Re: lock down features

[Jonathan Blandford <jrb redhat com>]

Gediminas Paulauskas <menesis delfi lt> writes:

> Jonathan Blandford wrote:
> > The control-center needs to handle locked down keys better.  One problem
> > I have in implementing this is that I'm not really sure how to let the
> > user know why certain graphical elements are insensitive.
> 
> In HIG this is was explained long ago. With a bit of code how to do
> that with gconf, and a mockup of proxy preference dialog (for control
> center, even ;)):
> 
> http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/draft_hig/controls.html#controls-locked

I saw that, but didn't really like it for partially insensitive
capplets.  Maybe the problem is bigger than that -- I hate when I see an
insensitive control and don't know why.  When it's obvious (ie, there's
a radio group controlling it), insensitivity is fine.  However, there
are elements that are not so.

For example, the font capplet will make the Window Title Font button
insensitive if the window manager font is linked to the GTK+ theme.
This is pretty non-obvious to those who bring up the dialog, and made me
go through the source to find out why it's the case.

In the case of locked-controls, I suppose I could put a comment saying
'Some of the elements below are locked, and can only be changed by your
sysadmin'.  That feels a little clumsy though, and doesn't work for
things like locked menu items.

Thanks,
-Jonathan