Re: winecfg: improve user experience by adding all Windows versions and accompanying error message

[Jason Overland]

Is there anything I can do to improve this patch?

Thanks,
Jason

On 03/26/2015 10:03 PM, Jason Overland wrote:
> Hi,
> This patch is a resubmission of and supersedes my previous patch "winecfg: add note about 32 bit prefixes to dialog".  Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on that one.
>
> In this patch, winecfg's Application settings tab now includes all Windows versions in the combobox.  If the user is running from a 64 bit prefix and selects a version of Windows that requires a 32 bit prefix, the selection will revert to the previous selection and a modal dialog containing an error message will appear:
>
> """
> This Wine prefix is built to support 64 bit applications. Because the Windows version you selected does not support 64 bit applications, this prefix cannot be configured to mimic that version of Windows.
>
> Please refer to "How do I create a 32 bit wineprefix on a 64 bit system?" in the "Using Wine" section of the Wine FAQ (http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ) for instructions on how to create a 32 bit Wine prefix.
> """
>
> In addition, I noticed two File Open dialogs in winecfg which should be modal but are not modal.  I made these modal by setting the appropriate owner window.  While a separate issue, this seemed like a trivial enough change to include in this patch.

winecfg: improve user experience by adding all Windows versions and accompanying error message

[Andrew Eikum]

On Fri, Apr 03, 2015 at 12:12:53AM -0700, Jason Overland wrote:
> Is there anything I can do to improve this patch?

Something is messed up with your patch. Every unchanged line appears
to have an extra space in it after the first 'diff' column, so neither
git-am nor patch(1) will apply it. My guess is your mail program
screwed it up.

http://source.winehq.org/patches/data/110308
> This patch is a resubmission of and supersedes my previous patch
> "winecfg: add note about 32 bit prefixes to dialog".  Thanks to
> everyone who provided feedback on that one.
>
> In this patch, winecfg's Application settings tab now includes all
> Windows versions in the combobox.  If the user is running from a 64
> bit prefix and selects a version of Windows that requires a 32 bit
> prefix, the selection will revert to the previous selection and a
> modal dialog containing an error message will appear:
>
> """
> This Wine prefix is built to support 64 bit applications. Because the Windows version you selected does not support 64 bit applications, this prefix cannot be configured to mimic that version of Windows.
>
> Please refer to "How do I create a 32 bit wineprefix on a 64 bit system?" in the "Using Wine" section of the Wine FAQ (http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ) for instructions on how to create a 32 bit Wine prefix.
> """

I don't know Wine's policy about referring to documentation not
included in Wine itself. It strikes me that the FAQ may be updated at
some point, making this message incorrect. That's why I typed out that
long message in my earlier reply.

Maybe we prefer a shorter message with the Wiki link? I don't know.
> In addition, I noticed two File Open dialogs in winecfg which should
> be modal but are not modal.  I made these modal by setting the
> appropriate owner window.  While a separate issue, this seemed like a
> trivial enough change to include in this patch.

We prefer changes to be as discrete as possible. Since they're
unrelated to your Windows version patch, you should make these changes
in a separate patch.

Andrew

winecfg: improve user experience by adding all Windows versions and accompanying error message

[Jason Overland]

On 04/03/2015 12:05 PM, Andrew Eikum wrote:
> I don't know Wine's policy about referring to documentation not included in Wine itself. It strikes me that the FAQ may be updated at some point, making this message incorrect. That's why I typed out that long message in my earlier reply. Maybe we prefer a shorter message with the Wiki link? I don't know.

I see advantages and limitations to both approaches.  I'm not really sure which is best.  The main reason I didn't use your longer message is because I was uncomfortable telling the user to delete their prefix, even with the message afterwards saying "this will delete all your stuff".  I can just imagine someone reading the first part, deleting their prefix, saying "What happened??", THEN reading the second part of the message.  I could probably modify the message to not include the deleting, i.e. tell them to rename their existing prefix or something.

Another approach would be to merely tell the user that the prefix they're using doesn't work with the version of Windows they've selected, and let them figure out the rest.  After all the initial reason I made this patch was because it was unclear to me why the older non-64 bit Windows versions weren't there, not because I wanted to educate people on how to manage prefixes.

As far as Wine policy goes, if you don't know it, I certainly don't know it :)

winecfg: improve user experience by adding all Windows versions and accompanying error message

[Rosanne DiMesio]

On Tue, 07 Apr 2015 19:27:49 -0700
Jason Overland  wrote:
> I could probably modify the message to not include the deleting, i.e. tell them to rename their existing prefix or something.

Users who don't already know how to create a 32 bit wineprefix will need to have the instructions open in front of them to refer to while they're doing it. That's not suitable for a pop-up.
> As far as Wine policy goes, if you don't know it, I certainly don't know it :)

The crash dialog has a link to http://wiki.winehq.org/Bugs.