Re: [Pan-devel] Pan 0.92... my first impressions

[Charles Kerr]

> This is a collection of scribbled thoughts. They aren't meant as
> criticisms... just first impressions after using the old-style pan for so
> long.

No problem.  It's a very useful letter. :)

> I prefer the old style:
>
> +------------+-------------+
> |  GROUPS    | HEADERS     |
> +------------+-------------+
> |                          |
> |                          |
> |       ARTICLE            |
> |                          |
> +--------------------------+

This will be back, along with some other preferences, in 0.93.  I was
working on this yesterday but it wasn't ready for this week's drop.

> I also like to  use very small fonts in the groups and article panes.

Okay, I've added this to the wishlist for the preferences dialog.

> For some reason the group name seem to be in abbreviated form (r.a.tv for
> rec.arts.tv) by default when I started it up. Assuming that's the default
> choice, it seems like a bad idea as it's going to confuse newbies.

You're probably right.  I'll turn this off by default.

> I prefer my groups to open expanded rather than with the tree
> hiding most of the posts. There's no option to set this.

Okay, I've added this to the wishlist for the preferences dialog.

> My old score file seems to cause it to crash. I've tracked it down to a
> problem with entries using "Xref:". I noticed that someone else mentioned
> this, so I'll leave it for now.

I fixed an Xref scorefile crasher for 0.92 -- if it's still crashing,
that's important!  Please post the relevant section of ~/News/Score
and/or a backtrace from gdb -- please post the relevant section of
~/News/Score!

> Right clicking on a group no longer has an option of "More download
> options". I used to use this a lot.

It's still there, but tersened to "Get Headers...".

> Posting is buried away on a sub-menu Actions->Posting->Post. I doesn't
> bother me particularly since it's also available by hitting "P", but
> anyone getting started doesn't know that. It seems a bit odd to have so
> central a function on a sub-menu.

*sigh* yes and no.  0.14.x shied away from submenus, so its primary menus
were l-o-o-o-n-g.  I still don't like submenus, but they do help tidy up
large command sets.  Besides, 'post' and 'followup' are the first two icons
on the toolbar, which is where someone getting started would probably look.
Also of the six menu items File, Edit, View, Go, Actions, and Help, anyone
wanting to post will probably explore "Actions" first.

> I haven't got much further, since the XREF: crash makes it unusable at the
> moment (I use the Xref a lot for killing stuff crossposted from politics
> groups).

Yeah, please do suppply your Scorefile or a backtrace via

% gdb pan
(gdb) r
crash!
(gdb) bt

cheers,
Charles