The first comment I have on the tasklist is that there is much to work

on, because some things are still full of bugs and they need handling.

It would be usefull if some tasks would be shared amonst us. 



I don't mind making user interfaces and intelligent installers that's

exactly the work for me, but if you hand me over something like the MS

DOS command line, things are likely to get a multiple-pipe and

too-complicated aftertaste that is to typical of me (and is very likely

to crack when one of the members is not what it should be; as seen with

the Windows incompatibility issue). This is because I solve the

unsolvable by recombining anything I have knowledge of, so if there is a

trick I'm unaware of, I'll invent my own that might not be as briliant,

but will do for the situation.





The second issue would be if we would want to serve the hexmaniac

comunity or the average Joe comunity. You, Neil, seem to be saying that

we should serve the average Joe comunitiy and then the hexmaniacs will

simply have to go along to get along, while Harold obviously wants to

make us make it hexmaniac compatible. I know what the keyhack aspect is

about (means: transmitting commands faster than the computer can handle

them), I commonly practice it while coding (Alt+F,S or

Shift+Control+End, Shift+Del...), personaly love it and am not about to

give it up. =] I will indefenetely do my best to enable the fastest

possible keyhack with ICI, while keeping the thing understandable to the

average Joe comunity. It is not as hard as it seems, but I will need a

cupple of hints on how to set the keyboard shortcuts.







Neil Nelson wrote:

> I do not think Harold, since I have been working with him at length on

> this, is going to be able to assist greatly in this area over the short time

> frame I am looking at for completion of the initial product.  This means

> that you and I need to put together some specifications in fairly short

> order to wrap up the initial product.  That product has at the moment

> the following features:

> 

> (1) MS DOS command line.

> 

> (2) P2P chat.

> 

> (3) File transfer (shortly).

> 

> (4) A threaded discussion capability similar to P2P chat.

> 

> And then supporting the above customer applications:

> 

> (5) An ability to connect up to remote computers using UDP

> and shortly TCP.

> 

> (6) Authenticated and encrypted communications (shortly).

> 

> And then there may be some additional customer applications that

> are easy to add on might be considered.  And there are additional

> applications that can be added later to improve the product such

> as voice.

> 

> And so my sense is that we need to set aside the current ICI Console

> at the moment and design the screens and their action for those

> functions that the customer wants.  We can have design grades where

> one design is complicated and one design is easy: e.g., file transfer

> by command line as in pcsp or file transfer by file-manager-like

> drag and drop as in WinSCP.  And then we would consider how

> certain designs can be most easily adpated to the current ICI code

> within our time constraints.  And in repetition we need to have

> specialize screen/usage designs for the customer specific applications

> exemplified by (1)-(4) and maybe more than one for each item. We

> possibly need a unification screen from which those applications

> are launched that is specilized for the customer purpose.  Or we may

> decide that these are different applications that would be launched

> separately.  We will likely need to have a common theme and

> standard or familiar screen layouts.  E.g., at the top of this very email

> screen under Linux (Mozilla) I have `File, Edit View, Insert, Format,

> Options, Tasks, Help'. (And as an aside a character of each word is

> underlined for keyboard navigation instead of via the mouse.  I

> never use keyboard navigation and consider it a low priority, but

> Harold thinks it is important.)  But this is an example and we need

> to do what makes sense in balancing the requirements of the product

> and the time we can apply to its development.

> 

> But anyway let us (Jure and Neil) to a redesign of the short term

> product.  This has a high priority since most everthing else depends

> on it.

> 

> And then I think over the short term, Harold's target market and

> application should be split out and made separate.

> 

> I am eagerly looking forward to your thinking on this.





--



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