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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: KDE not ready for the desktop
From:       Henrique Pinto <stampede () uai ! com ! br>
Date:       2003-11-21 14:24:39
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On Thursday 20 November 2003 23:03, Gérard Delafond wrote:
> Hi !
>
> As an old KDE user, I am sad to say KDE is NOT ready for the desktop.
>
> Of course, KDE has many nice features : I love Konqueror, Kcontrol,
> Konsole, KMail, K3B, KStars, and many others.
>
> But what does Joe Desktop User need ? the ability to send and receive
> faxes easily. and I must say KDE is in a sorry state about faxes.

Interestingly enough, we have fax machines in Brazil.
Sending faxes through computers is not something normal here (and in other 
parts of the world, I believe). The average "Joe Desktop User" never uses 
faxes. It was superseeded by e-mail messages and other kind of modern data 
transmission techniques.

Having to be configured in order to be able to send fax does not mean that 
KDE is not ready for the desktop. I can show you more than 500 happy 
desktop users of KDE if you could go to Brazil, where I live.

While I agree with you that there might be space for easier fax 
configuration in KGX systems, I believe your claim that "KDE is not ready 
for the desktop" was near to stupid.

> What are the problems ?
> First, you must install a fax server (hylafax or efax).
> I don't know where the programmers found so complicated settings.
> Especially for hylafax. When you make your configuration (text mode only
> :-( ), your are prompted for about one hundred silly questions. Anybody
> knows you cannot send faxes without ansqering to hundreds of questions.
> Once you have answered to all these questions, you are prompted another
> time to configure the modem. And guess what ? It is the same questions.
> Of course, you have absolutely no help. When you give /dev/ttyS0, one
> tells you that / dev/dev/ttyS0 is not found. So, you give ttyS0 alone.
> This time, it is accepted. Don't be happy, it won't work. Because ttyS0
> is a link to tts/0. And symlinks do not work. And nobody tells it to
> you.
>
> Now, your server is configured.
>
> Let's try to receive a fax. You must launch a command somewhere. The
> best is in a start file.

I believe you should talk to the relevant people (the hylafax developers) 
about the above problems.

You might be interested in writing another config wizard yourself, maybe 
KDE-integrated. I don't believe people won't like that. Anyway, from 
reading what you wrote I believe that there's space for improvements in 
hylafax, contact the right people and consider helping them.

> OK, the faxes come in. How will I read them ? Easy, just use kfax. Wrong
> ! The faxes can be read only by root !
> What is the good way ? tell to hylafax to send a copy of the faxes to
> your Mail account. Of course, you need a configured postfix program.
> Everybody knows Joe User can configure and launch a postfix program.

This sounds like a configuration issue. If not, you may be interested in 
asking the hylafax developers to make that easier.

> Then, you will read your faxes in KMail (in fact, you will only know you
> have a fax. To read it, you will click on the attachment)
> One more detail : if your fax is upside-down, it must have several
> pages. If it has only one, the postscript viewer fails turning it the
> right way.

Open a bug report about this, and consider attaching a testcase to it.

> How will I be warned I have received a fax ? Easy, I just need to
> configure Korn. Just hope it won't forget its settings at every startup.
>
> Well, let's suppose you can receive faxes. Probably you will want to
> send some.
> Let's begin with the easy case : you want to send an existing document.
> You launch KPrinter, choose fax, click on configure, and then you give
> your name as the sender : "Mr Joe". Dummy ! It won't work. No space
> allowed in the sender field (of course, no indication, no warning,
> nothing to prevent you to write the wrong thing, you will discover your
> mistake reading your log file when the fax sending will fail).

Again, a bug. Open a bug report about this.


> OK, let's admit you managed to configure your system to send faxes with
> KDE system.
> Now, you want to send a paper document. You open your scanner, you
> launch kooka, and you find no "send fax" button.
> So, you scan your paper (which option should I choose ? lineart ?, gray
> ?, which resolution ?) then, click on Print, then choose Fax, and here
> you go... The fax is horrible. If you choosed lineart, the fax is black
> and white, but the black is surrounded with a sort of blur. Impossible
> to read any thin detail.
> It could be worse. You could have choosen "grey". Your fax would be like
> on a thin grid. With good eyes and imagination, you will perhaps be able
> to read some big titles.

A "send fax" button is not something most people would use. The current 
scheme is nice, isn't it? I can't find a better place for sending faxes 
than the print dialog. (And, please, don't ask for a toolbar button. 
People already complain that toolbars are too clutered.)

> You can see sending faxes with your KGX box seems a bit tricky.
>
> What should be done to solve this ?
> -Add a graphical frontend to configure the faxserver. This frontend
> should explain what the settings are for and take care you don't make
> mistakes in the syntax
> -Add a system to warn the user when a fax arrives. This system should
> lead you to a place where you can read your faxes, with a viewer which
> works. -Add some features to KOOKA to AUTOMATICALLY make copies or send
> faxes. With the good settings. And with 1 or 2 clicks, no more.

We'll be more than happy to see your work into making your proposals a 
reality. When should we expect them implemented?

> I think when KDE will be able to do what any computer running another
> system has been able to do for 10 years, KDE will be ready for the
> desktop (and probably be the best desktop environment) !

KDE is the best desktop environment for years. It was already great at 1.x 
times, 2.x made it the best DE you will ever see.

- -- 
	Henrique Pinto
	stampede@uai.com.br
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