Re: Renderer updates

[Matt Jones <mattharrison sbcglobal net>]

Hi - 

> 
> I'm open to suggestions and recommendations for more improvements (and
> even criticism).

First the nit-picky:

Just looking at the screenshot (I haven't had a chance to patch yet) -
is it possibly to restrain list items (like the files) so that they
align against the inside edge of the top vertical line? The im convos
seem to, but not the files.

Bigger suggestions - 
Perhaps every renderer should display in a list format - all
standardized to a list similar to the "Your files" section. What I mean
by this is - (an example might make more sense)

 -----------
| Contacts  |
 -----------
(pic) <bluelink>Kelley Godby</bluelink>
(pic) <grey>email/phone/some other contact info</grey>

With the generic form
 ------------
| List Type  |
 ------------
(pic) <bluelink>Item Title</bluelink>
(pic) <grey>Item attribute</grey>

For im convos, the attribute might be a summary or date  (the title
could be the person the convo is with), the pic would be a buddy pic
etc..

I'm not too sure if renderers are important if you treat every data type
in the same way - item matches would probably be modified to contain a
visual representation of the item (data types could provide a fallback
image), a title, and a ranked list of attributes (the display would
choose what to show - so the user could "zoom" on categories/data types
or specific data types - like tooltips or something).

I can make a gimp-ed mockup if this is completely confusing, but
hopefully the final design would be more uniform across different data
types. The advantages are it provides a visual element for each item
(rather than each list) - a key part of the original goals / vision for
dashboard IIRC - and its visually consistent between data types.

I can't write code for this for the next week or two (just finishing up
my senior year in high school), but i have a nice empty summer that i'd
love to use some time in to help out / play around with dashboard.

-- Matt Jones