[Adium-devl] Connect/Disconnect Enable/Disable etc.

[Chris Forsythe]

Agreed, Evan's bullet pointed (bullet points make me happy and able to 
read fast!) solution is the better route here.


disposable at infinitenexus.com wrote:

> Adding 2 separate preferences to allow fine-grain control such as 
> described would complicate matters for the 'average' user. The 
> experience for these users can't be allowed to deteriorate for the 
> benefit of the 'power' user. The solution needs to address the need 
> for control over auto-connect while preserving some of the simplicity 
> of the current enable/disable setup. 
>
> On Jul 27, 2006, at 6:02 PM, Greg Smith wrote:
>
>> Hello, I think this is my first post to the message boards, although 
>> I've been reading them for a long long time.  This issue really made 
>> some good ideas pop into my head.  Hope this helps:
>>
>>
>> There should be a per-account preference for autoconnect.  Accounts 
>> which are set to autoconnect will autoconnect at startup.
>>
>> There should be another per-account preference to "react to gloabl 
>> status changes".  If this is preference is checked, then it enables 
>> another checkbox "allow status change to bring account online".
>>
>> With 1 or more accounts online - 
>> Changing the global status will change the status of any accounts 
>> which have the "react to global status changes" pref set.  If and 
>> only if an account also has "allow status to bring account online" 
>> will the account be brought online for the status change.
>>
>> With no accounts online -
>> Changing global status will bring online the account which both 
>> autoconnect and react to global status changes.  "Allow status change 
>> to bring account online" will be ignored online.
>>
>> This somewhat changes/removes the concept of enabled/disabled 
>> accounts.  I think that all I've said above should apply to "enabled" 
>> accounts, and disabled accounts should not be allowed to auto connect 
>> or react to global status changes or even be brought online at all 
>> for that matter.
>>
>> Bringing a disabled account online should enable it and prompt the 
>> user to set the autoconnect and react to global status preferences to 
>> make the aware of the behavior they will be getting.
>>
>> New accounts should both auto connect and react to global status and 
>> allow status to bring account online all on by default.
>>
>> I believe that this setup or a siimilar setup would create by default 
>> a system which behaves mostly like 1.0b7, but allows for enough 
>> customization that it allows for all of the missing functionality of 
>> 0.8x to be achieved.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jul 27, 2006, at 13:46, Evan Schoenberg wrote:
>>
>>> So it seems like the single biggest complaint, and it's been a 
>>> fairly common one, we've gotten about the 1.0 betas has to do with 
>>> the changed connect/disconnect enable/disable behavior.
>>>
>>> Adium 0.8x behavior:
>>>  * Autoconnect at startup if and only if 'autoconnect' is checked, 
>>> within the account's preferences
>>>  * With one or more accounts online, changing the global status 
>>> changes only the online accounts
>>>  * With no accounts online, changing the global status brings, 
>>> well, a fairly random selection of accounts online
>>>  * No ability to disable accounts
>>>
>>> Adium 1.0b7 behavior:
>>>  * Autoconnect all enabled accounts when starting up
>>>  * Changing the global status brings all enabled accounts into the 
>>> specified state, taking them online if necessary
>>>  * Disabled accounts are never affected by global status changes.  
>>> Changing a disable account to any online state both enables it and 
>>> brings it online
>>>  * Enabling a disabled account brings it online (in the current 
>>> global status)
>>>  * Disabling an enabled accounts takes it offline
>>>
>>> I feel like we've seen a fair number of useage cases that are actual 
>>> arguments for some compromise between the two (versus just people 
>>> being used to the old way of doing things).  The fact that we've 
>>> started resorted to telling people to hold shift while starting up 
>>> Adium to avoid autoconnect as a "solution" also makes me think we 
>>> should reevaluate this... nothing that subtle should ever be a 
>>> serious solution to a problem.
>>>
>>> Proposal:
>>>  * Bring back autoconnect as a per-account preference.  Newly added 
>>> accounts default to autoconnecting.
>>>  * When starting up, autoconnect all accounts which are 
>>> *both* (autoconnect == TRUE) and (enabled == TRUE)
>>>  * With one or more accounts online, changing the global status 
>>> changes only the online accounts
>>>  * With no accounts online, changing the global status... here's the 
>>> tricky part.
>>> * If multiple accounts were last taken offline simultaneously by 
>>> selecting the global Offline status, reconnect just those accounts
>>> * If only one account was previously online, reconnect just that 
>>> account.
>>>
>>> Thoughts?
>>>
>>> -Evan
>>