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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: About boxes
From:       Stephan Kulow <coolo () alpha ! tat ! physik ! uni-tuebingen ! de>
Date:       1999-04-22 19:58:28
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David Sweet wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 22 Apr 1999, Mario Weilguni wrote:
> >Am Thu, 22 Apr 1999 schrieb Andreas Pour:
> >>Waldo Bastian wrote:
> >>
> >>> David Sweet wrote:
> >>> >
> >>> > Since "About boxes" have come up, here's my two cents.  I'd like to see About
> >>> > boxes:
> >>> >         1) tell what the application does.  This could be so helpful for new
> >>> > users sitting down to a desktop with a bunch of applications.  Sometimes users
> >>> > don't know enough about computing terms and history to know, for example, that
> >>> > "kghostview" is used to view/preview files that were made to be sent to a
> >>> > printer.
> >>> >         2) have an active mailto: link (KURLLabel?) to send mail to
> >>> > maintainers.  Besides being convenient, it seems almost unnatural to me theses
> >>> > days to be presented with an email address and not be able to click on it (or
> >>> > even cut and paste it!)  An active link to the home page would be nice, too.
> >>
> >>On the mail-to think, I hope we can improve on the current situation.  Currently,
> >>authors/maintainers put their personal e-mail address on the "mail to" links.  What
> >>happens when someone uses that software in 2 years, or maybe in 5 years, and that
> >>e-mail address is no longer valid (which is very likely the case; I mean in KDE's
> >>short history look how often basic programs have changed maintainers)?
> >>
> >>In short, the problem with links is they become dead quite easily, yet if you
> >>hardcode them into an application there they are, they cannot be changed.
> >>
> >>Perhaps a smarter approach is to use a stable e-mail address that will be around for
> >>a while, such as "applications@kde.org", and have the About box URL provide a
> >>subject line (the name of the application and a note to the user not to change the
> >>subject line); then on the KDE side the mail server would filter the mail and
> >>forward them to the *current* maintainer of the named application.
> >>
> >>Perhaps at the start this sounds not so good to a developer, who is thinking, I want
> >>to get my mail directly!  But, on the other hand, after you stop developing, do you
> >>still want to be getting bug reports in 3 years?
> >
> >Ok, but why not simple use an alias?
> >E.g. kppp-maintainer@kde.org
> >Only one line in /etc/alias. No need to fiddle around with the subject line.
> >
> >Ciao,
> >       Mario
> 
> I like this idea.  The alias list could be generated (for the most part) from
> bugs.kde.org's database, couldn't it?
> 
BTW: There were a ksm database rolling, haven't heard from it after 90%
of the
work was done. Unfortunatly I forgot who's done it ;( (holidays make me
forget,
which is a good thing I guess ;)

Could the one please speek up? 

Greetings, Stephan

-- 
Und sie nannten ihn, wie er selbst unterschrieb -
Den Trojanischen Pferdedieb

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