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A Software Wish List
© Copyright Darrell Anderson.
The computer software world is hardly perfect. By vocation I am not a programmer and therefore I am limited in how I could resolve most of the shortcomings I encounter. Here are some of the things I wish I could change or improve.
Generic GNU/Linux
- I want a console-based text editor that uses the accepted conventions of GUI-based text editors and the modern GUI environment. That is, the editor provides a basic menu structure at the top of the screen. Users activate those menu options using Alt-key sequences to pull down the menus, such as Alt-F to open the File menu, Alt-E to open the Edit menu, etc. Other GUI-based conventions also apply, such as the Home key moves the cursor to the beginning of the line, the End key to the end of the line, and Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End respectively move to the top and end of the document. Holding the Shift key while moving the cursor highlights and selects all text under the cursor. Cut, copy, and paste are invoked with the GUI-based conventions of Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-P. Multiple windows should be supported through a Window menu option so users can copy and paste from one document to another. I will not involve myself in the emacs vs. vi vs. vim vs. joe debate for the simple reason that all such arguments are so far out in left field that I could care less about the entire debate. None of these convoluted editors are fit for typical human consumption. What I fail to understand is why such a common sense editor does not exist.
- I have been searching to no avail for a console-based screen capture utility that saves the screen as an image. None of this /dev/vcs nonsense. The utility should 1) run in the background, 2) be controlled through a simple hotkey, such as Ctrl-Alt-Print Screen, and 3) be configurable to save files to a prefixed storage location so that users can grab screen shots without logging in. A good screen capture utility is essential to providing good technical documentation and is a staple of the technical writing profession. Such utilities existed two decades ago in DOS, so what’s the deal ‘nix folks?
- A ToggleKeys utility. Traditionally, this utility causes the PC speaker to beep mildly whenever the Caps Lock, Num Lock, or Scroll Lock keys are pressed. However, an additional key must be recognized as a toggle key: the Insert key. In many applications the Insert key toggles between Insert and Overtype mode. This utility should function at the console level and be transparent to whatever GUI is used. There is no need to invent anything special—just copy Windows and provide a simple beep. A KDE Control Center front-end to this utility would be exceptional. KDE 3.5.4 does provide audio support for ToggleKeys, but strangely, only for the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys.
- The ppp daemon is programmed not to override any default gateway. This should be user-definable.
- Samba fails to ignore chmod requests when copying files to shared Windows partitions, either through the command line cp -p, touch, or Konqueror copy and paste.
- A QT-based version of Firefox. As a proof-of-concept someone once hacked Firefox to use QT, but sadly the idea went no further. I would even be happy with a version that at least used the standard KDE dialog boxes. Actually, just create a usable Konqueror web browser.
- CUPS reads the /etc/hosts file when called upon to print—even if browsing is disabled. For people who use the hosts file as a quasi-DNS server and ad-blocker, this file can be large and the delay when CUPS runs is irritable. (Note: I have since bypassed this issue by using Squid ACL and dnsmasq second hosts files. I now use my existing hosts file only for my browser bookmarks and local network, creating a much smaller file.)
Browsers
My ideal browser would provide the following. Understand that several of these features are derived from the perspective of dial-up browsing.
- Complete single session, tabbed or multiple document interface browsing—no additional browser windows or instances unless specifically configured by the user.
- A link context menu that allows a user to either open a link in a background tab or an active foreground tab, without using the keyboard or middle button. (Konqueror does not do this.)
- The ability to define the tab focus when closing a tab. (Opera cannot do this otherwise I likely would be using Opera more often.)
- The ability to define as the default action that all links entered from the location bar, search bar, history, Home button, etc., to open in a new tab.
- The ability to reopen closed tabs.
- The ability to view pages offline.
- The ability to define the location of the cache, bookmarks, cookie files, etc.
- An informative and accurate real-time status bar.
- Drag-and-drop reordering of tabs.
- A page context menu item to close the tab.
- A page context menu item to view the source code in the text editor of my choice.
- White lists for (a) cookies, (b) forms, (c) JavaScript, (d) Java, (e) images, (f) HTTP Referrers, and (g) Minimum font size.
- A toolbar button to toggle a customizable quick-preferences toolbar.
- A toolbar button to toggle between a user-defined minimum font size and no minimum.
- A toolbar button to toggle a web site’s styles. There are some absolutely awful color combinations being used.
- Toolbar buttons to toggle accepting cookies or enabling JavaScript and only for the current page.
- A toolbar button to enable images on the current page without enabling images on all other open pages and without needing to refresh the page.
- An option to enable certain event sounds, such as (1) page begins to load, (2) page finishes loading, (3) file downloading finishes.
- A download manager that intelligently and always pauses to allow any other internet communications to prevail—basically works in the background and does not inhibit dial-up browsing.
- Supports multi-user, networking environments, including being able to share or synchronize common bookmarks files or white lists.
- An intelligent ad blocker.
- A session saver.
- A user agent switcher.
- A toolbar editor.
- A menu editor.
- Runs entirely with the native operating system libraries and widgets.
Slackware
- A more user-friendly installation script. The ncurses design is not the issue, but the lack of any ability to back-step is a significant nuisance. For example, after selecting the partition targets, there is no way to correct the list—one must reboot and start from fresh. A simple typo during setup means restarting completely from scratch. There is no intelligent error-checking anywhere in the script.
- The setup script fails to recognize existing fstab mount points during subsequent installation attempts. The tool should query the system /mnt directory and then present that list as the potential default targets for installation. Why always retype? This is especially frustrating for any new user who is unfamiliar with the Slackware setup utility. The end-result is predictable: people either give up and try another distro or they get frustrated and open themselves to making mistakes that could be critical. The setup utility should be able to figure this out because the mount points remain even after exiting setup.
- The setup default is to format a partition. This is particularly dangerous for users who use multiple partitions and do not want to reformat those partitions, such as /home, /usr/local, /opt, etc.
- The setup tool provides no way to skip formatting an existing swap partition. The user is allowed to skip formatting other partitions.
- The mouseconfig tool fails to correctly recognize and mount two-button mice with scroll wheels. This is sad because many distro vendors addressed this issue several years ago. I don’t know how to fix the mouseconfig tool, but read my mini How-To to manually configure such mice.
- At installation the setup tool fails to ask users whether they want the system to boot into a console or GUI. The setup tool does ask which window manager to use, but that is all. Read my mini How-To to remedy this weakness.
- Provide some colorized rc.d scripts. Jeez, Slackware is ugly and boring out of the box. I’ve addressed this issue—read my mini How-To.
- A more intelligent startx script. I’ve addressed this issue—read my mini How-To.
- Slackware fails to provide any bash startup files, not even bare shells so that new users have a place to start and understand how these files interact. I’ve addressed this issue—read my mini How-To.
- Slackware fails to provide any files in /etc/skel, so that when adding new users some basic files are in place. I’ve addressed this issue—read my mini How-To.
- Slackware provides no option to install GRUB as the system boot loader. I’ve addressed this issue—read my mini How-To.
KDE
- I would like to see KEdit support either a true MDI (multiple document interface) or a tabbed interface.
- The Personalizer fails to ask an important question: left or right-hand mouse? Why are left-handed mouse users always being ignored?
- Although users can configure system services with Slackware by using the pkgtool utility (run pkgtool, select Setup, then select Services), a KDE plug-in would be more convenient and user-friendly for many novice users.
- Although most Slackware users tend to be more command line prone that typical users, a KDE front-end for managing packages would be nice. Note: I have discovered a third-party add-on called SlackIns (Slackware Installer) that provides this interface, but the program does not follow the KDE interface style guide by using the native KDE widgets. There is also kslackcheck, but that tool does not install or remove anything, only report and download packages.
- Perhaps this wish is more fantasy than wish, but I’d like to see an X/KDE environment where the .xsession-errors file remains empty except for true errors. And perhaps someday some version of Kate will boot without a single .xsession-errors message.
- Is the day ever going to arrive when the KDE developers finally eliminate the silly xset: bad font path element (#73), possible causes are: message?
- I’d like the ability to customize the display format of the Kicker clock applet to something different than from the default system date/time formats. Currently there is no way to insert a short version of the week day without modifying the user’s global formats. The format I want in the Kicker clock is 6:34 Wed Nov 6 2006.
Finis.
Table of Contents
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