[drats_users] D-RATS BBS feature develompent

[Dan Smith]

Sorry for the delay... Things have been unbelievably busy at work.

> Oh Boy, did you leave the door open!

I know.  I cringed when I hit the send button :)

> 1. Chat Window - I realize that when this all first started IM type 
> chat was the centerpiece. I am not so sure this is the case any 
> longer. I don't think you can take it away as it shows all activity 
> and this is very important i.e. transfer status, ping requests, GPS 
> plots etc.

I definitely don't want to take it out.  Even if it wasn't used for
various bits of status reporting, I still think it's an important
feature to keep.

> 2. Stations - This tab has become the focal point for most tracking 
> and transfer operations. More emphasis should be placed on this 
> screen and the many functions that it provides. Also it would be very
>  nice to have some sort of notifier (if it were only a window box 
> somewhere on the screen) that would show when a new station comes 
> online. I assume the logic is there as the last seen column populates
>  when a new station comes up.

By "comes online" I assume you mean "sends a packet for the first time".
 We have, of course, no way of knowing who comes online and when that
happens.  Having the ability to get your attention when that happens
doesn't seem quite relevant to the discussion of redesigning the
interface as a whole, but it certainly pertains to other things that Leo
(and others) have said about getting notifications for various events.

> 3. Auto QST - This has always been somewhat of a controverted affair
>  as you have to bounce from screen to screen to build, enable and
> fire each one. Put it all in the same place.

yes, well, the QST manager was the second most interesting thing you
could see in the GUI back in the 0.1.3 timeframe.  That has clearly
changed :)

> 4. Form Manager - I agree with your assessment entirely. It needs to 
> become more of a message management tool.

I was thinking that perhaps we need a merged view for everything
relating to messaging and transfers in general.  Something like the
folder view of a mailer, but with some way to integrate files (both
incoming and outgoing) into the view.  Treating the forms like messages
and having folders (a la the standard mail client) is easy.  I'm not
entirely sure how to do that for files, exactly.

> 5. Map Window - Integrate this into the main application. Integrate 
> the stations tab into the Map window, Its already there in part, and 
> this would provide right click functionality from the map window.

I'm not sure I'm in favor of integrating it into the main window, unless
it's a docking sort of thing.  I don't actually look at the map all that
much and I don't want it taking up space unless I need it visible.

> 7. Support Link - Add a help menu item that would link to either the
>  DRATS Wikisite or DRATS users group.

Fine, fine, but that's not pertinent to the fundamental redesign discussion.

> 8. Add a show debug log menu item to the windows start menu for 
> recovering the previous debug log. This is needed when the system 
> crashes and finding the log always creates a headache for those that
> don't know where to look. This way they can just click on the show 
> debug log and email it to you if needed.

This too.

> 6. GPS Plotting and tracking 31%
> 1. Mapping set up and operation 26%
> 2. Email Gateway set up and operation 21%
> 3. File Transfer and misc utilities  10%
> 4. Forms 10% 
> 5. Auto QST and automated alerts 0%

This is very interesting data, indeed.  What is the difference between 6
and 1, by the way?

I would expect that from an ARES point of view (and my experience with
it), that File transfers and Forms are the most important features,
followed perhaps by the mapping stuff.  In our drills, we spend all of
our time exchanging forms and files.  I reconcile the relatively low
interest value above for these items by saying that they're mostly
self-explanatory and thus should not receive only 20% of of the total
effort in the UI redesign.  Do others agree?

My initial thought was to make the first (main) screen that comes up be
something like a mail client.  Messages, folders, and files would be the
prominent fixtures.  Via a menu option, you could open a chat window
and/or the map/stations window.  Alternately (or as an option) we could
have top-level tabs that encapsulate the major functions.  The nice
thing about that is that I can easily make the tab color change when
something needs to be addressed in a non-focused tab.

Any thoughts on that approach specifically?

-- 
Dan Smith
dsmith#danplanet.com, s/#/@/
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS