Re: HIGification of dialog boxes

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003, Krzysztof Foltman wrote:

> Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 22:05:28 +0200
> From: Krzysztof Foltman <kfoltman onet pl>
> Reply-To: dia-list gnome org
> To: dia-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: HIGification of dialog boxes
>
> Cyrille Chepelov wrote:
>
> > Well, FWIW, I find the "instant apply" thing extremely confusing and
> > frustrating. What's wrong with a cancel button?
> Cancel is for modal dialogs.
>
> Property dialogs in GNOME are encouraged to be modeless (a controversial
> HIG idea, but not that bad IMO). You're supposed to be able to switch
> between document and the line width window.

Having a slightly more generic modeless dialog that did things like Fill
and line style for the Current Object (or selection of objects) would be
pretty nice.

The current Layers dailog is a modeless dialog with instant apply.

I have been giving it some thought and double clicking on a shape to get
at its Line Sytle and Fill properties is quite different from any other
diagramming program i have looked at, most seem to use a Format menu and
have a fairly generic dialog.  Might be nice to have a Format menu as well
to make it easier to discover these things.

> Instant apply with Revert/Undo button, maybe ? (I don't know if it's
> kosher HIG-wise, but it may be nice/useful)

You would use the application Undo stack.

> As for switchable instant/explicit - no, please. It's not that easy, and
> that time could be better spent on more important things (like getting
> rid of the dreaded CSDI model ;-) ).

I am no fan of CSDI but I dont want to chuck the baby out with the
bathwater.  The alternatives are not so great eitehr.

Being able to stick the toolbar always on top and to have a maximised
document window is quite usable.  (would be even better if i could go
fullscreen with menubar, a feature which the GIMP recently gained).

> Krzysztof

Tired, probably not making much sense ... z Z Z Z

Later

Alan