Re: properties dialog and grouped objects

["Sameer Sahasrabuddhe" <sameerds gmail com>]

On 8/3/07, Hans Breuer <hans breuer org> wrote:

> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=333751
> >
> > But this is not it. This bug talks about a dialog box that retains it
> > size when opened again for a different object.
> Probably some bug in Gtk, but apparently I'm not able to reproduce it any
> longer with gtk+ 2.10.14

Actually I just quoted this bug just to pre-empt any confusion with my
problem of dialog boxes that are too big. That particular bug seems to
be restricted to Windows ... there is some discussion on the bug page,
but no resolution yet. Not relevant here, anyway.

> > My problem is that the
> > dialog box itself is so big in the first place, that I can't reach the
> > OK and other buttons. The dialog is also not resizable.
> It should be resizable, but only if you want to have it bigger;) The
> minimal size is calculated by all te contained widgets though.

Yes, simply having it resizable does not help. But you have mentioned
elsewhere about making it scrollable. That could be a possible answer.
Having it resizable and scrollable makes the bug minor (there is a
workaround) instead of critical (there's no way to use Dia on displays
where you can't reach the OK button).

> IMHO it would be nice to have that at least selectable - my prototype
> group_props.py only offered the intersection an IMO works quite nicely.

Intersection is not useful. The user should be able to select
arbitrary objects or groups or even a mixture and then use a single
interface to say "make the lines red, change all the flowchart objects
to use oblique fonts, etc".

> Just looked at the lst patch. It is changing every objects 'vtable' and
> thus breaking binary compatibility. If necessary at all it should be added
> at the end of the vtable (see objects.h struct _ObjectOps) having only 4
> unused left. Also one would need to implement a default handling for case
> where the objects function pointer is NULL.

Oops! I never realised I would have to take care of binary
compatibility, I just inserted it into a place that "looks good" in
the struct. Will fix it and upload another patch.

> at least for the special case (UML Class) there is
> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=445698
> but maybe there should be one for the general case.

Referring to the unreachable OK button, I would like this to be a
general bug. The simplest "quick and dirty" fix is to make the box
scrollable and resizable. The real solution would be "organise"
properties better.

> > And (2) implies a need for a lot of reorganisation in properties.
> Could you explain this a bit more. How could reorganizing properties help
> to solve serious size restrictions?

I can see one hierarchy to begin with:
1) Properties of identical objects
2) Common properties of objects that belong to the same sheet
3) Common standard properties

If there was a way for recognising the properties of each objects like
this, then the dialog box could provide separate tabs for this. That's
the general idea of "reorganisation", although a lot more thought is
required. Lars has said something similar in his reply already, where
he mentions grouping the properties into "logical sets".

The way I see it, determining these "logical sets" will require
feedback from users ... what logical relations do they perceive
between different properties of different objects? Which relations are
they likely to prefer if they were to group properties when they use
the dialog box?

Sameer.
-- 
Research Scholar, Department of CSE, IIT Bombay
http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~sameerds/