Remove “Type” column from peers window #372

1. 
   jonatack commented at 4:48 pm on June 26, 2021: contributor

   This PR removes the “Type” column from the peers main window that was added in #179, as it is confusing to users and does not make sense to have a Type column without its corresponding Direction column immediately preceding it to indicate Inbound or Outbound, per our current connection type naming (one of the connection types is “Inbound” and is not ever displayed currently).

   Three attempts to add the Direction column in #179 (original version), #289, and #317 have seen opposition from some reviewers.

   Therefore, before the v22.0 release, remove the Type column until such time as there is rough consensus to add the Direction Inbound/Outbound column with it (or better yet, merge #317).

2. gui: remove "Type" column from Peers main window

   as it is confusing to users and does not make sense
   to have a Type column without a Direction column
   immediately preceding it to indicate Inbound or Outbound.
   
   Several attempts to add the Direction column, as
   described, have seen opposition from reviewers.
   
   Therefore, remove the Type column until such time as
   there is rough consensus to add the Direction
   Inbound/Outbound column with it.

   1748356c56
3. gui: remove ConnectionTypeToQString prepend_direction param

   as it is no longer used.

   04bbdcb84a
4. jarolrod added the label UX on Jun 26, 2021
5. 
   jarolrod commented at 7:57 pm on June 26, 2021: member

   Indeed, it is a sub-optimal situation. My opinion is that there is still value in maintaining the Type column. I am mainly concerned about removing this, and then going through opposition to reintroduce it next release cycle.

   While we may not have a separate and sortable Direction column, we do still have arrows prepended before the Address. This has been the default behavior for three years now (https://github.com/bitcoin-core/gui/commit/4132ad3bfa5b5ead3f4a592d819d0097881b4827) so user’s know to look here for the direction of the selected peer. While the situation is not optimal; this means the Type information does have orientation context in regards to Direction.

6. 
   jonatack commented at 8:15 pm on June 26, 2021: contributor

   It’s too confusing for users with the current halfway implementation. One type (Inbound) isn’t even displayed, and the empty type looks like a bug.

   At least this PR and its predecessors can be pointed to when more user bug reports arrive, if this isn’t fixed before the release: “Look, we tried 3 times.” So this had to be proposed.

   But it would be better to resolve it before the release, one way or the other.

7. 
   ghost commented at 9:15 pm on July 29, 2021: none

   But it would be better to resolve it before the release, one way or the other

   We should add directions column

8. 
   shaavan commented at 4:38 pm on July 31, 2021: contributor

   Tested on Ubuntu 20.04

   The PR claims to remove the type column from the PR table and is successful in doing so. Along with the type column, the PR is also removing the direction arrows preceding the node’s address, which makes sense to do.

   Though I understand the approach of op to solve this problem, I don’t think it is optimal. As @jarolrod already mentioned, removing the type column will inevitably result in a debate over bringing it back. The optimal approach will be merging pr317, or something similar to 317 if there is a debate there, as suggested by op.

9. 
   hebasto commented at 2:00 pm on August 11, 2021: member

   Closing, as #317 has been merged.
10. hebasto closed this on Aug 11, 2021

    ---

11. jonatack deleted the branch on Aug 11, 2021
12. 
    jonatack commented at 2:01 pm on August 11, 2021: contributor

    Closing, as #317 has been merged.

    Thanks!

13. bitcoin-core locked this on Aug 16, 2022

Contributors
jonatack jarolrod ghost shaavan hebasto

Labels
UX