Bitcoin-Qt, the future Bitcoin client GUI [user input needed]

[wumpus]

Not really an alternative client, but an alternative GUI for the original bitcoin client based on Qt4, which will be merged into mainline eventually (0.4.x).

It now has all the functionality of the original client's wxWindows GUI, and I'm working to extend it beyond that.

screenshots might be out of date! current updates are posted at the end of this thread

Screenshot (Vista):


MacOSX:


Screenshot (Kubuntu/KDE):



Tray icon, notification on incoming transactions:


Screenshot (Ubuntu/GTK):





Source code (and build instructions) can be found at: https://github.com/laanwj/bitcoin-qt . There is currently no installer or binary build as the project is still changing too fast to warrant releases.

Input welcome: See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34838.msg433720#msg433720

Compiled versions

• OpenMamba / RPM packages (ercolinux): http://www.openmamba.org/distribution/distromatic.html?tag=devel&pkg=bitcoin-qt.i586
• Linux .tar.gz (drawoc): http://nightly.fredwardgames.com/bitcoin-qt/

[wumpus]

I need help here; I need slicker toolbar icons (png format, at least 16x16, and optionally 22x22) for:

- Send coins: the current green arrow has some scaling artifacts I cannot get rid of

- Address book

- Icons for confirmed/unconfirmed transactions (see first post in https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=2022.0 )

[Mike Hearn]

Great. Consider improving the UI flows whilst you're at it. The address book UI isn't well thought out currently because there's no way to add people and addresses simultaneously. If you want to have a readable transaction log you have to go into the address book, add an address, then go into payments, pick them from the address book and pay. It could be all one step.

[wumpus]

Great. Consider improving the UI flows whilst you're at it. The address book UI isn't well thought out currently because there's no way to add people and addresses simultaneously. If you want to have a readable transaction log you have to go into the address book, add an address, then go into payments, pick them from the address book and pay. It could be all one step.

Hm yes it is currently:
- Click "Send Coins"
- Click "Address Book..."
- Click "New address"
- Type the label and address
- Click "Ok" (or press enter)
- Double-click the new address
- Enter amount
- Send

Could be replaced with:
- Click "Send Coins"
- Enter address
- Check "Add to address book as ...". The "..." field becomes editable.
- Enter label
- Enter amount
- Send

At least at my bank it works like that. What do you think?

[wumpus]

I have reorganized the status column. The colors should be icons, but you get the idea:



I'm thinking of nuking the text in the status column completely [and merging the status icon into Date].

It shows a lot of repetitive text and only the "color" really matters for a quick glance. When is it interesting whether a transaction has 20 or 30 confirms? The detailed information can be provided in a tool tip, or when the user double-clicks on the transaction.

Let me know what you think.

[unclescrooge]

I have reorganized the status column. The colors should be icons, but you get the idea:



I'm thinking of nuking the text in the status column completely [and merging the status icon into Date].

It shows a lot of repetitive text and only the "color" really matters for a quick glance. When is it interesting whether a transaction has 20 or 30 confirms? The detailed information can be provided in a tool tip, or when the user double-clicks on the transaction.

Let me know what you think.

Yes I think too. Simple is good.

[bitlotto]

Looks good. Oh, I've been meaning to ask, why have "All transactions" and "Sent/Received" aren't they the same? It's late so I MUST be missing something. LOL. Is it generated coins?

[wumpus]

Looks good. Oh, I've been meaning to ask, why have "All transactions" and "Sent/Received" aren't they the same? It's late so I MUST be missing something. LOL. Is it generated coins?

"Sent/Received" includes generated transactions as well. Apart from that, they're indeed the same. Maybe it'd be less confusing to just regard generated transactions as received coins (received from the system) for interface purposes.

[wumpus]

After getting rid of the 'Status' column it looks like this:



More ideas:

- I've always wondered why Bitcoin has separate Credit and Debit columns. Why not one "amount" column? Is this really more clear?

- Description is now one blob of text. In general it could be split up into "Type" and "Address".

- Add connection status icon to status bar ("disconnected" for 0 connections, "connected" for 1+ connection, "good" for 5+ connections)

[joan]

- I've always wondered why Bitcoin has separate Credit and Debit columns. Why not one "amount" column? Is this really more clear?

It's interesting to be able to instantly detect the debits from the credits.
If merged in the same column, I think it would be important to still be able to visually differentiate them at a glance, (not just with the +/- sign). Maybe colors, or pictograms.

[kjj]

Careful with the colors.

http://www.google.com/search?q=color+blind+usability

[wumpus]

Careful with the colors.

http://www.google.com/search?q=color+blind+usability

Yes that's a problem if color is the only clue. But not if it is used as an extra signal. For example, when negative amounts are in red as well as have a minus.

The blue/green/grey squares are only placeholders until I or someone else comes up with nice status icons.

Whoa, connection meter has been added,

[md2k7]

I've made some 16x16 icons. Don't blame me if they are ugly, I usually code and don't design stuff. Try to make or google something better, while the latter option has some license fun included for sure.

Pending (0 confirmations): http://www.abanbytes.eu/files/btc/pending.png
Unconfirmed: http://www.abanbytes.eu/files/btc/unconfirmed.png
Confirmed: http://www.abanbytes.eu/files/btc/confirmed.png

License: You are free to do with these icons as you wish, including selling, copying, modifying etc.

Yours
David

[wumpus]

Thanks! Yes they're not super-pretty but at least they're better than my square placeholders

More ideas:
- Optional confirmation for large transactions (https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=17149.0)

Another thing: I'd appreciate it if someone with windows downloaded the free Qt SDK (http://qt.nokia.com/downloads/downloads) and try to compile this project. You can simply open the 'pro' file in Qt Creator that comes with the SDK. The biggest problem is probably the dependencies (openssl, berkelydb/dbcxx) though they likely exist for MinGW already somewhere.

[AntiVigilante]

After getting rid of the 'Status' column it looks like this:



More ideas:

- I've always wondered why Bitcoin has separate Credit and Debit columns. Why not one "amount" column? Is this really more clear?

Which is why I'd really love to be able to load the wallet.dat into gnucash or the KDE equivalent (can't remember).

[MrBison]

Maybe you should better use the icons supplied with the system or desktop. I think Qt has a method to get a system icon from the iconset user has.
For GNOME, you could use the stock_lock-broken, stock_lock and stock_lock-ok. Or the generic "error", "warning" and "OK" icons.

[wumpus]

Maybe you should better use the icons supplied with the system or desktop. I think Qt has a method to get a system icon from the iconset user has.
For GNOME, you could use the stock_lock-broken, stock_lock and stock_lock-ok. Or the generic "error", "warning" and "OK" icons.

Thanks for the suggestion,

I'm thinking about that, yes. That's the QIcon::fromTheme method. It has advantages to use the system theme icons, but also drawbacks. Ie, if Bitcoin looks different everywhere, hard to make documentation.

Also, for Mac and Windows we'll need built-in icons to fall back on.

Which is why I'd really love to be able to load the wallet.dat into gnucash or the KDE equivalent (can't remember).

You mean something like "Export to CSV"? Or do they have some specific format? Would indeed be useful...

[wumpus]

IMO it looks pretty good with md2k7's icons. I've also tried with gnome's lock/protection icons, but they look out of place somehow and are too similar to each other. These icons at least are easy to distinguish in a quick glance.

[wumpus]

I think I'm going to replace the clock icons; In practice (yes, I eat my own dog food) I've noticed that it would be handy if they would tell how far the confirmation is (in the range of 1 to 5 confirms), when you're waiting for it. 

Hm so I'd need multiple icons, maybe a clock that fills up, or a progress bar. Time to experiment

[wumpus]

There we go... I put my inkscape skills to the test



Transaction status starts with a grey question mark (unconformed). After that, clocks (fill up and go from red to green) show how far the transaction is towards being confirmed. When confirmed it shows a tick.