Here are some things that might be improved in system-config-printer, ui-wise: 1. Setting default printer: This overlaps somewhat with the quick-and-dirty my-default-printer. Is my-default-printer still needed ? If we want to keep it, it would be nice if it was closer to the s-c-p representation of the printer list... Coming back to s-c-p itself, the "Set Default Printer" dialog feels somewhat overcomplicated by the fact that it crams system-wide and personal default into one dialog. It would probably be nicer to make this just about system-wide default, and leave personal default to my-default-printer. When the authentication dialog (that comes up for setting system-wide default) is canceled, I get a warning dialog about the password being incorrect. Thats not nice. When I cancel an action, I don't want to be bothered with a warning that makes it appear as if the action was tried anyway. When I actually enter a wrong password, I don't get this warning, and instead the authentication dialog stays up, without a clear hint that the password was wrong. 2. Printer Properties: The "Change..." buttons for the device uri and make and model fields both start long-running search operations and bring up a "Please wait" popup. It would be slightly nicer to do this without a popup dialog, e.g. by using a wait cursor and a statusbar that explains the operation. And more importantly, it should be possible to cancel this long-running operation. On the Policies page, there are several combos that are filled with ipp strings. Those should be replaced with translated, human-readable names instead. GTK+ has translations for some of these, e.g. for the banners. On the "Printer Options page, the horizontal scrollbar is really awful. 3. Server settings The "Advanced..." button for bringing up a secondary dialog is awkward. I suggest turning this into Basic/Advanced tabs in a single dialog. The "Problems" link button has an empty tooltip. The separator between the dialog content and the action area looks very outdated nowadays, and should be removed.
Thanks for your feedback. (In reply to comment #0) > Here are some things that might be improved in system-config-printer, ui-wise: > > 1. Setting default printer: > > This overlaps somewhat with the quick-and-dirty my-default-printer. Is > my-default-printer still needed ? It isn't, no. It was added because people seem to get quite confused about why the default printer they set isn't the default printer that system-config-printer shows. I wanted to make the interaction between the system default and the user default clearer. > It would probably be nicer to make this just about system-wide > default, and leave personal default to my-default-printer. That approach causes the confusion I wanted to clear up by putting both types of default into the same dialog. > When the authentication dialog (that comes up for setting system-wide default) > is canceled, I get a warning dialog about the password being incorrect. Thats > not nice. When I cancel an action, I don't want to be bothered with a warning > that makes it appear as if the action was tried anyway. Fixed upstream. > When I actually enter a > wrong password, I don't get this warning, and instead the authentication dialog > stays up, without a clear hint that the password was wrong. Fixed upstream. > 2. Printer Properties: > > The "Change..." buttons for the device uri and make and model fields both start > long-running search operations and bring up a "Please wait" popup. It would be > slightly nicer to do this without a popup dialog, e.g. by using a wait cursor > and a statusbar that explains the operation. And more importantly, it should be > possible to cancel this long-running operation. Yes, indeed. Filed as trac ticket #102. > On the Policies page, there are several combos that are filled with ipp > strings. Those should be replaced with translated, human-readable names > instead. GTK+ has translations for some of these, e.g. for the banners. Filed as trac ticket #103. The string freeze prevents this fix going in right now. > On the "Printer Options page, the horizontal scrollbar is really awful. Unfortunately some of the common foomatic option names are quite lengthy but I can't seem to get them to wrap. Any ideas? > The "Advanced..." button for bringing up a secondary dialog is awkward. I > suggest turning this into Basic/Advanced tabs in a single dialog. Yes. The reason for doing it as two dialogs is that two different mechanisms are used, but there's no reason this can't be hidden and a single dialog made. Filed as trac ticket #104. > The "Problems" link button has an empty tooltip. Fixed upstream. > The separator between the dialog > content and the action area looks very outdated nowadays, and should be > removed. Fixed upstream.