[mythtv-commits] Ticket #10824: Modal dialog box prevents viewing of recorded programs

[MythTV]

#10824: Modal dialog box prevents viewing of recorded programs
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     Reporter:  ewilde@…                         |      Owner:  stuartm
         Type:  Bug Report - General             |     Status:  new
     Priority:  minor                            |  Milestone:  unknown
    Component:  MythTV - User Interface Library  |    Version:  0.25
     Severity:  medium                           |   Keywords:
Ticket locked:  0                                |
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 On MythTV 0.25, when a system error of some sort occurs, a modal dialog
 box is popped up asking user whether they want to submit a bug report.

 This new behavior is admirable and certainly the best way to gather the
 information necessary to make MythTV more robust.  However, the approach
 taken is wrong.

 The modal dialog box can only be dismissed by a click with the mouse or
 selecting the button with the keyboard.  Now, picture a real user trying
 to watch a recorded program.  They don't have a mouse or a keyboard.  They
 have a remote control which has no effect on the modal dialog box.  Even
 if they do have a mouse, the  mouse pointer is invisible since the
 frontend app covers most of the desktop and it has hidden the mouse
 pointer.  They are not Linux hackers so for all intents and purposes they
 have no way of answering the question or dismissing the dialog box.
 Probably the MythTV frontend keeps running, under the dialog box, and even
 responds to the remote (since the LIRC process knows nothing about the
 focus).  Thus, they are trying to watch a recording with a dialog box,
 that they can't dismiss, popped up in the middle of the screen.

 Popping up anything on top of the MythTV frontend application is to be
 avoided at all costs.  The proper way to handle this feature is to ask the
 installer once, when the system is installed or set up, on a settings menu
 page, whether they want bug reports submitted or not.  Then, when the
 critical system error, or whatever else requires a bug report, happens,
 the decision is already made and it can be carried out in the background
 without the user ever even needing to know a thing.

 One might think that usability problems such as this are trivial, not even
 worth reporting.  But, usability is what its all about.  MythTV is mostly
 a product that is supposed to record TV and let the user watch the
 recordings.  If it doesn't do either of those two things flawlessly, its
 basically junk.  The proper way to think about it is not as a Linux Box
 that happens to record TV but as a TV recorder that happens to run Linux.
 Considering usability problems will help to change this mindset and make
 MythTV a much, much better product.

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Ticket URL: <http://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/10824>
MythTV <http://code.mythtv.org/trac>
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