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[Rafal_Glazar]

Sometimes status text takes three lines on my status bar and I would like to clear it. Can it be made like in eMule that when I reset "aMule Log" it clears status text also?

[GonoszTopi]

Or,
1) put another little icon onto the status bar which clear the status message
2) put a button "Clear" onto the status-line pop-up dialog

Anyway, it would be a nice feature to implement.

[lfroen]

That's most wrong way to do it. Absolutly no other program in the world have such "feature". And most programs do have status bar.
First of all, status bar must be fixed: it should not wrap text into 2 (or more) lines. Don't tell me "it is wx fault - we are ok" - because as user I don't geve a shit about who's fault is it.
Second: we should clear any text from status bar after few seconds. As all other programs do, and which is what user expect. Status bar should contain up-to-date message, not something that appeared 2 days ago.
Think about user perspective, not from inside the code.

[lionel77]

Just fyi: This does not happen on the Mac.
E.g., if you start downloading "foo.-.barbarbarbarbarbarbarbarbarbarbarbarbarbar.-.shmu.dat" the gui will display just "Downloading foo.-." as status message. I've never seen it wrap status messages into multiple lines, but I think I wouldn't like that either.
Ideally, I would like amule to use all the space that is available in the single line and display something like "Downloading foo.-.barbarbarbarbarbarbarbarbarbarbar..."


I kinda like having the last status message stick around for a while, not just for a few seconds or minutes, and I guess some other people might feel the same way. So I would suggest including an option like "

• Clear status message after __ minutes" instead of always clearing it after a fixed interval.

[Xaignar]

Yes, it's a GTK2 specific problem.

[Kry]

And how are we suposed to fix it, lfroen?

[Xaignar]

There are some possibilities, since we can calculate the given width for a text-string by using the wxDC classes.

[lfroen]

Kry: we supposed to truncate the text, and replace end with "..." like all other programs in the wild.

lionel77: including option is escape from responsibility. You must be thinking "more options => better", but this is wrong all over. You must have clear model of user expectation from GUI before you designing it.
Now to the topic: no user expect to find option "how match time hold status bar text". Yep, that's unfair ! So please, choose any time you feel comfortable with (like 5min).
Since we can't afford usability study, we should look to set of popular program and do wht they do. And no, this is not the place for argument like "but they are wrong" - they right by definition.

[Xaignar]

Err, I disagree regarding clearing the status line after X minutes. This removes the ability to tell at a glance if any events have happened since you last looked, and means that you'll have to switch to the server-window to check.

[lfroen]

Xaignar: I see that argument "every other gui application does it" doesn't impress you ? Microsoft (still unbeaten gui champion) does it. Adobe does it. All games that I know does it. I don't have Mac, so I can't tell about MacOS.

Here's why they do it:
This sounds silly, but  status bar is called "status bar" because it display status. And "status" is not something that happened hours ago. That would be logging.

[Xaignar]

Sorry, it takes more than appeals to popularity to convince me. And it doesn't exactly help when three of the applications I am using right now contradict your claim (kmail, konqueror and konversation).  

Also, contrarity most applications (epescially games), aMule is not something you keep constantly visible, which means that clearing the "last-event" field after some time would mean that the user would have to manually check, as I noted in my last post. In other words, this results in a net loss of information available to the user without effort.

[lfroen]

Sorry, it takes more than appeals to popularity to convince me.

?! Did you run usability testing like compnies I've brought to your attention ? I hope you did, because in opposite case your claims lack any base.
When it comes to GUI's - you've better look at Microsoft before you even considering . They spent millions to find the answer to question "what kind of gui pleases people most". It doesn't metter what kind of logical argument you will bring - people vote by liking or not liking particular type of gui. That's one of things that linux people tend to forgot - in GUI there's no right and wrong. There's "users like" and "users do not like".

kmail, konqueror and konversation

I did not used konversation, but kmail and konqueror are exact example of something you should not do. Don't you wonder, why Outlook is so popular despile huge resource consumption ? It's same reason why kmail is not: people like first and not very match like second.
Gnome, already learned from this mistakes: Evolution uses Outlook gui concept, and Nautilus is similar to explorer.

I would like to emphasize it once more: stop thinking in categories of right and wrong - think about "like" and "don't like".

[Xaignar]

Originally posted by lfroen

Sorry, it takes more than appeals to popularity to convince me.

?! Did you run usability testing like compnies I've brought to your attention ? I hope you did, because in opposite case your claims lack any base. When it comes to GUI's - you've better look at Microsoft before you even considering . They spent millions to find the answer to question "what kind of gui pleases people most".

Are you telling me that Microsoft runs usability tests? Now there's a shocker.
To be frank, I'm rather weary of anything UI produced by Microsoft, considering the atrocities they have unleashed upon the unsuspecting public before.

Originally posted by lfroen
It doesn't metter what kind of logical argument you will bring - people vote by liking or not liking particular type of gui. That's one of things that linux people tend to forgot - in GUI there's no right and wrong. There's "users like" and "users do not like".

Indeed, however, being a user myself, I don't like having to take extra steps to view information that could easily be accessible without extra effort. Forcing the user to jump through hoops is never a good idea.

Originally posted by lfroen

kmail, konqueror and konversation

I did not used konversation, but kmail and konqueror are exact example of something you should not do. Don't you wonder, why Outlook is so popular despile huge resource consumption ? It's same reason why kmail is not: people like first and not very match like second.

Well, let me see. Outlook runs on the operating system with over 90% desktop market-share and is backed by the maker of said operating system, whereas kMail runs as part of the KDE desktop that runs on operating systems whose total market share is something like 5%. Yeah, sure, the GUI, that's the reason.

Originally posted by lfroen

kmail, konqueror and konversation

Gnome, already learned from this mistakes: Evolution uses Outlook gui concept, and Nautilus is similar to explorer.

I haven't tried any of those and cannot comment on them. OTOH, it can be argued that when you are trying to get users to switch away from an existing program, it makes sense to make the new program appear familar to them, so that they do not have to relearn everything.

Originally posted by lfroen
I would like to emphasize it once more: stop thinking in categories of right and wrong - think about "like" and "don't like".

There is no right and wrong when it comes to GUI design, only what is the most appropriate for the situation at hand.

[GonoszTopi]

Originally posted by lfroen
Did you run usability testing like compnies I've brought to your attention ? [...]  When it comes to GUI's - you've better look at Microsoft before you even considering .

lfroen, did you ever manage to read the page that you were referring to in some other post (http://www.frankmahler.de/mshame/)? For me it seems like you didn't, otherwise you'd clearly not bring up "if Microsoft does it, it must be good" as a reason.

Just one quote for you from the same website:

[...] Microsoft's interface design is in the hands of graphic artists not interface designers.

Back to topic: status bar messages must be truncated to fit onto one line, or at least have a way to clear them, but never cleared. We use the status bar to display important messages to the user, so (s)he gets notified even if (s)he doesn't check the log frequently.

[lfroen]

Are you telling me that Microsoft runs usability tests? Now there's a shocker.

No, they posesses users by mind-affecting spells. Do you wearing protection amulet ?

it makes sense to make the new program appear familar to them

That's exactly my point. "Familiar" is key here. Means "like other programs they already know"