> > The most important things to users are, > > 1) Reliablity. A program should work all of the time, it should never > > crash or hang. Nothing else matters if a program is as unstable as > > Evolution has become. > I agree. While it's true that I haven't seen many crashes in recent > versions, Evo does hang more often than one would like (though again, > less than it used to). Frequently these hangs are network-related and > eventually go away, but sometimes they don't. Just yesterday I found Evo > trying to update folders from a couple of IMAP servers where it had > clearly been sitting *all night* without timing out or getting an > answer. When I killed and restarted it, the servers responded and > everything was fine. Evo has been like this in every version since I > started using it something like 8 years ago. It doesn't seem able to > cope well with servers timing out or networks disconnecting.
I do see the Send/Receive window just 'sit there' sometimes. But I can always just hit cancel and move on. This is definitely related to flaky network connections. On a cellular connection, for example, I usually go online with evolution, then click off-line, say yes to synchronize folders, then do what I need to, then rinse & repeat. Not perfect, but it is workable. > Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that when it gets into this state > you can't even kill it wihout going to a terminal as it won't respond to > Quit or Work Offline. I used to have a button linked to "evolution --force-shutdown" (easy enough to create). But I haven't needed than since upgrading from openSUSE 11.0 to 11.1. > I understand the Bonobo-free version will go a long way to fixing this > kind of thing, or at least lay the groundwork for fixing it. It's simply > not acceptable in a user-level application. I'm a developer [not on Evolution]. And I have to say that saying things like "simply not acceptable" tick me off, even vicariously. My response to my customers would be "Then @$&*&@ pay me more, @*&&@$!" At least that is what I would mumble under my breath. :) Ever spent much time testing Microsoft Outlook extensions/plugins? I have. I can assure you that the occasional hang is apparently very much acceptable in a user-level application. :) That isn't a dis on Outlook [recent versions are actually pretty good]. It is meant to point out that building network applications that roll smoothly through all the things that can go wrong is REALLY REALLY HARD! _______________________________________________ Evolution-list mailing list Evolution-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-list
