[Users] [Bulk] Re: Claws config needs much better documentation

[Sitaram Chamarty]

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 4:03 AM, Michael Gmelin <freebsd at grem.de> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:16:36 -0400
> Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:39:08 +0200, Michael Gmelin said:
>> >
>> >
>> > On Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:08:56 -0400
>> > Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com> wrote:
>>
>> > > Fair enough, but when a part of the program departs from the
>> > > behavior norms of user software, for gosh sakes, DOCUMENT IT, and
>> > > document it prominently.
>> >
>> > Well, Claws deletes the currently selected message - which is
>> > standard behavior for UI applications. Moving the cursor keys does
>> > not open a mail, but changes the selection
>>
>> That behavior is configurable. The surprising part is, if you
>> configure it to not pull the body on changing the message, instead of
>> blanking out the body of the previous message, it keeps the body of
>> the previous message.
>>
>> >  - which is standard behavior for many
>> > file managers and other programs where changing the selection does
>> > not open a file. It might be unusual for a mail client - but then
>> > again, clicking an email actual opens it, just moving the selection
>> > with the cursor keys doesn't. I don't quite understand how somebody
>> > could just not realize this immediately - I mean you are using the
>> > cursor keys and realize that the selection changes, but the mail
>> > shown doesn't. It's very obvious and I doubt that anybody who is
>> > not getting this will actually read the documentation before
>> > stumbling over this (who is reading documentation software before
>> > using a program these days anyway
>> > - if ever, unless they hit a problem which would be too late in this
>> > case).
>>
>> As someone who accidentally deleted because of this, let me explain
>> how it happened. First, I get 500 nonspam messages a day, so I move
>> fast. My mental algorithm for deleting a message is that if I see
>> anything in either the body or the subject indicating I'm not
>> interested, I just press d. Also, keep in mind my desktop Claws is
>> configured to pull the body upon highlighting the current message. So
>> I deleted a piece of spam after reading both the subject and the
>> body. The highlight moved to the next message, but I was still
>> looking at the body, and saw it waas the same. A quick look at the
>> subject showed it and the sender different, and I thought "Oh, one of
>> those virus-generated spams that changes its subject every time", and
>> pressed d again. After four of these I was thinking it's a pretty
>> prolific virus. After five, I realized I had skipped a step
>> somewhere, went back, undeleted the messages, and discovered the
>> bodies changed when I pressed Enter or clicked the message.
>>
>> >
>> > That said, I have a very simple suggestion that might solve this and
>> > increase usability at the same time - it definitely would get the
>> > attention of new users so that they understand that something's
>> > different:
>> >
>> > Change the message list, so that the mail currently shown in the
>> > message pane is marked as well as the currently selected mail. Keep
>> > the standard selection color in case both refer to the same mail
>> > (selected mail is also the one shown). When moving the selection
>> > using the cursor keys, keep an outline around the currently shown
>> > email and use a different color for the selection bar. If you hit
>> > enter, the previously shown email gets deselected, and the selected
>> > entry uses the normal selection bar again (I hope you get the idea).
>>
>> If it were me, the only change I'd make to the "lazy body download"
>> method would be that, if the highlighted message's body hasn't been
>> downloaded yet, show a blank body, not the body of the previous and
>> completely unrelated message.
>
> Hm, but this is part of what makes this feature useful to me. I can
> skim through the message list without losing the one open. I can also
> delete and move other messages without losing what's open. All very
> useful to me. Workflows can be a very personal thing :)

Sure, but the *default* setting is what we're arguing about.  For you,
it's just one setting away.