G1, fun bug report
Oct. 30th, 2008 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mnemeThis isn't actually a G1 bug report, but one on k9, an alternative IMAP client forked off the G1's IMAP client (which is itself basically the same as the Gmail client, but slightly worse). That said, most of the issues are actually present in the stock G1 email applications as well.
I include it here because, well, it's funny.
[b]Bug: Sending accidentally far too easy, unrecoverable. When disconnected, even worse.[/b]
This is actually a multi-issue bug, and I'll submit the individual bits of Fail later, but I figured it was worth having an issue for the initial issue with the whole story.
While I was working on some non-fiction this morning (one of the things I use a mobile device for is writing fairly long things, and emailing them to myself for later work), I accidentally sent it. Three times.
The problem is, 10% of the screen when working on a draft is devoted to what I'm going to call "accidentally send the draft I'm working on" button. Why do I call it that? Because if I want to send a draft, I don't need to tap the "send" button; I can hit menu, then send (though the menu send should be the leftmost control; CC/BCC just isn't that important), or just hist menu-s. So any time I'm a bit casual about how I touch the screen, or put the damned thing down, I risk accidentally sending my message. Really, those three controls don't serve any purpose at all; they're duplicated with menu options and they take up valuable screen real estate, and really, they don't get used enough to be displayed.
So, what's worse than accidentally sending the mail you're working on? Well, not that much if you're sending it to yourself, right? Well...
First, you can't "resend" a sent message. This is a key feature; it lets you fix little problems like this, not to mention resend things that bounced, not to mention using sent messages as templates for future messages. But with a lot of work, you can reply to a sent message, then save the draft, then restore the draft see , then delete all the > jaggies (see bug #30), and you have your message back.
In fact, that's what I did the first two times I accidentally sent.
Of course, nothing could make it worse, right? Except...the third time I accidentally sent my mail, I was in a subway, underground. So what happened?
Well, I ended up with my nice draft sitting, not in the sent folder where I could go through the "reply to it" dance, but in the "Outbox" folder. Could I cancel sending and go back to my draft from the outbox? No. Could I treat my outbox message like a sent message and reply-to-dance with it? No, I couldn't. Was it going to move from my outbox while I was underground? Indeed, it was not going to do that, not until I had a good solid connection, as one is unlikely to have when undeground. Was I well and truly screwed? Yup. Did I get any more work done? No, I pulled out a book and read for the rest of my trip.
So our bugs, as documented above, are:
I include it here because, well, it's funny.
[b]Bug: Sending accidentally far too easy, unrecoverable. When disconnected, even worse.[/b]
This is actually a multi-issue bug, and I'll submit the individual bits of Fail later, but I figured it was worth having an issue for the initial issue with the whole story.
While I was working on some non-fiction this morning (one of the things I use a mobile device for is writing fairly long things, and emailing them to myself for later work), I accidentally sent it. Three times.
The problem is, 10% of the screen when working on a draft is devoted to what I'm going to call "accidentally send the draft I'm working on" button. Why do I call it that? Because if I want to send a draft, I don't need to tap the "send" button; I can hit menu, then send (though the menu send should be the leftmost control; CC/BCC just isn't that important), or just hist menu-s. So any time I'm a bit casual about how I touch the screen, or put the damned thing down, I risk accidentally sending my message. Really, those three controls don't serve any purpose at all; they're duplicated with menu options and they take up valuable screen real estate, and really, they don't get used enough to be displayed.
So, what's worse than accidentally sending the mail you're working on? Well, not that much if you're sending it to yourself, right? Well...
First, you can't "resend" a sent message. This is a key feature; it lets you fix little problems like this, not to mention resend things that bounced, not to mention using sent messages as templates for future messages. But with a lot of work, you can reply to a sent message, then save the draft, then restore the draft see , then delete all the > jaggies (see bug #30), and you have your message back.
In fact, that's what I did the first two times I accidentally sent.
Of course, nothing could make it worse, right? Except...the third time I accidentally sent my mail, I was in a subway, underground. So what happened?
Well, I ended up with my nice draft sitting, not in the sent folder where I could go through the "reply to it" dance, but in the "Outbox" folder. Could I cancel sending and go back to my draft from the outbox? No. Could I treat my outbox message like a sent message and reply-to-dance with it? No, I couldn't. Was it going to move from my outbox while I was underground? Indeed, it was not going to do that, not until I had a good solid connection, as one is unlikely to have when undeground. Was I well and truly screwed? Yup. Did I get any more work done? No, I pulled out a book and read for the rest of my trip.
So our bugs, as documented above, are:
- Accidental sends too easy. There's no reason to have Send/Save as Draft/Discard appearing in the edit screen at all, given that you can easily hotkey them and they're easy menu key buttons. Save as draft happens more or less automatically, whereas the others should never happen automaticlaly. (this issue)
- Sent messages cannot be resent.
- Outbox messages cannot be canceled and turned back into drafts again, even when disconnected.
- Outbox messages cannot be replied to/resent, either. Or even viewed. This is a mobile device.
While I'm at it, might as well throw in: - Drafts cannot be cancelled, reverting to the current state. This is a key feature, particularly since the G1 doesn't have undo yet.
