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indrora / Atomic

Atomic: an IRC client from the ashes of yaaic
https://indrora.github.io/Atomic/
GNU General Public License v3.0
123 stars 29 forks source link

Side bar with list of conversations / channels #22

Closed qwertfisch closed 10 years ago

qwertfisch commented 10 years ago

Description

Currently there are two forms of displaying the current channel. Also there are three ways of switching through the channels. Unfortunately you can either switch easily or have overview to all channels. The switch is possible with swiping left/right or (if displayed) touching a channel name left/right to the current one. But if you have a lot of channels it is quite annoying switching from one end to the other. There is also the conversations view menu, but here you need to touch two times a specific position before the list appears.

Suggestion

I would like to have a possibility for easy switch while viewing all channels at once. I’ve seen it in many apps where you can swipe in an additional list from either of the side. Try the app “Temaki” (available via F-Droid), where you can swipe in the defined lists on the left side. I find this rather useful and suggest to add this as an option: swiping between channels as usual or swiping to the channel list.

Additionally it would be helpful to see the coloring for the channel items, e.g. blue when there are new messages. Just like it is now for the channel names in the top bar.

This is just a suggestion, I’d like to hear what you all think about it.

indrora commented 10 years ago

Part 1: I'm not sure adding another gesture would be particularly intuitive, especially given that it is thet same as another gesture.

Part 2: Coloring of channel items is something I plan on implementing (more accurately, I plan on moving away from the AlertDialog list that I'm currently using).

qwertfisch commented 10 years ago

About part 1, the gesture is deliberately suggested as the same one because it should be an exclusive option. Either change the channels as before with swiping directly to the next/previous channel. Or you use the swipe-in-list from the left (or right, could be configurable).

What about the usability when having many channels? I find it tedious swiping left/right, but it is also a bit cumbersome to click settings, then conversations. The reason is, you need to touch two defined positions one after another, and the positions are also not easy to reach. On the other hand, a swipe-in list is shorter and you don’t need to touch the exact position. Additionally one can hold the touch and drag the list partially in. It’s like the Android notification bar from above, just from the left. I find this much more intuitive and faster than the other two methods for channel-switching.

AlexTalker commented 10 years ago

quassel

@qwertfisch you want something like sidebar here?

qwertfisch commented 10 years ago

Yes, but not permanently (or to be dismissed when clicking on the X). I prefer a swipe-in list, like the notification bar, but from the side. I made a screenshot series with the forementioned app Temaki: Swipe 1 Swipe 2 Swipe 3 Swipe 4

The advantages I see are

indrora commented 10 years ago

So like what holo irc has

qwertfisch commented 10 years ago

Oh I see. Yes that is quite what I have in mind. It also makes use of coloring the channel names. I like the way the channels from all servers are displayed, sorted by server. Because switching a server in Atomic is quite cumbersome, too. Especially when you have many servers with only one or few channels each.

Sorry to say but the interface of HoloIRC is more intuitive and quick at hand in that particular case. It also changes the buttons at top right from channel-related actions to server-related ones (“New server” and “Options”) temporarily (as long as the swipe-in list is displayed). Only a button “Disconnect all servers” seems to be missing there.

Poorchop commented 9 years ago

I'm not a fan of swipe-in gestures, but I would love to have a channel tray sidebar and a user list sidebar that can be toggled as follows:

untitled

The left hamburger menu button opens the channel tray on the left, and the button on the right with the silhouette toggles the user list on the right of the screen. As mentioned, this would make it much easier to hop between channels and servers. If you're following conversations in two different channels that are on two different servers, then repeatedly navigating back to the server list can get a little cumbersome.

Maybe the hamburger buttons can be placed a little differently though so that they work better with Atomic. The Atomic icon with the back button can stay on the far left, followed by the server name with channel name below it, and then you can put the two hamburger buttons next to each other on the right side.

qwertfisch commented 9 years ago

This is a good suggestion. I am not neccessarily bound to the swipe-in-list. A drop down menu for a channel list is also a good way, because the button to trigger has a large touch area and is always positioned at the same spot.

For the situation of conversations in channels on two or more different servers, it is necessary that all channels are listed. Maybe sorted by server (this could be an option), but I’d prefer sorted alphabetically over all servers. (The whole separation of servers seems obsolete to me because e.g. on Jabber you have chatroom names qualified with the server, like chatroom-xy@server.example.com)