Hi, First, thank you for taking the time to write this. There's a lot of info on all of this and unless I missed something, I agree with everything you said.. I won't make it long, so let's summarize it into these simple words : you're the HIG/GUI expert!
p.s.: the current assistant has a 'checking extensions loaded' step... you didn't talk about it in your specs below and I agree that it shouldn't be there, the user doesn't need to know what extensions are needed... Thanks again, KaKaRoTo On Sat, Oct 28, 2006 at 01:07:09AM +0200, Karel Demeyer wrote: > Hi, > > > Thanks for involving me here. I'm not really interested in the coding > part, though I'd like to give some advice about my code and about the > GUI I'd like to see. I'm sure the idea I had back then wasn't good > code-wise nor UI-wise, therefor here my thoughts: > > firstly I stopped the work as I wanted to redo do it but missed the > courage. I'd like to see an "Assistant" snit widget to be made so it's > easy to make such assistants in TCL/TK without much work. Once that is > done you can create more assistants, like to set up an account with all > the basic settings and so on. Though, it's easy to say without doing it > so I do'nt really care if this would be done or not. > > GUI wise I have made a "mockup" (on paper) about how I would make the > assistant if I did it now, using the Gnome HID UI Guidelines, knowing > about the MAC (old and new) guidelines etc. > > see: > http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/ > http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/index.html > > About how 1 set should look like, well, like I ddi it in the > code. > This is an exact copy of a GNOME HIG-respecting assistant (btw: this was > mentioned long ago when I made the code, "assistant" is a > 'better' ('prefered'?) name for what a windows-guy would call a > "wizard", this comes from the HIG too.) > > > Anyway, here's my plan: > > *Before* starting the assistant itself, you should check if the needed > extensions are present and loaded and if a camera and/or audio device is > present. If these are NOT true, it's useless to start the assistant so > you should show an error box with a usefull message as in "how to fix > this" (only about the present problem, don't talk about "missing cam or > extension", just say "this is missing, this is what you should do", > eventually with a link to a page on the wiki. This window shouldn't > hold TOO MUCH text as otherwise people won't like to read it. Also, you > might make it nicer to see with an appropriate icon, but don't use an > icon implying a nuclear war or something, I mean, don't frighten your > users). > Once you're sure everything's ok to run teh assistant, show the FIRST > PAGE. This should be a Welcome message to tell the user what this steps > will be about. This page is NOT numbered (see my code). > The SECOND PAGE should be about the webcam choice. I think the way I > did it is OK, try to stick to this. Though, I remembered me putting a > border around the preview widget. I did this "just because I could". > This isn't a good developper's attitude, so you might get rid of it :). > Using a canvas makes it easy to put things on it you might need though, > so think about this. I can't come up with a use for it now. > If no webcam is present this page should just show a message no webcam > device was found. Then teh next page should be teh audio settings (make > sure to call this page 2). > If a webcam was present and choosen, the next step is the webcam > finetuning, called step 2 (this makes it a bit more difficult to code as > the numering isn't hard coded, but makes a big difference in user > experience). > The finetuning should have the preview area at exactly the same > position, so if the user changes from step 1 to 2, it should be like > that part of the screen didn't change at all. instead of the 2 > drop-down boxes, 4 sliders should be used instead. Ow, now I know why I > used the canvas. Error messages can be hovering the preview. If the > error repeats every second for example, only show it once and stop > trying to do what it's doing and have a "retry" button maybe. > Make sure to give both the dropdown boxes in step 1 as the 4 sliders a > nbice caption that has the same style used all over the assistant. > > THen the next step is the audio settings. I guess here the user can > choose jack and line ? Well, have 2 drop-down boxes (comboboxes) at the > exact same place as the webcam device choosing-boxes. On the > preview-place, a "volume meter" could be placed if possible. at the > right of if a slider (up-down) to change volume settings. > > Then I won't have another step for network settings as nothing is to set > here I think. The last step is a "Done" message. If there is a > possibility of a network problem, you could suggest a solution here > (don't use too much text) and/or a link to the wiki. CVOngratulate the > user here for his/her work and you could tell him shortly how to use the > webcam/audio capabilities. > > > Have fun > > Karel. > > > > Op woensdag 25-10-2006 om 10:56 uur [tijdzone -0400], schreef Youness > Alaoui: > > Hello, > > just wanted to send you this, as this is mainly your work. Maybe you'll be > > interested to help design, contribute, code, > > or just say good luck. I think your code is pretty good and I guess > > documented and modular enough for them to be easy to > > work on it, but just in case, maybe you'd like to explain how it works, > > I'll keep you informed if need be. > > Anyways, I hope you're doing ok and I hope hearing from you soon. > > > > Take care! > > KaKaRoTo > > > > ----- Forwarded message from Youness Alaoui <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----- > > > > To: amsn-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > > From: Youness Alaoui <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > X-Spam-Score: 1.1 (+) > > X-Spam-Report: Spam Filtering performed by sourceforge.net. > > See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details. > > Report problems to > > http://sf.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=1&atid=200001 > > 1.0 FORGED_RCVD_HELO Received: contains a forged HELO > > 0.1 RCVD_IN_SORBS_DUL RBL: SORBS: sent directly from dynamic IP address > > [209.161.212.105 listed in dnsbl.sorbs.net] > > Subject: [Amsn-devel] Audio and Video Assistant > > X-BeenThere: amsn-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > > X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 > > Reply-To: Mailing list for developers and everyone helping AMSN > > <amsn-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> > > List-Id: Mailing list for developers and everyone helping AMSN > > <amsn-devel.lists.sourceforge.net> > > List-Unsubscribe: <https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amsn-devel>, > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > List-Archive: > > <http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=amsn-devel> > > List-Post: <mailto:amsn-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> > > List-Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > List-Subscribe: <https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amsn-devel>, > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > Hi, > > This is to announce a new mini-project that needs to be worked on. It will > > be due for 0.97 of course. We need to finish > > the webcam assistant that Karel started. It's really the best windows aMSN > > currently has and it's really a shame to have > > it hidden that way. We need to finish it in order to make it available for > > the users... > > Moreover, we need an audio configuration tool... so my idea is to merge > > both, make the 'webcam assistant' into a 'Video > > and Audio Assistant'. > > I'm going to divide the work to two devels : Tom and Jonne. > > Tom already agreed to work on that, Jonne, I'll be waiting on your > > availability to know if you can work on this. > > Tom never used Tk extensively so it might be difficult for him to improve > > the assistant gui-wise, so he'll be working on > > providing some simple APIs to do all the basic stuff that needs to be done > > by the assistant. For example, he'll be > > wrapping the extensive api of snack into simple api like a getVolume and > > setVolume proc, instead of all the work on > > choosing which jack, which line, if mono or stereo, the balance for stereo, > > on which mixer device, etc... > > Jonne you'll be working on improving the GUI, and making sure it works.. > > For now, we can't get past step 2 if we don't > > have a cam plugged in, because it crashes... so this has to be fixed.. the > > webcam config is almost done, it just needs to > > be tweaked and bugfreed + enhanced for audio. > > > > Tell me if you agree, when you can start on this, what's your estimated on > > the work to be done and how much time you're > > willing to dedicate to this so we can have an idea of when to poke again to > > know if it's done or not. > > > > If anybody wants to join in or contribute in any other way, reply to this > > thread. > > > > p.s.: we might not some pixmaps for the GUI, but that will come after, so > > in the meantime, you can always just draw > > something stupid in 'paint' :p > > > > Thanks, > > KaKaRoTo > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? > > Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job > > easier > > Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo > > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 > > _______________________________________________ > > Amsn-devel mailing list > > Amsn-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amsn-devel > > > > ----- End forwarded message ----- > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? > Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier > Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 > _______________________________________________ > Amsn-devel mailing list > Amsn-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amsn-devel ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Amsn-devel mailing list Amsn-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amsn-devel
