Please welcome Howard Linden!

On a less serious note, it would gain Howard L some bonus creativity points if he wanders the grid in a Duck Avatar.

Welcome Howard to the team

Some of the things I personally would like to see:
- Tuning to the cache system, does get annoying that I don't leave my sim and it has to redownload everything from scratch at every login.
- New avatar mesh.
- More realistic advance graphics....shadows, prims stopping light, fog.
- Being able to script for the Ignore button in dialog menus.
- Multicore CPU support. Multicore CPUs are by now the majority of systems being used for SL, and SL really does need to catch up a bit in processing, done basic graphics for now with windlight, time to move to the next area.
- Log Out option in the File menu, saves quitting and restarting.
- Ability to rescale textures, say if they are full perm, like from 512x512 to 256x256 and so on.
- Have a Remember Me option at the log in screen which also has a list of remembered names for easier picking.
- Save scripts as Mono in the inventory.
- Drag and Drop from OS. Like dragging a .PNG file from the HDD into the viewer uploads it, also could work with whole folders.

That's about it from me

Oh yes, for textures how about just putting the texture in a file as "textures/aa/bb/cc/dd/ee/aabbccdd-ee..." instead of putting it in the cache VFS at all?

Do lazy pruning, on Linux and Mac you could just kick off "find textures -atime +7 -delete" in the background when you log in.

(Sits on Santa Linden's lap and starts drilling off a short list of what he wants for Xmas - aka client improvements)

Now to start, I'm taking the view that the SL client is not just a viewer such as a web browser, however it is more like a terminal allowing access to more of a remote 3D operating system with its own content creation (building), programming (scripting), communication (IM / messaging), and file system tools (inventory).

1 - Since inventory is mainly a database driven file system similar to how we store files, documents, etc. on our local file systems - could you please try and model the inventory interface to act more like say the Windows explorer? Sure, the tree view that's already in place works well for displaying the hierarchy of folders, but navigating through the contents of those folders is a nightmare that's simply been bandaged by adding a search bar. In a perfect world it would be nice to select a folder from the hierarchy and have it open in its own window. Each folder should have its own window where items can be moved and dragged between.

2 - In regards to programming / scripting, how about allowing access to the client's widget set to users in-world via LSL? One of my pet peeves is the convoluted interfaces that some users come up with using the llDialog function. In traditional programming dialogs are used for simple user inputs and messages such as "Disk error! (Abort) (Retry) (Fail)" or "Are you sure you want to quit? (Yes) (No)" However on SL the only option to create an input type of interface is to either cobble out a chat based menu, build one out using prims and a HUD (which is close but only allows for click based interactions), or to use that god aweful dialog method. Instead why not create a setup similar to what Visual Basic or C# uses wherein the user can draw out an interface using the standard widget controls such as text boxes, buttons, check boxes, option buttons, etc. and then code events into those using a set of widget event handlers added into LSL?

3 - Tech wise, could you maybe start generalizing the client for use with systems other than SL? Lately I have been doing a lot of work with OpenSimulator and I cant help but notice how there are quite a few things that appear to be built into the client that seem to suggest that SL is the only platform in existence that the client can connect to. For example, on OpenSim I can configure my server to work with Search -> places, but Showcase, Search -> All, and Search -> Groups still query the SL servers. As far as I can tell after trolling through the documentation for the client there doesn't appear to be any way to change that aside from going in and modifying the code. Perhaps the client as a whole should be treated as a general interface which is neutral from any server platform, and then forked with different customizations for each server implementation? Say for example you have SL-Client-Community which is the base, neutral client. And then a fork for SL-Client-Linden which wold hold Linden / SL proprietary additions?

4 - Lastly, for the love of humanity! Could you maybe consider cleaning up the source for the client? Perhaps even consider a ground-up rebuild for the sake of simplifying and streamlining? In all honestly the last time I downloaded the source code for that thing and tried to poke around to see how it worked I thought my head was going to crack off of its base, fall to the floor, and shatter into a million tiny pieces. As far as I know Linden has been using the code base for the client since 2003. Its now 2009 and that code is 7 years old. Perhaps its time to clean house a bit?

5 - I want a new laptop, a puppy, a new house, an mp3 player for my car, new cloths, a new DVD player, some new headphones, and a personal secretary to write my term papers for me.

(Slides down off of Santa Linden's lap and grabs a candy cane from the jar. Before walking away he tugs Santa's fake beard down a bit revealing that he's really Howard Linden. He whispers with a smile and a giggle - "Welcome aboard and Happy Holidays!"

I once proposed an "llHTMLDialog" whereby you would simply create a little HTML form in a string... "<form action=chat> What is your name? <input type=text name=name> <br> <input type=submit name=ok value='Tell Me'> </form>"... and get back a chat on the dialog channel in URL encoded form... since there's already an llUnescapeURL this would be easy to parse, and would require minimal server-side changes... and it's a familiar API to a lot of people.

Pls Pls Pls let us be able to drag the menu's, Inventory Window, Map, Contacts, IM etc. to a second monitor so we can enjopy an uncluttered main screen..... Pls Pls Pls.....

Yak

I would have been happy to post a list of useful ideas, but since all suggestions made in all other forums have been totally ignored by LL I just cannot be bothered.

Aside from fixing IMs, it would be nice to have the option to auto-decline friendship offers when offline. They just add to the IM cap.

I would like to see:

In-World Transaction History.
Online Status.
Resident Live Help.
Public Land.
Telehubs.
Streaming Audio "On" by default.
First Land
Rules prohibiting bots.
Non-paginated land listings.
No limits on search queries.
Hinges.
Ratings for Appearance, Building and Given.
Stipend bonus for ratings.
Leader Board.
Linden themed mainland.
Limits of alts per account.
Unmoderated forums.
Open Space sims at reduced rates.
Event and Education Bonus.
Townhall Meetings.
Provisional Land Sales.
Tier-free land for Winterfest Festival


Oh wait...... nevermind.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Let's not make it too easy for stalkers to cross-reference IP addresses and identify alts so they can stalk THEM too.

Not all changes are bad.

Argent,
That could work too. Although personally I loathe web programming but love the event driven application style instead. I was thinking since LSL already seems to have an event handling system in place for example touch_start(integer bla), that adding in further events to handle a widget set may more work more naturally.

Thanks,
- Orion

They would have to implement a bunch of widgets, and the UI code isn't really designed well for this use-case... but they have an HTML rendering engine in the client already, and modifying it to handle something like "action=chat:channel" would be relatively easy because that's already an extensible namespace.

No way! Then I'd have to wear a bra!

Welcome aboard Howard.
I see that he worked on TIVO and things for PIXAR. Those would appear to be almost opposite ends of the user interface spectrum. TIVO is a lowest common denominator interface and I am sure that interfaces for Pixar software are very complicated indeed. A few years back, I took a class in 3D Studio Max and, no joke, the first 4 days of the class were entitled 'Understanding the Interface'. Hopefully Howard can come up with some scalable option in between. We already have the optional 'advanced' menu and this is the approach I would like to see expanded upon. A simple interface for the beginner and optional features for the more advanced users.

Some other thoughts:

1) If you upgrade the AVI mesh then make sure that you UV map it back to the current template, otherwise all skins and clothes will not work anymore.
2) Fix the color scheme, no more unreadable text but certainly nothing like dazzle.
3) Don't add more unnecessary bells and whistles making the client slower.
4) Don't hide the tools menu like you did in 1.20, that was a real bozo move.
5) Fix the communications window. It's still to big and been an annoyance for a lot of people since about V 1.18
6) Bouncy boobs.... hey never thought of that, but I guess it would be cool... lol
7) Defaults for streaming audio, media and voice should be off. Nothing more annoying for a new user than being bombarded with audio and video that uses up their bandwidth and makes first few minutes laggy.
As has been mentioned, built in AO. I could see a folder something similar to 'gestures' where there would be folders for walks, sits, stands. etc.
9) Banlines Off setting in the interface.
10) Fix the texture reload bug in the 1.21 client. This must be putting a lot of unnecessary load on the asset servers.

Here's a thing that might be nice to take care of, Howard. There's a Jira issue on it, so I'll just post that.



http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-1961

SL2.

It should have been in the development cycle years ago.

Cory right, Philip wrong.

Egos never prevailed over advanced technology.

Shades of RealPlayer.

An even better question: How does that experience help fix the assert server burps, frequent crashes, inability to log in, &c &c &c.

I can see that new features are possible. But, before adding in new features, is there some plan in place to fix the numerous bugs that already exist?

Please?

Crikey, you're expecting ONE bloke to fix all of that?

This is a no-brainer. It has to be done - so do it now.
Please.

Currently my Viewer spans 1 and 1/4 screens . The 1/4 contains the windows for CHAT EDIT and INVENTORY. The trade off is I run at 5 FPS (with draw distance 168m).

If make the Viewer only one screen, I can go up to maybe 9 fps.

With detachable windows I can live with a Viewer only occupying one screen. The 3 windows would be on the second screen.

Regardless. we dont want to ever close these windows - but open, they detract a lot from the visual experience.

(Lets include the STATISTICS window as detachable. But at least lets it persist between sessions for now. Its annoying having to open it every login and expand and minimise all the relevent categories within it EVERY time I login.)

Poor Howard.

Hang in there, buddy. We're just happy to have a Linden to talk to.

To bring a more normal and rational management of Linden lab, both commercially, technically and public relations.

PLEASE do not change the GUI again. Previously we have seen them mess with all the drop down windows and call it an improvement, but it isn't. We don't need a different window or a different way to list our friends or a different button to communicate with our groups. The only real improvement in GUI has been getting rid of the floating Release Keys button, finally, after over a year of people complaining about what a useless thing that was.
What I would like to see is Voice GONE and group IM fixed, which I think will happen simultaneously as group chat started messing up when you people forced Voice down our throats. Voice interferes with the music.
Also it would be nice to have better avatar clothes. That is, unless you photoshop, the edges of your collar, sleeves, etc. are fuzzy. Why can't they be sharp? Also a way to look at your avatar from behind, in the edit window. Adjusting collars on the back remains guesswork at this point. When you use the sliders to adjust anything on the back view, your avi should also be visible in that view so you can do it properly.
Last, get rid of the double Search and make Search better. Key words are a horrible way to search for something, as many ads etc. pop up that have nothing to do with what you were looking for, they just have typed in a million key words so as to show up in any search. Better search categories might do it too.
And get rid of the Showcase; it's unfair competition.

Yes please a new mesh with improvements to our lips, our 'bottoms', that awful disfiguring stretching at the top of the thighs, knee and shoulder joints. Please and thankyou ^^

Welcome Howard.
Are you Santa Linden?
All I want for Christmas is offline version of Second Life that doesn't require servers.
Probably not possible but it just be nice to create on own computer without all the downsides of being in world.

Why would they ever want to get rid of Voice? I think Voice is the best improvment SL has made in my time here. They certainly did not shove it down my throat and I've no problem at all with music because of it.

What I'd like to see fixed the most is the texture reload bug that started in the 1.21 client.
It has made the whole SL experience diminish in one way or the other.. IMO.