[Pan-users] [.97] Some usability issues

[Jeff Berman]

Hi, this is my first bug report/feature request, so hopefully this
is the right place to do this.  And to all the developers who have
put so much into pan, thank you for all your hard work!  I love
using pan, and the new version in April was an amazing surprise.

So here are some things I've experienced with pan .97:

1) pan forgets which column each newsgroup is supposed to be sorted
by.  If I enter a group and sort it by Subject (by clicking on the
heading "Subject"), then the next time I enter the group it reverts
to being sorted by Date.

2) It might be me, but the direction of the sort direction arrow
seems to be backwards.  When sorting Subjects from A to Z, I would
think the arrow would denote this by pointing up, but instead it
points down.

3) When selecting a group with pan 0.14.2, focus would shift to the
header pane, but with 0.97 it stays on the group pane.  It would be
nice to regain the ability to click (or select by typing 'G') on a
group and then immediately use keyboard strokes to manipulate
articles.

4) At the top of the body pane is an area that shows Subject, From,
and Date.  Clicking on this area collapses/expands it.  However,
pan forgets the preference after restarting.

5) It would be wonderful to bring back the "Delete Group's
Articles" context menu when clicking on a group name.  Maybe I use
pan differently than some, but after exiting a group I'll sometimes
(not always) delete all its articles.  The only way I've found to
do this in 0.97 is by selecting all articles and deleting them.

6) pan 0.97 indicates already-read articles by changing its icon
from a closed envelope to an open one, or by turning the green icon
to grey.  For me, it seemed far easier to spot unread articles when
the whole header line was greyed out.  That method also made unread
articles detectable when the header pane was scrolled such that
those icons were no longer on the screen.

7) When loading headers in, pan now periodically refreshes the
header pane.  I can see how some might prefer this, but it can also
be disturbing.  Perhaps this live update could become a preference?

8) In the header pane, it appears that the left/right arrow keys
will scroll the view horizontally.  For some reason, however, it
takes a few key presses before the scrolling starts.

9) It also appears that in the header pane, pressing shift +
left/right arrow will expand/collapse a thread.  If it's agreed
that expanding a thread occurs more often than scrolling headers
right and left, perhaps these keys could be switched so that the
left/right arrows manipulate nested threads and shift + arrows
scroll left and right.

Well, that's it for now.  Please let me know if this is the wrong
place to give feedback.  And thanks everyone for such an awesome
job!

Jeff

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