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[Luke Anderson]

Hi. Seeing as linux application usability is in the news I thought I'd put forward a few ideas

_Automatic_ ordering by Source.

Saving state (between sessions) of "Search global" box.

Setup by default to "Download serverlist at start up" and "Autoconnect at startup" (If legally sound

Or, If not. Upon clicking connect, a dialog which says "You are now connecting, would you like amule to always connect automatically when it is run?     [yes]   [no]     [ ] Don't ask this again"

[Same with serverlist]. On first run when there are no servers, can we have a big balloon or something, pointing to the serverlist button telling the user to click it to obtain list of servers. (If too winXPish, then ignore). I WANT MY MOM TO BE ABLE TO USE AMULE. As it is I have to write out quite a list to enable her to download stuff.

ability to enter searches even while not connected. They would sit in the search tabs and be executed as soon as a connection was made.

perhaps a larger, chunkier button which says connecting ..., while search/transfer windows/buttons help the uninitiated by:
       "Searches" says "Searches will not execute until you are connected, you are now attempting to connect." or simply "Awaiting connection to execute search"
        "Transfers" says "Downloads will not start until you are connected, [connection progress]", or somesuch.

If, and only if the sound device is free - play a sound "amule connection established" when connected. Similarly for disconnected. Obviously include options to disable.

Ability to sort items in incoming according to their type. E.g. Seperate folders for all the amule types Incoming/Video Incoming/Audio Incoming/Archives. Perhaps you can peek inside archives to decide if they are Video or Audio inside?

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As you can see. I have a lot of ideas. These are important for increased usability. After these few simple things, my mum will be able to use it! And that's an acheivment in itself.

Take care,
  Luke.

[nachbarnebenan]

> _Automatic_ ordering by Source.

You mean, be default sort by source until set otherwise? Sounds reasonable. I guess, the current state should be saved between sessions, too.

> Saving state (between sessions) of "Search global" box.

I prefer it to be off by default, or even be turned off after every search -> reduces load on the servers (You don't have to ask all of them, if the local one already has it. Maybe if you re-start a search with "global search" switched on, the local server will not be bothered again.)

> ability to enter searches even while not connected.
> They would sit in the search tabs and be executed as soon as a connection was made.

Sound good, but is dangerous, as it can produce very high load on the servers. One solution would be to send each search only to a fraction of the known servers: You have 5 searches waiting -> each of them will be send to only 1/5 of the servers.

> If, and only if the sound device is free - play a sound "amule connection established" when
> connected. Similarly for disconnected. Obviously include options to disable.

If ever included, it should be disabled and not even compiled in by default, since most of us have aMule running on a remote host, packed away somewhere in a corner of the room, so you would have to use arts to even get the sound to the terminal and as I understand it, the new arts subsystem of kde 3.2 has a lot of problems with gtk, which wxwidgets (and aMule) is linked to. And jack would make a hell of overhead to include it into aMule.
Btw, wouldn't it make more sense, playing the sound, when a download is finished? You will have a connect/disconnect sound only every 24h, so they are not very useful.