Ben Bucksch wrote:
>
> Matthew Thomas wrote:
> >
> > In the rare event that the user does choose the
> > account level, show a simple summary of the folders/groups in
> > that account, with the number of read and unread messages in
> > each.
>
> A majority of people (including myself) felt that the AccountCentral
> was a better thing to show than to repeat the folder pane.
I apologize for disagreeing.
Perhaps I could offer an analogy: Windows Explorer. (Most of Windows
Explorer's UI is highly dodgy, but I think this bit is fairly sound.)
Let's say you have a folder on your hard drive which contains only
subfolders. (Compare: a mail account which contains mail folders.) What
does Windows Explorer do, when you select this top-level folder? It
shows the folders in the right pane. As it should.
<http://smartcomputing.com/editorial/fullsize.asp?image=00046723.jpg>.
What would happen if Windows Explorer was designed by Mozilla Mail/News
people? Well, in right pane you'd probably have links to `Create a new
folder', `Create a new file', `Go to the parent folder', `Change my
Explorer preferences', etc, duplicating buttons in the toolbar. Just as
useless as Account Central in Mozilla.
> > To completely remove all possibility of the user understanding
> > this behavior, have different defaults for this pref with
> > different types of account.
>
> The account types *are* different in this regard. With IMAP, mail is
> usally stored on the server. Using Mailnews without connection to the
> server makes no much sense, apart from hard-offline mode (use only
> "cache", I assume mailcheck is disabled then, too).
If offline mode is well-implemented, then using IMAP offline makes just
as much sense as using POP offline.
> > Alternative solution:
> > If the user is in online mode when they open their mail window,
> > then check their mail in all their accounts.
>
> No, you cannot trust the offline/online state.
Then why do we have it at all?
> - You have no way to reliably figue out, if a connection to the
> Internet exists. The user has to set the state manually.
> - I left Mailnews while I was online. I left it in online mode. Later,
> when I am offline, I start Mailnews. online mode persisted, so
> Mailnews tries to get mail. Error.
>...
Internet Explorer is smart enough to work out that you are offline, and
ask you if you want to go online. Why can't Mozilla do this?
--
Matthew `mpt' Thomas, Mozilla user interface QA
Mozilla UI decisions made within 48 hours, or the next one is free
