Re: [Tails-dev] next big features: status update

sajolida wrote (15 Mar 2012 14:23:32 GMT) :
> 5. When trying "Configure persistent storage" on a manually installed
> USB stick the error message says "Error: Device
> /org/freedesktop/UDisks/devices/sdb does not appear to be a Tails
> device". Which somehow is wrong: it's a Tails device, but just not a GTP
> one. If we don't want to detect whether the stick is a manually
> installed Tails or something else we could instead say "Error: Device
> /org/freedesktop/UDisks/devices/sdb was not created using Tails USB
> creator." or something like this.

Agreed, fixed in Git.

>> tails-greeter / enable persistence at boot time
>> ===============================================

> 1. When trying to boot Tails experimental in VirtualBox the window is
> much bigger than it used to be. I liked the previous size better.

What window?

> 3. UI suggestion: the current layout of welcoming windows has three
> buttons: "Yes", "No" and "Forward/Login".
> I usually tend to think that:
> - actions are triggered by clicking on buttons
> - options are chosen by using radios or checkboxes
> So for me those "Yes", "No" toggle buttons feel weird. We could instead
> match the behavior I described by either:
> - removing the "Forward/Login" button and just have the "Yes" and "No"
> buttons actually trigger the corresponding action (that would be 1
> button less, and 1 click to login instead of 2)

(Please note that login is already 1-click away in the general case;
we've optimized for the most common case, that is, no options, or
options choices saved in persistent storage -- that one is not
implemented yet, but the UI was thought with that middle-term goal
in mind.)

> - change the "Yes" and "No" buttons for radios and keep the
> "Forward/Login" as it is right now (that would still be 2 clicks to
> login but feel less weird)
> But maybe this was designed in prevision of something else that will
> happen next.

That window has two more yes/no buttons when a persistent storage area
is detected. Please try it. In that situation, I don't think « the
"Yes" and "No" buttons actually trigger the corresponding action »
works at all. Feel free to suggest something that does once you've
seen the whole thing :)

When we designed this UI (with tchou), our reasoning was that one
given user will probably repeat the exact same point'n'click sequence
every time s/he boots Tails; we wanted this sequence to be doable very
fast, even on a touchpad you're not comfortable with; therefore, we
wanted to avoid checkbox and radio widgets, that tend to be pretty
small and thus difficult targets for mouse / touchpad.

We've much screen estate to waste in this tails-greeter initial
screen, so we can afford using relatively big widgets that are hard to
miss with the mouse. So, we looked for inspiration in GNOME3 and
smartphone apps.

Smartphone UIs tend to use big buttons, including toggle buttons
(those that stay clicked / unclicked) like I did use.

GNOME3 uses more and more a new widget for such dual-state toggles:
the switch button; I wanted to use two big such switch buttons (one
for persistence, one for more options), but unfortunately, GTK2 has no
such widget. So, I kinda emulated it with pairs of two toggle buttons,
for the times until Tails is based on Wheezy.