Perhaps this is good time to chip in with a few related UI usability
observations:
[1] When I first came across Fossil (sqlite docs) it took me a while to figure
out that there is a menu option "files" that only becomes visible after loging
in. At first I thought that access to files was just not available. I guess
this has been set up this way to prevent spiders requesting the entire project
history to be served. Would it not be better to have the "files" option greyed
out, or to show a page saying "you must be (anonymously) logged in to view
files"? This refers mostly to public repositories as local "fossil ui" access
automatically does the login.
[2] On the "files" page, one by default gets the union of all files checked in
across branches and over time. I found this confusing, I would have thought
that the default would be a view of the tip of the trunk. When first confronted
with a project, trying to assess its structure, stuff now looks much more
complex than it really is. Depending on the situation I would want a different
view: tip of the trunk at first, tip of my personal branch later and the union
view when deeply involved in the project. Perhaps this should be a config
option, or perhaps the default "files" view should have a second menu line,
with various view options; the view option should be "sticky" with the last
view chosen within a single ui session. Related to this, would it not make
sense to add a zip link to the files page, for any view other than the union
view ?
[3] On first use, the menu immediately requires an understanding of the
concepts of leaves, branches and timelines. A first encounter with Fossil will
often be via cursory browsing of a public repository and also by folks not very
much into distributed version control. In my opinion it would be good to add a
"help" item to the menu that leads to a wiki page with a "getting started"
level explaination of the various menu options and what they are for. This
should perhaps be configurable (i.e. showing the "help" item is a user
attribute: "show" for nobody and anonymous and "hide" for all others) in order
not to gum up the UI when its usefullness is gone.
[4] Is the order of main menu options currently the most helpful/insightful?
Perhaps the ordering
Home/Branches/Files/Tickets/Leaves/Tags/Timeline/Wiki/Login is more logical ??
First you look at a project's description via Home, then at its source via
Files, next you have a look at ticket history. Only then you start working with
leaves, etc. Is "Wiki" the best name for this option? Isn't the wiki mainly
accessed via "Home" and the "Wiki" menu used for access to "Wiki Admin"? I
don't like that latter label ("Wiki Admin") either so perhaps somebody has a
better suggestion.
[5] On the branches page, shouldn't "trunk" receive a special position, i.e.
always at the top of the list?
I did like the idea of a "Download" menu option for public repositories at
first glance, as passers-by would expect to find such an option. To such folks,
Fossil appears to be something like sourceforge and alike. However, I don't see
the point of such a menu option in non-public repositories. Hence I think now
that it is perhaps not such a good idea.
Paul
________________________________
From: [email protected] on behalf of Benjohn Barnes
Sent: Wed 10/21/2009 10:26 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [fossil-users] UI Enhancement - was: fossil and zip files
On 21 Oct 2009, at 18:52, [email protected]
wrote:
> Two highly skilled programmers failed to notice an important feature
> of fossil. This screams "User Interface Problem!" Does anybody have
> a suggested remedy?
The "Leaves" and "Timeline" views could be modified so that the single
line summaries provide additional functions that users must currently
click through to the "ci" view to see. Specifically a link to the zip
archive could be provided, but also from the "Command" section "files"
and "diff" might be nice functions to provide here. Other suggestions?
Cheers,
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