[Mailman-Developers] Hi! I'll be your intern for the summer :)

[emf]

>         1.  KISS -- I sometimes have to do list administration and
>             moderation from my Treo 650, so anything that depends on
>             graphics, JavaScript, CSS, or anything fancy is really bad
>             news. 

Ug, yeah. There's so much cruft stuck in so many places that I've just 
started over writing (x)html templates. I will be using CSS mostly so 
that underneath the pages can be Very Simple; I've got a Palm TX and 
table pages can be brutal. Additionally, I fully intend to have a CSS 
file just for mobile devices.

I will also be using JavaScript to add responsiveness to the UI for 
traditional browsers, but I swear on a stack of comic books that It 
Shall Degrade Gracefully.

>             Stick to a pure text-only UI as much as possible,

Please forgive my insouciance on this point, but I believe one of the 
weaknesses of the current interface is that it provides no visual cues 
as to what is important/relevant. I will be using icons to draw the 
user's eye to relevant details, but I have no intention of gobbling up 
screen space for bling or committing similar crimes like using 
image-only links; the interface will be fully functional and 
aesthetically reasonable with images turned completely off.

>             and try doing some actual tests with various PDAs and
>             phones, as well as all common browsers (including Safari)
>             on all common desktop platforms (including MacOS X).

Well, I've got me a testing lab right here! I'm only slightly kidding. 
Aside from the aforementioned TX, I have an intel mac, so I plan on 
installing Windows soon so I can see how things work on that end.

I'm also going to make sure it's fine in links or lynx.

>             I would
>             hate to see all the current WebUI code get thrown out and
>             replaced with a Web2.0 AJAX/.NET framework.

I will be using some XMLHTTPRequest action, but only to allow 
partial-form-submission, and it will degrade to "submit the whole page" 
gracefully.

>         2.  Functionality & 3. Completeness

I'm not committed to doing much with these problems in this project, but 
I assure you it is my desire as well; I'm hoping to get us closer to the 
day where there is One Holy UI that works identically across web/email/cli.

>     I'm not sure you fully understand how important.  Or how difficult.  ;)

Thanks! happily I feel like I'm making quite a bit of progress, so I 
think we might just get something viable out of this.

~ethan