[Pan-devel] Re: Regex Filters

[Duncan]

Jack Cuyler <address@hidden> posted
address@hidden, excerpted below, on  Fri, 23 May 2008 03:16:37
+0000:

> I've attached an updated patch to Bug 351196 – "Wildcard support in the
> group search box".  This patch allows regex searches/filters in the
> header pane as well as the group pane.  It also adds an option to the
> preferences menu to enable regex filtering by default.
> 
> As this is my first real patch submitted anywhere, so I'd love feedback.
> 
> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=351196

I like the idea.  The only doubt I have is that both GNOME in general and 
Charles in particular, prefer to minimize the number of config options in 
ordered to not confuse the newbie user.  (Fortunately for this power 
user, Charles isn't quite as extreme about it as GNOME often is, likely 
the reason this normally KDE user is still using pan.  IMO, of course.)  
For the same reason Charles expressed doubts about regex by default for 
the newbie user, I think he may be hesitant about this.

The solution he has used for a number of such more "power user" options 
is to have a setting for them in the config file (preferences.xml, for 
global prefs like this), but NOT put them in the GUI.  Make the config 
file variable name self-documenting, so people editing it know its type 
and what it does, make sure it saves and restores the file setting 
correctly (and gracefully deals with botched configs, tho I've not tested 
that so I have no idea if pan does so in general), and leave it at that.  
Actually, I'd suggest that you supply a patch with the GUI setting and 
without it, making it easy for Charles to choose which he wants.  I'd 
expect that to increase the likelihood of the patch getting applied, when 
he focuses on pan development again.


Talking about saving and restoring the option from the config file...  
I'm not really a coder and therefore not particularly familiar with pan 
or indeed C++ code, tho I can usually make some sense of it if I have to 
or from a sysadmin perspective, but nothing in the patch leapt out at me 
as dealing with saving the preference and restoring it.  If it's dealt 
with, mention which lines (and in particular which lines deal with the 
name it'll use in the config file, since that's what I was really looking 
for), and you'll help me understand pan better too. =8^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman