Bug 81519 - UI: "Optional (unstable) Options" description is misleading about macro recording
Summary: UI: "Optional (unstable) Options" description is misleading about macro recor...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.0.0.3 release
Hardware: Other All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: target:5.2.0
Keywords: difficultyBeginner, easyHack, topicUI
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-07-19 06:07 UTC by tommy27
Modified: 2016-10-25 19:11 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
advanced options screenshot (33.11 KB, image/png)
2014-07-19 06:07 UTC, tommy27
Details

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description tommy27 2014-07-19 06:07:50 UTC
Created attachment 103079 [details]
advanced options screenshot

Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ Advanced.  (see screenshot)

IMHO the description of the experimental features and enabling macro-recording in the option panel should be changed from:

Optional (unstable) Options
- enable experimental features
- enable macro recording (limited)

to:

Optional Options (*)
- enable experimental features (unstable) 
- enable macro recording (limited)

the current text IMHO is misleading since users may think that both experimental feature and the macro recording are "unstable" which is not.

the truth is that just the experimental features are unstable whilst the macro recording is just limited (meaning that it cannot convert to a macro 100% of users actions).

the macro recorder exist from the OOo era, so more than 10 years, and is a default option of OOo and AOO since then. 

for some reasons during the LibO process it was moved in the options table together with the Experimental features and later on it was finally given the choice to the user to enable macro recording without enabling the experimental features.

see Bug 41865 and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/3.7#Options_.2F_General

so I think a better description of those option, like I said before, is to move (unstable) close to experimental features to avoid false perception that even the macro recorder is an unstable feature, which IMHO is not.


(*) moreover I don't like very much the "Optional Options" title in the english UI... the italian UI translation looks better with "Opzioni Facoltative".

what about changing it to:
"Facultative Options" or "Additional Options" ?
Comment 1 Joel Madero 2014-07-19 06:24:14 UTC
Really mixed feelings on this one - requesting UX advice, if they say yes I'll create the patch.
Comment 2 tommy27 2014-07-19 06:30:33 UTC
@Cor Nows
any thoght about that?
Comment 3 Adolfo Jayme Barrientos 2014-07-19 08:43:41 UTC
Instead of renaming the section and annoying translators (again), what about dropping the entire “experimental features” distinction and integrate everything? Once it’s ready, of course.
Comment 4 tommy27 2014-07-19 08:56:05 UTC
hi Adolfo,
the point here is that the macro recorder is not experimental at all and not even unstable... as said before it has more than 10 years of history and is a default option in OOo and AOO.

the confusion is that the current text may suggest it's an unstable feature which is not.

I don't know when all the true "unstable" experimental features will be ready... 
so why macro recorder should wait for them?
Comment 5 Joel Madero 2014-07-19 16:10:45 UTC
Macro recording is quite experimental still (look at the bugs related to it) and the other features in there are also experimental. To make all of these good enough to not be experimental....I believe would take hundreds if not thousands of hours of dev time. If you know of devs willing to do this - please go ahead and ping them ;) That being said, we may always add new experimental features (the sidebar was experimental for some time) so having a section for them makes sense
Comment 6 tommy27 2014-07-20 05:12:23 UTC
Hi Joel.

The macro recorder existed even before LibO and OOo and was built on the code of StarOffice in the pre-OOo area... I think it hasn't received any polishing during the years and remained just a "limited" feature, working just in Writer and Calc and allowing only basic stuff.

I still think it's not an experimental feature but just a feature with limited functionality like it's correctly said in the UI panel.

like any other OOo/LibO feature it has it's own bugs, which however are not that much, if you see results of this simple query:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=macro%20recording&list_id=447006  (just 13 hits)

chart, tables etc. etc. have much more related bugs and are not listed as experimental, right?

regarding the Bug 64314 - Macro recording tracker bug 
well, Micheal opened it just to say that there's actual no dev resources or interest improving it... he is actually not a big fan of that feature.

so the current request here is not to improve the macro recorder but just to change the text of the option panel.

if we analyze the text, the macro recording is not an "experimental feature" it's an "optional (unstable) option" together with "experimental feature" which is a separate item.

what I asked is just an UI change and move the "unstable" label to the "experimental features" and leave the "limited" to the macro recording, 
see comment 0. all other stuff is out of topic.
Comment 7 tommy27 2014-10-29 05:15:03 UTC
adding Adolfo Jayme to CC list to hear it's opinion about this topic.

see my proposal in Comment 0

as said before I do not agree considering macro recording an unstable feature but rather a limited feature.

to make a clear example.

Nitroglycerin is unstable.
Barbecue Firelighter blocks are limited.
Comment 8 Cor Nouws 2014-10-29 22:07:08 UTC
(In reply to tommy27 from comment #0)

> Optional Options (*)
> - enable experimental features (unstable) 
> - enable macro recording (limited)


I fully agree - sorry for not replying earlier!

Thanks tommy,
Cor
Comment 9 Jan Holesovsky 2015-12-04 14:39:17 UTC
The dialog page is a bit confusing in general, and might be good to improve it ovelall; but to address the need here, we agreed it might be good to change to:

Optional Features:

[] Enable experimental features (may be unstable) 
[] Enable macro recording (may be limited)

To do it, just edit the texts in the appropriate .ui file:

cui/uiconfig/ui/optadvancedpage.ui
Comment 10 tommy27 2015-12-05 06:52:08 UTC
@Jan
I like the new strings!!! and I see that Joel is going to take care of this one.
looking forward to see the fix soon!!!
Comment 11 Joel Madero 2015-12-05 07:13:18 UTC
Committed a patch. Slightly screwed up on the commit (handles two easy hacks with labels) but I think it's fine: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/#/c/20406/
Comment 12 Commit Notification 2015-12-14 06:53:39 UTC
Joel committed a patch related to this issue.
It has been pushed to "master":

http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=6fb1da55085ec37ca6ffde5d9bbc73585b26dee5

tdf#81519 Clarifying advanced options (unstable vs. limited)

It will be available in 5.2.0.

The patch should be included in the daily builds available at
http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More
information about daily builds can be found at:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds

Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Comment 13 Robinson Tryon (qubit) 2015-12-16 05:26:42 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)