[tahoe-lafs-trac-stream] [Tahoe-LAFS] #1973: wui: "since" and "announced" columns are confusing

[Tahoe-LAFS]

#1973: wui: "since" and "announced" columns are confusing
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
     Reporter:  leif     |      Owner:
         Type:  defect   |     Status:  new
     Priority:  normal   |  Milestone:  soon
    Component:  code-    |    Version:  1.10.0
  frontend-web           |   Keywords:  usability wui welcome time test-
   Resolution:           |  needed
Launchpad Bug:           |
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------

Comment (by zooko):

 I reviewed the code and found only one minor issue
 (https://github.com/leif/tahoe-
 lafs/commit/486dbfc7bd3c0bbba42a6df8e4564601120aec0e#commitcomment-8720650).

 Good patch! And good design! Thank you. ☺

 Here are some issues I have with the design:

 * I'm reluctant to remove the "when did we first hear about this server"
 information, because I think it could sometimes be useful for diagnostics
 in a live system. Is it removed here because it clutters up the UI, or
 because it was confusingly represented, or because we didn't think of a
 reason that it would be useful? Could we change this patch to keep that
 information visible?
 * We tend to use RFC-3339 absolute timestamps in other places, and I'm a
 bit uncomfortable with using deltas-until-now in some places and absolute
 timestamps in others. Do we have a principled reason for which
 representation to use? Or is it obvious to users which one to expect in
 each case? Personally, I think I would prefer absolute timestamps,
 although I haven't tried using the delta timestamps yet to see if they
 grow on me. Please see #1077, which is a ticket to make all of our time
 representations be consistently represented to the user and consistently
 implemented for the developer.
 * FYI there is a bug in Foolscap such that the connected/disconnected
 status is sometimes incorrect. (See #816.) I guess this is a separate
 issue from this ticket, so I *don't* request that we deal with it right
 now, but I'm just letting you know that there is some closely related
 functionality (i.e. remove the "status" display entirely) that we might
 want to do soon. (Also, even if there weren't that bug in Foolscap, it is
 fundamentally impossible for connected/disconnected status to be always
 correct, because connections are an illusion.)

 Okay, so the last of my three comments is merely a note about a related
 ticket, the first is a request for justification from someone else or else
 change this branch to put back that information, and the middle is a
 request for justification from someone else or else change this branch to
 make the timestamps look the same here as elsewhere in the code.

 Thanks!

--
Ticket URL: <https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1973#comment:10>
Tahoe-LAFS <https://Tahoe-LAFS.org>
secure decentralized storage