[darcs-users] darcs UI: send = bundle file; send --mail = mail

Ben Franksen benjamin.franksen at bessy.de
Fri Aug 17 20:31:37 UTC 2012


Eric Kow wrote:
> On 17 Aug 2012, at 20:10, Ben Franksen wrote:
>> Gabriel Kerneis wrote:
>>> On second thought, it might be rude to CC this address without any
>>> warning. Just thinking out loud.
>> 
>> So, put the trick in the manual and the wiki/FAQ ("How can I make sure
>> darcs send actually sends anything?"), and hope people will actually read
>> that. Might even add it to the 'darcs send --help'.
>> 
>> Problem solved?
> 
> I personally have the conviction that people don't read things, and that
> we should really fault them for not reading things; and that our UI
> efforts should basically do what it can to support that fact.
> 
> It's one of the reasons why I value darcs interactivity even though it
> comes at the cost of frustrating some power users.
> 
> Not to say that we shouldn't have tips, FAQs, manuals; etc, just that we
> shouldn't rely on it as the main tool in our arsenal.
> 
> (Not implying that anybody is saying that we should, just making an
> assertion about UIs and seeing what people think)

I agree completely. I proposed it to fend off Gabriel's warning that users 
may find it rude to just send a copy to the user; but you are right that an 
interactive solution is the correct default behaviour.

So, here is a refined proposal: 

 * add an option --cc-self, which is off by default,
   as well as the opposite option --no-cc-self
 * instead, by default, ask the user whether it should send a copy
   to self:

   > darcs send
   ...
   Do you want to receive a copy of the patch? [Ynq]

I would even go so far as to postulate this approach as a general guideline 
for Darcs UI issues.

The advantages:

* Beginners are presented with the most relevant options interactively, so
  they learn about the possibilities.
* Beginners and casual users don't have to study manuals or search wikis.
* Advanced users can get rid of the question simply by adding either of the
  options (yes or no) to their personal defaults file.
* People who have chosen one or the other option as their personal default
  can still enable the opposite behaviour by giving an explicit command line
  option to the command.

It should be possible to factor this into a utility module that implements 
the above behaviour, getting the concrete option in question as a parameter.

What do you think?
--
Ben Franksen
()  ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail 
/\  www.asciiribbon.org   - against proprietary attachments
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