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Bug 127043 - Improved Crash Report Dialog
Improved Crash Report Dialog
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: libgnomeui
Classification: Deprecated
Component: general
CVS HEAD
Other All
: High enhancement
: 2.0.0
Assigned To: libgnomeui maintainers
Desktop Maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2003-11-15 12:18 UTC by Alan Horkan
Modified: 2004-12-22 21:47 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: Unversioned Enhancement


Attachments
Proposed patch for impoving crash dialog (8.25 KB, patch)
2004-01-19 04:46 UTC, Fernando Herrera
none Details | Review
Screenshot of crash dialog with previous patch applied (33.50 KB, image/png)
2004-01-19 04:47 UTC, Fernando Herrera
  Details
Updated patch (5.09 KB, patch)
2004-01-20 16:35 UTC, Fernando Herrera
none Details | Review
Updated screenshot (25.28 KB, image/png)
2004-01-20 16:36 UTC, Fernando Herrera
  Details

Description Alan Horkan 2003-11-15 12:18:14 UTC
this bug report has been created to track a discussion on the usability
list http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2003-November/msg00037.html
Feel free to copy and paste what you consider to be the most relevant
comments here.  I heartily agree with Bryans sentiment that we should
embrace and improve the Internet Explorer crash dialog, and add that we
should keep the dialog as succint as possible.
Comment 1 Bryan W Clark 2003-11-18 05:44:23 UTC
Because I enjoy more SPAM, I put the usability maint in the CC

I'm just going to place all the suggestions from the list here to
start out.  This is in order of appearance, not in order of the number
of times the word crash is used. :-)

---

The "$APPNAME" application has crashed. If you submit a report on this
crash, you can help us improve our software. 

[ Exit application ] [ Submit crash report ]

---

The "$APPNAME" application has crashed. If you tell us about this
crash, you will be helping us improve our software.

[ Exit application ] [ Report the crash ]

---

The "$APPNAME" application has crashed. If you submit a report on this
crash, you can help us improve our software.  A wizard will guide you
through the steps of submitting a crash report if you chose to do so.

[ Exit application ] [ Submit crash report ]

---

The "$APPNAME" application has crashed.  Tell us what happened and you
could help improve our software.

[ Ignore crash ] [ Tell us what happened ]

---

The application "$APPNAME" has crashed.                

If you would like to send a bug report to the developers of this     
  application, click "Send Bug Report" below to open the Bug       
Reporting Assistant, which will generate a detailed crash report     
  and help you send it to the right place.

---

If you kindly take the time to describe what you were doing you will
contribute to keep the problem from ocurring again.

---

The "$APPNAME" application has crashed.
Due to a programming error this application has stopped working. By
sending a report you can inform the developers.

[ Don't send ] [ Send report ] 

---

The application "$APPNAME" has crashed.

Please help us to help you by submitting a bug report to the
developers.  Click "Send Bug Report" to enter the the Bug Reporting
Assistant, or click "Don't Send" to exit without further action.
Comment 2 Calum Benson 2003-11-28 18:54:50 UTC
cc'ing some docs folks for their thoughts...

Personally I wouldn't use the word "crashed" at all, it's potentially
a bit scary/geeky to the uninitiated... maybe something like "quit
unexpectedly"?  I'm also a bit wary of using "us", who is "us"?  The
little men inside the computer?

So, using the HIG alert style (and with the rest of the wording off
the top of my head), maybe something like:

<b><lrg>The application $APPNAME has quit unexpectedly.</b></lrg>

You can report this problem to the developers to 
help them fix it.  Or you can restart the application
straight away.

    [Restart Application] [Cancel][Report the Problem]
Comment 3 Eugene O'Connor 2003-12-01 11:42:19 UTC
I'd go along with most of what Calum suggests - but I have suggested
some slight modifications below:

The $APPNAME application has terminated unexpectedly.

You can report this problem to the developers to help improve the
application.  Alternatively, you can restart the application.

[Restart Application] [Cancel][Report the Problem]
Comment 4 Calum Benson 2003-12-01 12:17:38 UTC
Certainly a bit snappier, but I'm not sure about "terminated", that's
one of those emotionally-charged words (like "aborted", "killed" etc.)
that it's usually better to avoid.
Comment 5 Mark McLoughlin 2003-12-01 15:30:36 UTC
This is in libgnomeui/libgnomeui/gnome_segv.c

Moving to the libgnomeui product
Comment 6 Fernando Herrera 2003-12-26 12:44:43 UTC
Two comments about this:
a) gnome-crash dialog or bug buddy should recommend upgrading the
software if it is too old (we can compare date from gnome-about.xml
and current) [too old == >6months?]
b) app binary name and pid are very important info for developers
(brave people use gdb and source!), so we have two options to show this:
   b.1) Details button/tab
   b.2) if GNOME_HACKER environement variable is set, show it in the
dialog text

What do you think?
 
Comment 7 Bryan W Clark 2004-01-18 17:08:36 UTC
> a) gnome-crash dialog or bug buddy should recommend upgrading the
> software if it is too old (we can compare date from gnome-about.xml
> and current) [too old == >6months?]

If it's possible to compare to the latest stable version, I'd like to
see that happen.

> b) app binary name and pid are very important info for developers
> (brave people use gdb and source!), so we have two options to show
> this:
>   b.1) Details button/tab
>   b.2) if GNOME_HACKER environement variable is set, show it in the
>        dialog text

I like the b.2 method most.  1337 GNOME hackers will know to set this
and everyone else can let bug buddy upload all the necesarry info into
bugzilla.

As far as the wording goes, I like this (similar to Calum's):

<b><lrg>The application $APPNAME has quit unexpectedly.</b></lrg>

You can inform the developers of what happened to help them fix it.  
Or you can restart the application right now.

    [Restart $APPNAME] [Cancel] [Inform the Developers]

While I don't like the word 'inform' all that much I can't think of a
decent alternative.   I'm trying to avoid the words: 'report',
'problem' and 'crash'.  I think these are all a bit too negative and
might relay to the person that *they* made a mistake; which is of
course ludicrous. 
Comment 8 Fernando Herrera 2004-01-18 17:21:57 UTC
>If it's possible to compare to the latest stable version, I'd like to
>see that happen.

Yes, we have this on gnome-version.xml:
  <platform>2</platform>
  <minor>5</minor>
  <micro>2</micro>
  <distributor>GNOME.Org</distributor>
  <date>2004-01-07</date>


If minor number is odd, we can asume he's using an alpha/beta version,
so he's an experienced user doing testing, we don't have to tell
anything about updates. But if minor is even, he's running a stable
version, and if current_date - date   > 6 months we can say "Notice
that the software you are running is older than 6 months, plase
consider updating it"
I'll vote to put this on libgnomeui crash dialog.
Comment 9 Alan Horkan 2004-01-18 23:34:06 UTC
Any user that has experience a crash should always "consider upgrading". 
I hardly think date detection is necessary.  

Assuming they are running free software they would want to upgrade
then there is no issue of the cash money cost of upgrading even if
there are issues of the local admin being unwilling to upgrade or
perhaps there are some other factors (there always are but I'm not
going to try and list them).  

I strongly agree with the principle of mentioning and recommending an
upgrade.  Most users will be using binaries not CVS or anything
particularly fresh.  

Also, i think it should be possible for all users to see exactly what
is going on by pressing some sort of "Details" button.  Although it
may be meaningless to most users there are certainly paranoid people
like me who will quickly want to scan the debug stack to ensure my
password isn't in it (as has happened previously).  
Comment 10 Fernando Herrera 2004-01-19 04:45:16 UTC
Hi, here come a patch and corresponding screenshot for a try on
improving this dialog based on the feedback.
It does:
* Text improvements.
* New button for restarting the app.
* Add a suggestion for updating the software if GNOME is an stable
version older than 6 months
* Hide pid and signal of crashed app when GNOME_HACKER env variable is
not set.

BTW, this is a minor ui change based on UI review so I think it's okey
for 2.6, but not sure about the little feature of restarting the
application.
Comment 11 Fernando Herrera 2004-01-19 04:46:15 UTC
Created attachment 23508 [details] [review]
Proposed patch for impoving crash dialog
Comment 12 Fernando Herrera 2004-01-19 04:47:06 UTC
Created attachment 23509 [details]
Screenshot of crash dialog with previous patch applied
Comment 13 Fernando Herrera 2004-01-19 04:49:47 UTC
Alan, the details I'm hiding are pid and signal name of the crashed
application. If you want to know why it crashed, how, or with what
data, just click on Send Bug and check it with bug buddy. Pid is only
relevant for people that want to run gdb in the console.
Comment 14 Calum Benson 2004-01-19 16:33:44 UTC
Couple of comments on the screenshot:

- It deviates from the HIG style again, i.e. should really have a
bold/large primary message, and secondary text in regular text.
- s/The Application/The application
- The paragraph "The software you are running..." should align with
the one above it, although personally I agree with Alan that it's
unnecessary and just detracts from the main message of the alert.
- I don't think "the" is necessary on the button, "Inform Developers"
 is shorter and sounds fine to me (as a phrase, although it still
sounds slightly odd to me as an action in a GUI...)
- I'd prefer "Restart Application" to "Restart <app-name>"... some
apps have very long names
(e.g.gnome-accessibility-keyboard-properties) and would make the alert
obscenely wide :)
Comment 15 Bryan W Clark 2004-01-19 17:05:10 UTC
Agreed on all accounts.  Lets go with Calum's suggestions
Comment 16 Fernando Herrera 2004-01-20 16:34:52 UTC
I've updated the patch following Calum's comments. Also I've removed
the upgrading sugesstion (maybe moving to bug-buddy
wait-while-debugging screen).
Is it okey now?
Comment 17 Fernando Herrera 2004-01-20 16:35:39 UTC
Created attachment 23561 [details] [review]
Updated patch
Comment 18 Fernando Herrera 2004-01-20 16:36:15 UTC
Created attachment 23562 [details]
Updated screenshot
Comment 19 Anders Carlsson 2004-01-21 00:03:33 UTC
Looks good to me
Comment 20 Fernando Herrera 2004-01-21 07:10:00 UTC
Commited
Comment 21 Elijah Newren 2004-02-09 19:23:33 UTC
*** Bug 133912 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***