[vlc-devel] commit: Qt4: remove proto combo from open net tab ( Rémi Denis -Courmont )

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

On Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:29:07 +0100, "Marian Ďurkovič" <md at bts.sk> wrote:
> Again, it *is* perfectly possible to type full URL into the Address field
> of Open Network tab in VLC-1.0.3, I'm doing that on daily basis. Perhaps
> it just isn't properly documented...

The question is not whether it was possible to put a URL in the address. It
was indeed possible, although caching did then not work properly. The
question is whether users understood how that worked. And we have
accumulated evidence over time that they did not. And considering the
layout of the dialog, I have to say even I sometimes wondered how it was
supposed to work. Contrary to me however, most users cannot read the source
code to figure the dialog semantics out.

Trying to do things differently from every other piece of software is
_confusing_. And it's a fact all of them use a single text field. If you
implement an auto-completion policy, go ahead. The point is that there
should be only one URL field, not three fields.

>> Your network is freaking broken if it requires users to enter IP 
>> address by hand ever. For the umpteenth time, we have playlists and 
>> SDP files (e.g. over HTTP), we have SAP, and you can also use HTML if 
>> you have proper URL scheme bindings.
> 
> Yes, and how is that going to help a user, which occasionaly wants to
> receive some RTP stream not being in the playlist?

A normal user would never do that.

-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont