GNU Keyring for PalmOS and Safekeys: user interface

The user interface in the two programs is more alike than it is different. This includes the layout of the windows, the text, and small mistakes I made while designing the user interface. It would be an extraordinarily coincidence if two independent programmers made the same design decisions and mistakes.

You're welcome to download and try both programs to verify this for yourself.

The left column shows GNU Keyring 0.11, and the right column shows SafeKeys 1.3.548. Both are running under POSE emulating a PalmIII with PalmOS 3.0.

The "Set Password" dialog is displayed by both programs if they're started on a machine with no keyring database present.
The dialog layout is obviously exactly the same. I think the GNU Keyring layout with so much whitespace is a little ugly in the Palm aesthetic, and so I changed it in later versions.
SafeKeys blocks out the initial password while it's entered. This is a nice improvement, and was on the TODO list for this version of GNU Keyring. It will take just a couple of lines of code to implement.

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

To make sure the user entered the password as intended, both applications require the user to enter the password twice. If it's incorrect, they display a warning dialog. Strangely both messages are missing the final punctuation mark.

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

Once the Keyring password has been set a blank list screen is displayed. It's quite standard for a Palm app to begin with a blank list and an invitation to create a new record.
What's less common is the off-center rectangle. This appears in this version of GNU Keyring because I found it easier to use a ListBox and ScrollBar combination at first. But those controls don't work so well for this application, and my choice was a bit nonstandard.
The contents of the menu bar in this form are also exactly the same, except that the product name has changed.

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

The About box in SafeKeys makes no mention of GNU Keyring, Martin Pool, or the GPL. It claims copyright originating in 1998, before work on GNU Keyring began.

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

Both applications feature a Preferences dialog, which allows the keyring to stay unlocked for a certain amount of time. Both have exactly the same layout, offer the same choices, and both default to 60 seconds.

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

Clicking the (i) button in the Preferences box shows some context-sensitive help. It happens to be exactly the same.

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

Before creating or modifying a record, both applications require you to enter your master password. The dialog to do this is also exactly the same, except that again they've masked out the password -- a change of a couple of lines of source.

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

Once the keyring is unlocked, the user can fill out a form to create a new key. The form is obviously identical in every respect.
Both forms include a "SelectorTrigger" control which can be manually set to the date the key was last changed. I implemented this because it seemed useful, but I've more recently dropped it because it turned out not to be so. It's quite suggestive that somebody claiming an independent creation should make the exact same false start.
The forms also have similar limitations. In particular, fields don't resize as text is entered, so they can't show more than a single line. This is on my TODO list for 1.0, but I hadn't done it in 0.11. It seems that the supposed developers of SafeKeys didn't get around to it either.

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

The menubar in the Key Edit form is exactly the same, except that the product name is different. SafeKeys reproduced my mistake of using the "G" shortcut for both "Generate Password" and "Graffiti".

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

Both products can generate random passwords on request. The dialog to do this is exactly the same, and the help message is only slightly modified.

GNU Keyring 0.11
SafeKeys 1.3.548

To make sure the user entered the password as intended, both applications require the user to enter the password twice. If it's incorrect, they display a warning dialog. Strangely both messages are missing the final punctuation mark.
GNU Keyring 0.11	SafeKeys 1.3.548