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List:       kde-pim
Subject:    Re: - Project Status report -
From:       Don Sanders <dsanders () cch ! com ! au>
Date:       1999-07-13 8:18:41
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On Tue, 13 Jul 1999, Mirko Sucker wrote:
>Rik
>>      -------- Addressbook UI ------------
>>      It looks like we're pretty much agreed that the kab UI is pants and
>> should be
>> 
>>      replaced in some way.
> 
> This is simply not true. It depends on how you look at it. You want to
> design a program like outlook, that integrates nearly all ideas of
> self-organization. kab is suited as a small, fast and nevertheless powerful
> tool to have your contacts on the desktop. For this goal, its user
> interface is fitting well If you want to have a different user-interface
> to kab, you should have a look at the kab application (not the library).
> It shows that the complete user > interface is  only an application of the
> kabapi. 
> So, if you want a new GUI for the addressbook, simply create a new
> application
> and link it libkab (but see the notes on libkab below).
I am looking at it two different ways.
1) Is from the perspective of the mail client.
Here the kab GUI falls down because the initial tab for entering details
doesn't let me enter both name and e-mail address.

It also falls down because an e-mail client needs a GUI for selecting e-mail
addresses. An incrementally searchable list of addresses is useful here
(although I could imagine a bookmarks like pulldown menu of address
folders/entries also being nice).

2) The Pim perspective.
Outlook provides mutliple address book views (including the nice default layout
of mutliple editable cards) all of which resize well, unlike the kab GUI which
uses the same window for both the address book browser and the address book
editor.

I prefer the Outlook GUI for entering new address book entries. It allows many
fields to be entered without being overly complicated. It is also powerful as
it allows custom fields to be (easily) entered.

>>      ------- Addressbook backend --------
> OK, now the most interesting part: What are the current design goals for
> a new kab?
Well let's remember we are interested in other types of information besides
address book info. (Calendar, e-mail, todo list, notes). The PIM needs a unified
API for accessing this information, like MS's CDO, (did you see the recent
message I posted on this?)

Also there is a need for an API that manages different processes (possibly on
different machines, though that can be optional for an implementaiton to
handle) accessing the same information. 

<cut>
>    * We have to distinguish between the user interface, the internal API
> and the database backends (definitly, or you will see no apps that support
> it).
I fully agree with this. I also think that we can benefit from a simple text
based address book implemenation, like what Rik has been working towards.
Though this may still require Corba to work well.

> What has to be discussed is whether the DatabaseInterface class and the
> AddressBook::Entry class should be CORBA objects.
I would say yes if I knew how to do it. (The first who says yes volunteers to do
some Corba programming methinks :-)

BFN,
Don.

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