Re: A matter of principle [Re: HIGification of dialog boxes]

[Cyrille Chepelov <cyrille chepelov org>]

Le Fri, Jul 18, 2003, à 06:42:34PM +0200, Krzysztof Foltman a écrit:


> 1. SDI app.
>
> One file = one window with menu. Toolbox etc are in a separate window 

This is what Hubert Figuiere did... hmmm... two, if not three years ago.
It's a flag in the preferences.

You can also put the toolbox as a toplevel window.

> 2. MDI app (tabbed or windowed etc).

argh, no please not going back to Windows 3.0

> As for Try (vs Apply)- it suggests (more clearly than Apply) that it's a 
> temporary choice you can revert by clicking Cancel.

Yep, I like that (though I'm used better to "apply").
 
> I *wouldn't*. Undo button in the default line width dialog box shouldn't 
> modify anything except what's related to default line width. Otherwise, 
> it may get confusing. Unless you meant using application Undo stack, but 

so you have now two undo stacks. Urgh. I don't think we can efficiently
express in a graphical way that concept so that over time users' mental
model evolve into what we're doing (not that it's the order things are
supposed to run, but bear with me). So, the practical result is that they end 
up with two undo buttons/commands, which they would test at random until
they know they undid what they intended (and hopefully not what they didn't
intend to).

Seems like we either get modal and then we don't need a dual undo stack
(because the "cancel" button plays the role of the secondary single-slot
undo stack in a way users know about and are accustomed with), or we do
modal but with close-and-undo buttons (which might as well be renamed OK and
Cancel), or we don't do modal and we are now into dual-undo stack madness.
Sorry, but I don't buy the advantages of instant apply in that context (I
may miss something).

        -- Cyrille

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