm looking at you) . It is
already annoying to have to hit a hotkey multiple times, but not
nearly as bad as having multiple dialogs spawning.

However, Gaim already has the perfect dialog for multiple file
transfers: the file transfer dialog itself. So, if any dialogs are to
be spawned, it should be that dialog. Perhaps, with an added "Status"
column and appropriate "Accept/Decline" buttons. Flashing the file
transfer dialog and/or using the notification area icon should be
enough to warn the user. If not, then add a file transfer request
sound (see: ICQ).

I believe this helps with the multiple rogue popups, without the ugly
hack of creating a conversation window(if not open already) just to
host the file transfer.

What do you guys think?


Stephen