They're not rewriting the software, just putting some makeup on it. All the underlying interface will still exist and be accessible. As I understand it, people complain Boinc is not user friendly with its current layout, so they are looking at a way to present the information without overwhelming the new user. More software today use a simple interface but have an expert mode. Spybot S&D is one example of a program employing this approach.

I agree. Just spend a little time up in the "pits" of Q&A and you will see a multitude of people complaining "This BOINC thingy is too confusing", "I just wanted a pretty screensaver!" Or "What happened to install it and forget it?".

There does need to be some improvement made in the area of first time attachments to projects, such as a more complete "attachment wizard" containing a simple drop-down menu of available projects (updated upon first attachment to the internet of course) for users who just want the screensaver like the old SETI, but again with an "expert mode" for more advanced users.

I am a Linux user who gets my most important work done from the command line, however I like eye candy too! I run a GUI with 10 windows open at once with different apps running in each one, but in one window I have a "Shell" program that gives me an unlimited number of command line shells just like the command line "console". It's just updated with a graphical front end that allows me to copy and paste between the shells and the GUI with the mouse, and use the mouse to click on a "tab" to switch between different "consoles". I can also open up several "consoles" in the same window and have them on screen at the same time!

So this program sounds like the best of both worlds. I'll have to go look at it to see more but it sounds great. Just hope they make a Linux version!

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Jim

Some people plan their life out and look back at the wealth they've had.
Others live life day by day and look back at the wealth of experiences and enjoyment they've had.

[...]
So this program sounds like the best of both worlds. I'll have to go look at it to see more but it sounds great. Just hope they make a Linux version!

I'm hoping the widget set being used for BOINC currently also gets used for the simple GUI - wxwidgets/wxwindows works across Windows, Linux and OS X AFAIK, so any app designed for that widget set will be trivial to port (should just be a fresh compile, actually).

Regards,
Simon.

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I've posted some of the most recent updates to the simple GUI.

BOINC Simple GUI Refresh, Part II

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----- Rom
BOINC Development Team, U.C. Berkeley
My Blog

I've posted some of the most recent updates to the simple GUI.

BOINC Simple GUI Refresh, Part II

Looks good!

As you say this is getting exciting :)

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I've posted some of the most recent updates to the simple GUI.

BOINC Simple GUI Refresh, Part II

Looking great so far guys! Keep up the good work!

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Some suggestions for the simplified GUI - Advanced Mode?

Allow it to control other pc's (like BoincView)
Show Project specific info, such as where in the sky the SETI WU being crunched came from (a pictorial representation);
no. of triplets, pulses, etc found in the WU so far (or in total);
which year the CPDN WU is 'doing' at the moment;
that kind of thing

Are these kind of things being worked on?

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Sometimes I think we are alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we are not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.

And please make sure that the entire thing (in either standard or advanced mode) is usable at a 640x480x16 screen resolution (well, okay, it could go to 256). Yep, there are still some of us out here with junky old monitors.

Some suggestions for the simplified GUI - Advanced Mode?

Allow it to control other pc's (like BoincView)
Show Project specific info, such as where in the sky the SETI WU being crunched came from (a pictorial representation);
no. of triplets, pulses, etc found in the WU so far (or in total);
which year the CPDN WU is 'doing' at the moment;
that kind of thing

Are these kind of things being worked on?

Somehow I doubt any of that is going to happen. They've obviously decided BOINC provides too much information and have already started hiding some of the messages displayed by default. Adding functions would be the opposite of their expressed goal. I think the ideas you've expressed are good ones, but then, I thought so every other time someone suggested them.

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Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Some suggestions for the simplified GUI - Advanced Mode?

Allow it to control other pc's (like BoincView)
Show Project specific info, such as where in the sky the SETI WU being crunched came from (a pictorial representation);
no. of triplets, pulses, etc found in the WU so far (or in total);
which year the CPDN WU is 'doing' at the moment;
that kind of thing

Are these kind of things being worked on?

Somehow I doubt any of that is going to happen. They've obviously decided BOINC provides too much information and have already started hiding some of the messages displayed by default. Adding functions would be the opposite of their expressed goal. I think the ideas you've expressed are good ones, but then, I thought so every other time someone suggested them.

I don't know... the person you're responding to did state that his ideas were suggestions for the Advanced view. The whole point of the Advanced view is to display more information, hence his suggestions are perfectly plausible.

It's only the simplified GUI that's aiming to cut back on the confusion.

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Some suggestions for the simplified GUI - Advanced Mode?

Allow it to control other pc's (like BoincView)
Show Project specific info, such as where in the sky the SETI WU being crunched came from (a pictorial representation);
no. of triplets, pulses, etc found in the WU so far (or in total);
which year the CPDN WU is 'doing' at the moment;
that kind of thing

Are these kind of things being worked on?

Somehow I doubt any of that is going to happen. They've obviously decided BOINC provides too much information and have already started hiding some of the messages displayed by default. Adding functions would be the opposite of their expressed goal. I think the ideas you've expressed are good ones, but then, I thought so every other time someone suggested them.

I don't know... the person you're responding to did state that his ideas were suggestions for the Advanced view. The whole point of the Advanced view is to display more information, hence his suggestions are perfectly plausible.

It's only the simplified GUI that's aiming to cut back on the confusion.

What is it you find so hard to understand? The simplified version seems to be the highest priority. The 'Advanced' version is getting less attention.

I've seen the ideas mentioned suggested by others for more than a year. None of them have been implemented in the standard client, and I have seen definitive statements that some of them would not be.

When I mentioned the 'hiding messages' I was referring to a change recently made to the alpha version. With the current alpha version of boinc certain messages which were displayed by default in previous versions are now disabled.

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Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

What is it you find so hard to understand? The simplified version seems to be the highest priority. The 'Advanced' version is getting less attention.

I've seen the ideas mentioned suggested by others for more than a year. None of them have been implemented in the standard client, and I have seen definitive statements that some of them would not be.

Sure, it's the higher priority because they need something simple for all the regular/average folk that are complaining that BOINC is too hard to use.

What I find hard to understand is why you think that because they are focusing on one thing right now, how that translates into not working on improving other parts at another time.

Sure, not all ideas are going to be implemented. It's a given. Not every idea is a great one, nor are some ideas simply plausible. But they will add what they think is necessary.

You know, the source is available if you disagree with their assessments.

When I mentioned the 'hiding messages' I was referring to a change recently made to the alpha version. With the current alpha version of boinc certain messages which were displayed by default in previous versions are now disabled.

OK, fair enough. I thought the topic was the simplified GUI, not the Alpha project. I was specifically referring to the GUI itself, and it's two modes of operation.

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Some suggestions for the simplified GUI - Advanced Mode?

Allow it to control other pc's (like BoincView)

BOINC Manager can control BOINC clients on other pc's, but just one at a time. You simply choose the computer from the menu. Edit: As with BoincView, you have to enable the remote control, of course.

Show Project specific info, such as where in the sky the SETI WU being crunched came from (a pictorial representation);
no. of triplets, pulses, etc found in the WU so far (or in total);
which year the CPDN WU is 'doing' at the moment;
that kind of thing

Are these kind of things being worked on?

BOINC Manager can enable the graphic display, which will show whatever the science application generates. I do agree that the applications may not be showing the most important information, but that's not BOINC's fault.

                                                      Joe

My point is there are problems that have continued for a year or more. Take the disparity between the benchmark scores of a computer running linux and the same computer running windows. There are other problems as well but rather than fixing those the priority has become the simplified version. I'm sorry but I have no sympathy for someone who can't be bothered to take a half an hour and do a little reading to figure out how boinc works. These are the same individuals who the easier proficiency tests were created for. These are the people that the U.S. military's technical training was written at a sixth grade reading level for. If the trend continues we're all in serious trouble.

The alpha version I was talking about is the BOINC alpha, the test version that insures that as few bugs as possible exist before it's released for widespread use. Yes, it's open source but there is little chance that any changes I suggest would be adopted. There was a change made on December 16th that caused the benchmark results on my computer to drop. I spent the night/morning December 20th/21st going through the changes that had been made and listed in the checkin_notes. After compiling numerous versions I found the cause for the drastic drop and reported it. To this day, every time I download the source code I have to eliminate the one line that causes the unacceptably low benchmarks. What do I mean by that? Take the benchmark results from the standard BOINC v5.5.11 for example.

403 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
678 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU

Kind of low for 800MHz P3s. Comparable, I think, to the benchmark results my old 400a celerons used to get running win2k.

Of course, if I were running the simplified version I wouldn't even see this info. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

And before you say it, I know seti no longer uses benchmarks. There are, however, many projects that still do.

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Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

What is it you find so hard to understand? The simplified version seems to be the highest priority. The 'Advanced' version is getting less attention.

Thats where your wrong WCG are working on the simple GUI, whilst Rom & the rest of them are still working on the main BOINC client (advanced side of it)

When I mentioned the 'hiding messages' I was referring to a change recently made to the alpha version. With the current alpha version of boinc certain messages which were displayed by default in previous versions are now disabled.

And whats wrong with removing all the not needed messages all the ones hidden are only required to be switched on for the purposes of testing new versions of BOINC as it provides alot more info for a tester to work out whats going wrong

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