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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: KOffice 2.2, usability and the Q4 sprint
From:       Inge Wallin <inge () lysator ! liu ! se>
Date:       2009-09-02 7:33:35
Message-ID: 200909020933.35837.inge () lysator ! liu ! se
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On Wednesday 02 September 2009 09:10:59 Jos van den Oever wrote:

> A good API and stable software without bugs is much more important than a
> nice and friendly UI. 

That is where we disagree.  Your point of view is a developers.  I'm trying to 
look at the users.

> A nice UI is no use if it renders and edits documents
> wrong.

That is wrong in two ways. First, you mix API with implementation.  The API 
can be crap but the implementation still correct or vice versa.  the 
correctness was never up for discussion until you brought it up here. Second a 
UI is frozen over a minor release, but errors in rendering can be fixed by 
bugfix releases. I agree that bugs are bad, but that doesn't have much to do 
with how the UI looks and works.

> Currently KOffice needs a lot of work on making sure that ODF and MS
> Office files are supported properly and to have a framework where we avoid
> regressions and can monitor progress. The current development model is
> fragile. We see regressions and crashes and do not have a good enough way
> of ensuring quality. I think quality monitoring is a topic more important
> than user interface or API, although discussing a good API and learning
> from the trolls how to make and maintain one will help a lot in ensuring
> quality.
>
> Focusing on UI design in the current state is disruptive. Once we have good
> library, it will be easier to design and even implement many UIs on top of
> it. This is not the time for working on the user interface. We are going to
> Oslo to be close to knowledgeable trolls. Let us make use of this
> opportunity. Flying everybody to Oslo is not cheap on expenses or the
> environment and flying in a  UI designer from across the ocean at time when
> we should be working on other parts of KOffice is not productive.

I maintain that not focusing on user interface now will make KOffice 2.2 not 
ready for end users.  Do you and Thomas thus advocate that we move the "user 
ready" stamp to 2.3? 

In the choice between making the API stable and getting end users, I would 
actually choose the end users. I think you put far too much faith in that a 
stable API will get us external developers.  The ones who work within KOffice 
will not be affected by if we move the freezing of the API's to 2.3, only 
external ones will.  More to the point, I think that if somebody develops an 
external shape and we do change the flake API, they can adapt pretty easily. 
An end user who tries out KOffice and finds it cumbersome to use will not be 
back soon.

	-Inge

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