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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Use of library names (Akonadi, Solid, Nepomuk,
From:       "Dotan Cohen" <dotancohen () gmail ! com>
Date:       2008-06-07 19:28:08
Message-ID: 880dece00806071228s28377722v5ce54c02420ecaed () mail ! gmail ! com
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2008/6/7 Robert Knight <robertknight@gmail.com>:
> The discussion about names is a very well trodden one and I am not
> interested in digging up the extensive debates of the past.
>
> What I do want to emphasize is that it should be possible to perform
> the tasks supported by something like Akonadi or Nepomuk without
> needing to know what the daemon/library is called.
>
> For example, if I want to backup or restore contact information, I
> think it is not helpful if the tool to do that is called "Akonadi Tray
> Utility".

I very much agree with these three paragraphs.

>> Something descriptive for Akonadi would have like 100 words, not a good idea.
>
> If the purpose of an end-user tool requires 100 words to describe then
> that reveals a somewhat more serious problem.  "Akonadi" itself can be
> used for a lot of different things but there is no need for the
> applications which use it to follow the underlying architecture.
>
> Take the Backup and Restore of contact information for example.  You
> could implement that in two ways:
>
> - Create an "Akonadi tool" which does everything related to Akonadi,
> one feature of which is backup and restore
> - Create a "Backup tool" which helps users to backup/restore/migrate
> all of their important information such as settings, personal
> information and files.  The backup tool would use Akonadi to do the
> PIM part of its remit and other libraries to deal with settings, files
> etc.
>
> The difference here is that the first approach is basically putting a
> pretty dress on the implementation.  The second approach looks at the
> problem from the users' perspective and groups functionality
> accordingly.

Thank you for that insight, Robert. You make the point of designing
the UI around the user, not around the underlying libraries. I know
that many users wish that more devs saw the situation as you do.

Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il
א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-� -ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
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