`Cannot save preferences' dialogue

[Vincent Untz]

Hi,

Le lundi 19 septembre 2005 à 14:15 +0100, Ian Jackson a écrit :
> I'm not very keen on this dialogue box:
> 
>   /!\  These windows do not support `save current setup' and will
>   ~~~  have to be restarted manually next time you log in.
> 
>    Title
>    ....
>                                                 [ X ]  Close

For those wondering (like me), Ian is talking about the dialog that pops
up when you log out from GNOME and choose "Save current session" while
there are some applications that don't correctly support session
management.

Also note that there's (at least) one bug open about this upstream:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=160712

> There are a number of things wrong with it:
> 
>  * Firstly, does the user really care ?  Usually, I would imagine that
>    attempting to save the window layout would be done on a best-effort
>    basis.

I think that he cares, yes. If he's used to having his windows restarted
at login and doesn't see one, he will feel it's a bug.

>  * Secondly, as the submitter of
>     http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=6860
>    points out, this stops the system from proceeding with the logout,
>    which is not ideal.  (Although there is a timeout of a few minutes
>    after which the dialogue disappears and logout proceeds anyway.)

The timeout should probably be changed to 30 seconds.

>  * Thirdly, if the setup really was important (eg, the user might be
>    trying to remember website locations by leaving the firefox windows
>    open) then a simple `[ X ] Close' is no good - you need to give the
>    user the option not to log out.

Agree.

> I think the best thing to do would be to get rid of this prompt
> entirely.  If it's felt that this makes the `save settings' questions
> too inaccurate, they could be renamed to `try to save settings' or
> `save settings where possible' or some such.

I'm not sure. The user will not know what will happen and will prefer to
not save settings then, making the option useles...

Vincent

-- 
Les gens heureux ne sont pas pressés.