[mythtv] RFE: conditional UI settings presentation

Jeremiah Morris jm at whpress.com
Thu Sep 9 11:50:52 EDT 2004


As the new mythui library will be a big post-0.16 push, I wanted to 
bring up something that I feel is lacking in the current presentation.  
All of the settings are present, even when they are inappropriate.   In 
some cases, it is known at compile time that the settings can never be 
used.  I would like to see these options hidden or removed when they 
are irrelevant to the user's situation.

The UI decision can take place either at compile time or at run time.  
An example is the screen for PVR-350 options.  If the ivtv config flag 
is disabled, then Myth knows at compile time that I will never use a 
PVR-350.  It doesn't even have to build that code.  If ivtv is enabled, 
I still may not have a PVR-350 installed; at run time, it could execute 
a check for the required hardware, and skip the screen if a 350 is not 
found.  Ultimately, I'd like to see both types of checks in place, 
although the compile-time decision is much more straightforward and 
would be a big help by itself.

As the audience for MythTV grows and its capabilities become more 
fragmented, this will become more important.  The dynamic menu 
structure (based on which plugins are loaded) is a good start, but 
applying this principle at a finer level will lead to less user 
confusion.  I find myself toggling settings that do nothing on my 
setup; the situation is worse on Windows and OS X, where hardware 
abstraction makes many of the choices meaningless.

I've spent very little time in the UI code, so if you've already 
thought about this, well, I'm glad.  :)  I know it makes a tough job 
tougher, but I hope that a future release of Myth will only ask the 
user when there's really a decision to be made.

- Jeremiah



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