[development] Early Drupal 6 review from Chris Messina

[Greg Knaddison]

On Nov 12, 2007 10:13 AM, Xavier Bestel <xavier.bestel at free.fr> wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-11-12 at 14:59 +0100, Gerhard Killesreiter wrote:
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> > Greg Knaddison schrieb:
> > > On Nov 12, 2007 6:10 AM, Xavier Bestel <xavier.bestel at free.fr> wrote:
> > >> Options should be:
> > >> - thrown away if useless (e.g. don't ask me to enable a feature, I
> > >>   have enabled the module already).
> > >> - detected automatically whenever possible (and thrown away).
> > >> - rationally grouped together when they must stay.
> > >
> > > How about one more option on that list:
> > >
> > > - Hidden, but configurable by admins
> > >
> > > I am quite embarrassed by the current pathauto admin settings page.[1]
> > >
> > > It is _insanely_ long.  But many people have begged to have those
> > > features added so I can't just drop features.
> >
> > IMO part of being a module maintainer is the task to say "no" to
> > requested features if they aren't generally useful.

Based on user feedback and my own feelings, these are useful features.

> Fully agreed with Earnie & you.
>
> Also Colin, remove the length settings, or make that hidden somewhere.
> That's a kind of setting I forgot: the "please don't fail" option.

By Colin I assume you mean Greg ;)

> You could also avoid the transliteration options, and always
> transliterate if you find the i18n-ascii.txt file.
>
> All the help stuff should be shown on mouseover or with a click.
>
> Just this should already make this settings page way narrower, without
> having to click everywhere to disclose fields.
>

I wasn't asking for specific feedback on that page (though I
appreciate it and will include much of it).

I was asking for feedback on an idea and providing an example to help
people understand the idea.

Earnie responded to the idea and said:
> I think the variable editor idea is a bit on the dangerous side.  Too
> prone to errors for the majority of those using it (I want to say 75%
> but I have no statistics).  While good experienced administrators could
> benefit from it; the inexperienced may well flood the lists.

I agree, but the target user of the variable editor is an advanced
admin.  The goal is to only put options there that are both uncommonly
changed and useful only to admin users.  It is how Firefox (one of the
few OSS UI Simplicity success stories) balances this problem.

Thanks,
Greg

-- 
Greg Knaddison
Denver, CO | http://knaddison.com
World Spanish Tour | http://wanderlusting.org/user/greg