Re: Questions regarding Control-Center.

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

Jens Lautenbacher <jens@tellux.de> writes:

> Hi,
> 
> first of all I want to make clear that I really like the effort to
> provide an integrated control center for all the small little
> customization programs that have been floating around. Doing this with 
> a nice interface/extensibility --- the capplets --- is even better :-)
> 
> Without wishing to step on anybodys toes, I still want to make a small 
> suggestion regarding the UI of that thing...
> 
> IMHO it makes no sense at all that capplets get added to a notebook
> when I browse through the tree on the left side, and that they will be
> "closed" when I press OK. The notebook could be used INSIDE a single
> caplet if it provides for extensive options. But why not use the tree
> to select between them? What sense does it make to need to browse
> through the tree, double click to add a capplet to the working area,
> and then be able to switch between them via the notebook tabs?????

Consider what happens when you bring up a capplet, make changes in it,
and then switch to another capplet, before applying your
changes. Using notebook tabs for active capplets is an attempt to
solve a UI flaw in KDE's control panel where unapplied changes can 
easily be lost.

Perhaps your objection would be addressed if there was an option such
that switching away from a capplet with no unapplied changes caused
that capplet to be closed or hidden. We discussed doing that, but
decided against making that the default because having notebooks close
themselves sometimes, but not others probably would be confusing to
novice users. It could easily be an option in the Preferences.
(Or could be made the default if it was shown not to be confusing
in reality)
 
> My suggestion would be: selecting an item in the tree shows it. Remove 
> the CANCEL button as there is no need for it. OK becomes APPLY, which
> unconditionally applies the changes made but doesn't close the capplet 
> of course. TRY and REVERT work like they did. 

I'm not sure what Jonathan finally decided, but one possibility
that was discussed was making "Revert" a single-level undo,
while "Cancel" reverts back to the state when the capplet was
opened. This would make trying and undoing changes incrementally
more convenient.

Regards,
                                        Owen

> After all, there's no need to close a capplet at all -- it will be
> closed when the control panel is left -- or maybe when another item
> is selected.