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Author Topic: Speaking of small cosmetic issues...  (Read 2517 times)

Offline Lee

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Speaking of small cosmetic issues...
« on: October 19, 2009, 01:04:17 PM »
While generating the pictures for the screen shots page, I made a list of little things that might be changed or improved.

Some of them may have been addressed before in the forums - this is just the raw list (I found the list on my desk and thought I ought to do something with it before I lose it again).

These are mostly non-functional issues - confusion avoidance or "convenience" items.

In many of these, I'm playing the devil's advocate (or "noob's advocate").

For anything where it might matter, these notes were made while running tc 2.4.1 in qemu on Windows XP.

In Control Panel...

  The Backup/Restore button brings up a dialogue called "Filetool", not "Backup" or "Restore".


  The "Help" button brings up the "Core Concepts" text.  While it is important that new users read and understand the core concepts, that's probably not what they are looking for when they press "Help".

  The netcargconfig dialogue would be nicer if it could pre-populate its input fields from /opt/eth0.sh (or whatever exists, if there's only one such file) in the same way that it already pulls the value from /etc/resolv.conf.  I didn't actually try this in tc 2.4.1 as I just let it use dhcp, so forgive me if this is already done.

  The "Backgrounds" button brings up a dialogue called "wallpaper"...  No biggie for most native English speakers but I could see it causing confusion for the rest of the world.


In the menu...

  Shells / Transparent and Shells / Root / Transparent would seem logical additions.

  Tools / Add to Bootlocal - What does it mean to "add" a file to a script?

  Tools / Add to Filetool and

  Tools / Add to Xfiletool - What do these mean?  Whatever filetool is, surely Xfiletool is the GUI for it, right?

  Tools / Help - same as Control Panel "Help" button

  Tools / Run Command - brings up a dialogue called "Application Launcher", not "Run Command".

  Tools / Set Time - gives no indication that it has done anything unless you are running one of the visible clock extensions.

  Tools / Upgrade Extensions - Indicates that it requires bootcodes "base", "norestore" and "text" which would seem to preclude running it from the menu.  Perhaps it could give instructions on how one might, after rebooting with the correct boot codes, run the updater from the command line.

  Tools / Vi - should give some indication that vi is a text editor and how to get out of it gracefully ( colon-q - the only vi command I ever memorized! :b ).  ( Text editor religious rant omitted.  Yes, I know its in busybox. ).
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Offline jpeters

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Re: Speaking of small cosmetic issues...
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2009, 04:41:59 PM »

  Tools / Vi - should give some indication that vi is a text editor and how to get out of it gracefully ( colon-q - the only vi command I ever memorized! :b ).  ( Text editor religious rant omitted.  Yes, I know its in busybox. ).


I know what you mean about vi; that's why I use vim, and you should too. It's like.....a religious experience....  :D

Offline roberts

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Re: Speaking of small cosmetic issues...
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2009, 08:12:03 PM »
While generating the pictures for the screen shots page, I made a list of little things that might be changed or improved.

Some of them may have been addressed before in the forums - this is just the raw list (I found the list on my desk and thought I ought to do something with it before I lose it again).

These are mostly non-functional issues - confusion avoidance or "convenience" items.

In many of these, I'm playing the devil's advocate (or "noob's advocate").

For anything where it might matter, these notes were made while running tc 2.4.1 in qemu on Windows XP.

In Control Panel...

  The Backup/Restore button brings up a dialogue called "Filetool", not "Backup" or "Restore".
Backup and Restore are action verbs, as indicated by their respective buttons. The program is called filetool which contains these action buttons.
Quote

  The "Help" button brings up the "Core Concepts" text.  While it is important that new users read and understand the core concepts, that's probably not what they are looking for when they press "Help".
It is the embedded documentation, in which later you seem to complain is needed.
Quote

  The netcargconfig dialogue would be nicer if it could pre-populate its input fields from /opt/eth0.sh (or whatever exists, if there's only one such file) in the same way that it already pulls the value from /etc/resolv.conf.  I didn't actually try this in tc 2.4.1 as I just let it use dhcp, so forgive me if this is already done.
Most will use dhcp, and those that need to setup a wired connection, most often do such only once.
If this was a frequently used operation then it would make sense to add the extra code. Tiny is tiny for such reasons.
Quote

  The "Backgrounds" button brings up a dialogue called "wallpaper"...  No biggie for most native English speakers but I could see it causing confusion for the rest of the world.
Ok. If backgrounds is more universal. I guess I am not worldly enough to be aware.
Quote


In the menu...

  Shells / Transparent and Shells / Root / Transparent would seem logical additions.
Transparency support is a recent addition.
Quote
  Tools / Add to Bootlocal - What does it mean to "add" a file to a script?
Instead of using that horrible vi that is later complained about to add a file(script) to /opt/bootlocal.sh you can use a GUI to point-n-click to add such to /opt/bootlocal.sh
Quote

  Tools / Add to Filetool and
Same for adding a file or directory to be included in the backup, since only vi is available in base, again an easy point-n-click to add to filetool, which BTW is discussed in Help.
Quote
  Tools / Add to Xfiletool - What do these mean?  Whatever filetool is, surely Xfiletool is the GUI for it, right?
Same as above, xfiletool's use is also covered in Help.
Quote

  Tools / Help - same as Control Panel "Help" button

  Tools / Run Command - brings up a dialogue called "Application Launcher", not "Run Command".
Use an application launcher to run a program/command. Action verb versus program name. Shall we only speak in verbs? Or which one is more worldly?
Quote

  Tools / Set Time - gives no indication that it has done anything unless you are running one of the visible clock extensions.
Many nix utils are silent.
Quote

  Tools / Upgrade Extensions - Indicates that it requires bootcodes "base", "norestore" and "text" which would seem to preclude running it from the menu.  Perhaps it could give instructions on how one might, after rebooting with the correct boot codes, run the updater from the command line.
Good point. It was also requested to change its name. New name shall be tce-update and when run from menu, such name will be indicated.
Quote

  Tools / Vi - should give some indication that vi is a text editor and how to get out of it gracefully ( colon-q - the only vi command I ever memorized! :b ).  ( Text editor religious rant omitted.  Yes, I know its in busybox. ).

Essy to just use the widow title bar X. Now that seems to be universal.
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