raki's usability

Hi Voc, Hi everybody,


        I've been thinking about writing anew the KDE documentation for 
SynCE-KDE, in 
English and in French. On the technical side, I think I'm almost ready to 
begin ; at least I could modify and compile my own handbook. However, before 
going into the adventure, I would like to ask developers a general question : 
do you think it is possible to improve raki's simplicity of use ?

        Indeed, I'm not sure the current SynCE-KDE project is usable by a 
typical KDE 
user. Regarding my previous howto (http://synce.sourceforge.net/synce/kde/) 
I'm wondering if there are just not too many technical steps for getting 
SynCE-KDE installed and working. I've noted below what I think are these 
technical steps, along with a few suggestions. What is your opinion about 
these ?

Regards,

        Marc

_______________________________________________________________
DOWNLOADING : There are many modules to download and install. I guess there 
are good reasons for arranging SynCE's modules this way, but is'nt it 
possible, by some technical workaround, to reduce the number of modules to 
download to just one ? And about the AvantGo module, is there any licensing 
reason for not including it in the project ?

INSTALLATION : Similarly, I think it could help to just have to compile and 
install one project, including an automatic link with the AvantGo 
synchroniser.

CONFIGURATION : Among the technical steps required to get SynCE-KDE working, 
I've noted the following
1) Configuration of the firewall. Do you think any automatic configuration is 
possible ?
2) Automatic connection using udev: can we envision that the installation 
script takes care of installing some udev script ? Also, what is the current 
level or reliability of that script ? (note : the very simple script 
described at 
http://synce.sourceforge.net/synce/kde/synce-kde-basic-configuration.php, 
works well for me, except I if deplug and plug again the PDA before raki 
notice that it is gone...)
3) Sudo rules for iptables. I think this is the typical step that can be out 
of reach for some users. Maybe Raki could ask directly for root priviledges 
for iptables, using for example kdesu ?
4) By the way, to get the internet connection working for the device, it is 
currently needed to tell by hand the nameserver to synce-serial-config. Is 
there any way for synce-serial to find it automatically ? This could avoid 
some more configuration work, for example, in order to get the PDA internet 
connection for every internet profile, I had to add the 
file /etc/ppp/peers/synce-device to my internet profiles manager.
5) See also : enabling the IP-forwarding

SUGGESTIONS : 
1) Among the synchronisation modules proposed by Raki, I've only came to use 4 
of them (contacts, agenda, tasks, AvantGo). Are the others implemented ? If 
it is not the case, wouldn't it be better that the unusable modules do not 
appear ?
2) The module "file" makes me think of KFS, a file synchroniser program that 
can use the rapip protocol to synchronise file systems between the pda and 
the desktop. Should a short module be developed to exploit this 
functionality ?


-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language
that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast
and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory!
http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=110944&bid=241720&dat=121642