Fwd: [Design][D/f] 0.6 dogfood feedback

[Brian Kirsch]

Hi Stefan,
Since releasing .6, a feature was added to retrieve the default locale 
from the OS via the ICU. This will appear in the 0.6.1 release.
This may or may not solve your problem.

In the .7 or .8 release time frame we plan on adding c / c++ code for 
each OS to retrieve the entire locale set and any custom date, time, 
number. and currency formatting specified in the Operating System 
preferences.

Also since .6, Chandler can be started with a specific locale. Taken 
from the Chandler i18n busy developers guide 
(http://leilani.osafoundation.org/~bkirsch/i18n/busydev.html):

-----------


    Command Line Options / Environmental Options

By default Chandler will run with the Locale Set returned from the 
Operating System. To run Chandler in a different Locale one can either 
set the LANG environmental variable or start Chandler with the --locale 
(-l) flag.


      Setting the LANG environmental variable on a Unix based System

   %> export LANG=es_UY
   %> ./release/RunChandler
   


      Starting Chandler with the --locale flag on a Unix System

%> ./release/RunChandler --locale=es_UY

For .6, a debugging Locale "test" was created. Starting Chandler with 
the "test" Locale causes the i18n package to insert a "(ü):" at the 
start of each localizable Unicode string and random Unicode characters 
at the start and end of all items generated from the "Generate Data" and 
"Generate Lots of Data" Test menus. This is useful for both confirming 
that GUI text is using the translation API and that the application is 
properly handling display, import, and export of non-ASCII data.


---------


Hope this helps,
Brian


Mimi Yin wrote:

> Hi Stefan,
>
> Thank you for taking the time to do this :o)
>
> If you don't mind, I'd like to poke and prod you a little bit more to 
> build some context around your feedback. Please see more comments and 
> questions in-line.
>
>> 1. Date and time formats need to follow from the OS preferences. Here in
>> Old Europe, our days come before our months.
>
>



> This is definitely in the works, though someone else might be able to 
> speak to this point more coherently, Andi? or bkirsch?
>
>>
>> 2. better hints of what's a button and what isn't. I'm thinking
>> especially of the grey icons at the top of the event entry tab - they
>> don't mean anything to me, and grey means 'greyed out'
>
>
> Yes, wxWidgets does not have a widget for what we want to do so we 
> will need to build a custom widget for this in 0.7...The buttons at 
> the top of the detail view aren't really buttons per se, but stickers 
> that you activate and de-activate to add/remove meta-data from the 
> item you are viewing. A rollover effect will help user comprehension 
> greatly. Are you on a Mac or PC? Were you able to figure out clicking 
> on the buttons ultimately?
>
>>
>> 3. Keyboard navigation. I don't use a mouse unless forced to- they hurt
>> my hands. The more keyboard shortcuts you can do the better.
>
>
> Better keyboard navigation is something we're working for 0.7. For the 
> most part, it's an advanced feature so we didn't include it in the 
> first round of calendar features.
>
>>
>> Add keyboard navigation and an shortcut for 'New Event' and I'll start
>> seriously using it.
>
>
> I thought we had decided to rotate Cmd/Ctrl N to create a new note/ 
> mail/task/event depending on which App area you were in...but there 
> may have been technical difficulties that arose. Can I ask, which 
> keyboard shortcut did you try? Ctrl-N, Ctrl-E or did you first look 
> around in the File menu?
>
> Would you mind logging a bug for this? (These days, bugs logged by 
> potential users have more weight ;o)
>
>>
>> 4. Event entry. This action needs to be as quick as possible - I often
>> do this when I've got someone on the phone, I'm in hurry, and in ical I
>> always end up shoving the wrong things in the wrong fields because the
>> tab order is illogical - make adding entries slick and simple and the
>> application will rock.
>>
>> Think about how people think when they tab their way through it. I
>> actually quite like Palm Desktops dialog based model for this: New
>> event, tab through the details, hit return. quick, simple.
>
>
> Yes coming in 0.7.
>
>>
>> Suggestion: Also apply a bit of dumb-but-looks-like-smart pattern
>> matching to the entry of dates and times to give me shortcuts: if I
>> enter something like '9-11a' in the time box, figure out that I meant
>> 10-11am. I don't think i have ever in my life arranged a meeting to the
>> nearest minute, and the chances are that I'm trying to add this event
>> in the next 12 months, so forgive me for not stating 2006 or 2007.
>
>
> I believe that there may be internationalization issues around this 
> (ie. coming up with an algorithm that will work for all the different 
> date/time formats around the world). But again, I'm not the best 
> person to address these issues.
>
>>
>> 5. I would love a compressed view - my diary is sometimes quite sparse,
>> there is no reason to give me a sea of whitespace or make me run
>> fullscreen to see that I have both a 9am meeting and an 8pm dinner with
>> nothing in between. at worst, indicate visually at the bottom or top of
>> the viewport if there are events out of view. (ical is awful at this - I
>> sometimes miss appointments because it doesn't show them)
>
>
> The ultimate idea for Chandler is for some people, they will rarely 
> even have to switch to the calendar view. (ie. You can view your 
> appointments via the Preview Pane above the mini-cal when you're in 
> the other app areas). Also, meetings automatically pop into a 
> consolidated "Inbox" of sorts...that holds all of your items 
> (regardless of whether their email, tasks or events)...in the same way 
> new email arrives. It's sort of like receiving an invitation to a 
> meeting right before the meeting starts.
>
>>
>> 6. A view that is just a list of the days events (like the task view)
>> would possibly meet the requirement for 5.
>
>
> See response above. (A table view of events is also in the works. 
> Unfortunately we don't have a working table widget right now, but 
> we're working on it for 0.7)
>
>>
>> 7. Recurrent events - Palm Desktop again strikes I think the right
>> balance of simplicity and flexibility with regard to recurrent events -
>> many things occur, say, monthly, but on the first saturday - not
>> necessarily on the same day of the month. I couldn't see a way to
>> express this.
>
>
> Yes, more complex recurrence rules are in the works as well (although 
> how much we will do in 0.7 is up for grabs at this point). If you 
> import an advanced recurrence rule from another calendar client, it 
> should display correctly in Chandler. You just cant edit or create 
> them right now in the app.
>
> Jeffrey Harris (owner of recurrence in the 0.6 release) has compiled a 
> more comprehensive list of features we'd like to add: http:// 
> wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/ 
> ZeroDotSevenRecurrence#Nice_features_to_add
>
> Could you provide a list of some of the more flexible recurrence rules 
> you use regularly?
>
>>
>> that'll do for now... more later.
>
>
> Yes, thank you for taking the time to play around with the app and 
> write up your thoughts. Looking forward to more feedback!
>
> Mimi
>
>>
>> I hope this was useful rather than objectionable.
>>
>> stef
>>
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>
>
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-- 
Brian Kirsch - Cosmo Developer / Chandler Internationalization Engineer
Open Source Applications Foundation
543 Howard Street 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
http://www.osafoundation.org