Hi se7en,
Let me know if there's anything I can help out with in your efforts to improve the docs.
If you're serious about that, I'll send you the help.xhtml file which needs updating. Just describe all the fields/options as best you can (I've done a lot of them already). I'll definitely credit you in the extension if you're able to help.
So when I use the RMB, does the Passwordmaker use the "Default" options or the "Last used" (say if I had been using another account right before this) options?
Since you're asking this question (and the below re: "Actually I'm not sure why I need to go through Step 1 since I'll have to tweak the password length again for this account in Step 4."), it's clear to me that I still haven't conveyed the notion of an
account correctly.
As an aside, Macs don't have a right-mouse button but they can still access this menu, so it's more OS-agnostic for me to call it a context-sensitive menu item :)).
There is no concept of
Last Used settings in PasswordMaker. When you use the CSMI, PasswordMaker searches all the accounts you've defined, comparing the current URL to each account's
When URL Contains field. There are three possible outcomes of this search:
- If only one account matches the current URL, PasswordMaker generates the password and populates the password field automatically.
- If more than one account matches (for example, you've created 4 accounts each with When URL Contains field equal to gmail.com and the current URL is google.gmail.com), PasswordMaker displays a list of matching accounts to you. You must choose one for PasswordMaker to populate the password field. I'd show you a screen-shot of this, but I don't have PasswordMaker working at the moment in this Firefox Profile (my development profile)
- If no accounts match the current URL, PasswordMaker generates the password using the Default Settings "account" (it's not really an account; it's a catch-all)
Does that explain it any better?
Perhaps you would like to think about using another word for "Folder"? It somehow conveys the wrong impression to me. I think "Profile" would fit better and under it, "Account" as it now stands. Just IMO though.
I'm definitely open to terminology changes. At first I liked your suggestion of "Profile", but now I'm wondering if (1) it might confuse some people with
Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird Profiles and (2) it seems less obvious that a profile "contains" accounts: all I'm looking for here is a word which means "to contain things".
Great example. Can I create the new account first before setting the Length to 12? That means I'm skipping Step 1. Actually I'm not sure why I need to go through Step 1 since I'll have to tweak the password length again for this account in Step 4.
You've got me totally confused :) Can you explain further, or maybe my previous explanation of accounts clears this up now? Hmmmm...
I know there's a javascript version - do you think there's any way to make this more broad-based as in cross-platform / cross-browser is concerned? I myself currently use both Linux and Windows in my daily computing.
The
html/javascript version has been tested successfully with Firefox 1.0.x, Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, Mozilla 1.7.5, Opera 7.54u2, Netscape 7.2, 8.0, and Konqueror 3.3 (the last of which was KDE on Suse 9.2), so I'm not sure what you mean by "any way to make this more broad-based as in cross-platform / cross-browser". Many of those browsers work on Linux and Windows, not just Windows. I also know we have a number of Mac OS/X users -- one of them has volunteered to re-write the main PasswordMaker website so it looks good and pretty. So, how much more broad-based can I get? :) Can you please elaborate on your request?
For what it's worth, some PasswordMaker development is done on Suse 9.2 and some is done on Windows XP SP2. IOW, I use both Linux and Windows, too :) Someday if I ever get the major feature requests out of the way, I'll write a J2ME version for Java-enabled mobile phones. Someone also requested a command-line version, which I could write in a week or two.
Looking forward to your reply,
Eric