[mythtv-users] Re: Re: Cannot set a recording

[Michael J. Sherman]

 >> Open source software is continually dinged on the lack of usable
 >> interfaces; why not buck that trend and use standard/simple interface
 >> styles? If I showed this "new" and "improved" recording options >screen
 >> to a non-technical person, their head would explode. I guess I could
 >> explain how the new options screen is not using QT widgets and it's
 >> themeable, and then I'm sure they would understand.
 >
 >
 >Other than the lack of a visual indicator to show you left/right how
 >is it prone to make someone's head explode?


Because you're mixing interface styles; that is why.  A list box should 
be a list of options, and you can choose one.  But now there are 
buttons, submenus, and menu headers mixed into a listbox.  Anyone who 
has taken a class in HCI (human computer interaction) would mock this 
screen all day long.

I'm trying to think as a new user of Myth.  Setting a recording should 
be the number one thing I want to do as a user of MythTV.  So, this one 
screen, I believe, is the most important screen in the entire MythTV 
interface.

If I want to record, I should be able to with minimal button presses. 
So I bring up the program grid, hit enter.  Then I should be able to see 
my recording options, and hit enter once again to make it record.

I would propose a screen that looks like this:



------------------------------
|
|  Program info stuff goes here
|
------------------------------

------------------------------
| Do not record
| Record only this showing
| Record this every week
| Record this every day
| Record any time on this channel
| Record any time
| Advanced Options ->
------------------------------


That way, I can get in there, hit down once, and hit enter, and boom, 
I'm set to record.  In the Advanced Options selection, it would bring up 
another screen with Scheduling Options, Storage Options, Program 
Details, and List Upcoming Episodes.

Right now, when I go to the program grid, I hit enter.  My first option 
is "Record this program as shown", but it's greyed out!  I can hit down, 
but then I cannot hit up to get back up to where it came in.  I know, I 
then have to hit left/right on Option #2, but why is this first option 
even there with my selection bar on it when I come in?  As a new user, 
if I hit enter from the program grid, I would want to then select 
"record this program as shown".   The wording suggests that is the 
option I want (I want to record it, after all).  This first option in 
the list box should be a button element on the screen.  You set your 
recording options, then hit this button to set it to record.  The 
"button" should not be listbox option #1.  Also, why is there a [Cancel] 
button when I can hit escape?  Other screens in Myth do not have a 
cancel button.

The way it is now with the left/right, I do not know all my options 
until I scroll through them all.  With what I propose above (which is 
how it used to be), I could see all my options at a glance, which is 
what a listbox widget is supposed to do in the first place.

If you want to use the left/right style, all I ask is that it not be 
wrapped up into a listbox widget.  That is, I think, what is 
fundamentally broken about this new style.