[PATCH] Replacing email selection dialog in kmail

[Aaron J. Seigo]

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On Sunday 30 November 2003 12:02, Ingo Klöcker wrote:
> So maybe any of those five people can explain the usefullness of the
> QSplitters.

i'll leave this one to Zack...

> Or why it's not possible to add a distribution list to the 
> list of addressees (and by this I mean the name of the distribution
> list and not all it's members).

this is indeed a bug, but has nothing to do with the layout of the dialog.

> Why can one Add, Edit or Remove 
> contacts from the addressbook in an address _selection_ dialog? Why can
> one save distribution lists from there?

two words: use case.

UC 1: user opens up address picker, adds a few addresses, which to add another 
address.

UC 2: user opens up address picker, notices than an email addy is wrong and 
should be changed.

UC 3: user opens up address picker, sees an old entry in there that should be 
removed.

UC4: user picks a bunch of addresses to send an email to and decides that 
since they'll be doing this often, should save that selection as a grouping.

the best answer to each of those UCs is to allow them to immediately add, edit 
or remove the entry. if we force them to open up the whole address book we:

 o cause them to wait longer while the address book starts
 o cause them to find the addy in the address book application AGAIN after 
they had ALREADY found it once in the address picker
 o cause them to hide the address picker dialog in kmail and open it again so 
it can refresh the changes
 o cause the user to switch between using kmail and using another application 
which is distinctly different. think of it as a human "context switch" with 
all the same sorts of overhead a context switch incurs in an OS kernel.

for the distribution list UC (#4) we can add the fact that allowing them to 
compile a list while addressing an email allows them two accomplish two tasks 
at once, and from the best perspective, that of actually peforming the task 
(rather than pretending to while in the address book, as in, "If I were to 
actually send an email that needs to go to all <insert grouping>, who would 
that include?")

as for the buttons themselves, they are the bottom of the list. this keeps 
them well out of the way of the work flow. it isn't like they are on the top 
of the list, at the bottom of the whole dialog, or garishly in the middle.

> gives milk and wool and which lays eggs"). It doesn't really solve the
> task that it is supposed to solve, namely to make it easy for the user
> to select the To, the Cc and the Bcc recipients. (Mostly because of
> many bugs.)

this dialog is better because:

 o it scales to many addresses
 o allows picking To, Cc and Bcc simultaneously
 o supports the quick creation of To lists with double click
 o supports distribution lists and email groupings

> > > I know it's quite late in the release schedule, but also the kmail
> > > developer would like to see this dialog be used for 3.2.
> >
> > There's no way in hell we'll do that. That dialog is crap,
>
> The new one is also crap because it confuses the user with loads of
> unnecessary functionality.

you have some sort of research to back that claim up?

> I agree that the dialog that Tobias proposed isn't the solution. Instead
> I'd like to see the following changes in the current dialog:
> - Remove the stupid splitters.

would be nice, yes... i seem to recall an issue with layouts... Zack probably 
remembers the exact issue as he ran into it IIRC =)

> - Remove all functionality which doesn't belong in an address selection
> dialog, namely the "Add", "Edit", "Delete" and "Save as distribution
> list" buttons.

disagree for reasons above.

> - Put all distribution lists under the category Distribution Lists and
> make it possible to actually select a distribution list and not only to
> select the members of the distribution list.

yes, very good idea.

> - Fix all the bugs which have been filed with regard to this dialog.

agreed. of course. heh.

- -- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43
"Never weary, never dispair, never give in" - Winston Churchill
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