[Python-Dev] Please revert autofolding of tracker edit form

[Ezio Melotti]

Hi,

On 31/03/2011 19.52, Terry Reedy wrote:
> On 3/31/2011 9:59 AM, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
>> Le jeudi 31 mars 2011 à 23:48 +1000, Nick Coghlan a écrit :
>>> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 10:16 PM, Antoine 
>>> Pitrou<solipsis at pitrou.net>  wrote:
>>>> It would be nice if someone with UI design experience was 
>>>> interested in
>>>> maintaining/improving the tracker.
>>>
>>> The challenge is the same as with any UI designer involvement in open
>>> source stuff though: they really need to be given the freedom to do
>>> proper workflow analysis and come up with something that *works*, but
>>> in practice things tend to get derailed into endless bikeshed
>>> arguments, since *everyone* has an opinion on the UI design of the
>>> tools they have to use.
>>
>> Well, obviously they have, since they are users and are directly
>> impacted by any changes.
>> The line this draws is between clean-sheet design and iterative
>> improvement. Clearly it would be difficult to try to sell us a wholesale
>> change in how the issue tracker organizes things.
>
> Here is my proposal for a redesign based on an analysis of my usage ;-).

You can add your proposal to 
http://wiki.python.org/moin/DesiredTrackerFeatures

There you can find several suggestions and discussions about possible 
changes to the tracker (it's similar to python-ideas ML, but it's about 
the tracker and it's on a wiki page).

Bugs and concrete suggestions should be submitted to the meta-tracker 
(http://psf.upfronthosting.co.za/roundup/meta/) or discussed on the 
tracker-discuss mailing list.

> I have a 1600x1050 (or thereabouts), 20" (measured) diagonal, 17" 
> across screen.
>
> The left column has a 7/8" margin, 2 3/8" text area, and 1" gutter. 
> These could be shrunk to say, 1/4, 2, 1/4, saving 1 3/8".
> The comment box is 8 1/2", message boxes are wider, but the extra 
> width is not used if one uses hard returns in the comment box. In any 
> case, the message boxes could be narrowed by 1 1/8".
> This would allow a right column of 1/4+2+1/4".
>
> Except for title, comment, and file boxes, we then stack the 
> classification and process boxes in the right column.
> The nosy box would be last so it can list one name per line.
> It would end with an [ add  me ] button. It should also have a box for 
> adding people (as with Assigned To). Having to look up tracker names 
> in Assigned To and retype exactly in the nosy list is an error-prone 
> nuisance. Putting all these boxes to the side leaves them visible for 
> those who want them but out of the way and ignorable for those who do 
> not.

You can also use the "(list)" link to open a popup and search for users 
to add to the nosy instead of copying them from the "Assigned To" list 
by hand.  (I know that popup are not the most usable thing and that the 
search has some limitation (e.g. it's case sensitive), but that's the 
best we have right now, and works fairly well for me.)

Also one of the design goal is to keep the interface as simple as 
possible, so we try to avoid adding more things unless they are really 
useful.  Having an expanded list of names doesn't sound too useful to me.

>
> I would be nice is both the left and right columns had buttons to hide 
> and show. This would help people accessing issues from smaller 
> screens, as with a netbook.
>
> The title is not really classification and belongs at the very top. It 
> could even go in the 1 1/8" top bar, which is currently mostly empty, 
> along with the issue number.
>
> I would like to try putting the comment box after the last (most 
> recent) comment, as that is the message one most ofter responds to. 
> Having to now scroll up and down between comment box and last 
> message(s) is often of a nuisance.
>

This summer I plan to participate again to GSOC and work on the bug 
tracker (if my proposal gets accepted).  There are already a few things 
I want to improve and I also have some patches ready that just need to 
be updated and applied.

In the meanwhile you can use 
http://wiki.python.org/moin/DesiredTrackerFeatures to list the things 
that you would like to see, so that they don't get lost in the archives 
of python-dev.

Best Regards,
Ezio Melotti