Re: [Epiphany] Bug 115431 - fonts and instant apply

[Marco Pesenti Gritti <mpeseng tin it>]

On Thu, 2003-06-19 at 08:39, Trevor Spiteri wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I reported that the instant apply for changing the fonts in the
> preferences window is unresponsive in bug 115431:
> > Chapter 3.1 of the HIG says that if a change takes more than 1 second to
> > apply, it should not be instant apply as it makes the system feel unresponsive.
> > 
> > When I change the fonts in the Appearance tab of the preferences, it often
> > takes a lot of time and feels very unresponsive.
> > 
> > I think an Apply button is suitable for the Appearance tab.
> 
> Bordoley closed the bug saying:
> 
> > I'm going to notabug this. The correct fix is to fix mozilla to update
> > faster not work around it with an apply button. Adding an apply button
> > would be wrong too because than the dialog would need to be apply
> > cancel ok. Basically we can't mix instant apply and explicit apply in
> > the same window so we go with instant.
> 
> I think that it is not a question of fixing mozilla. When there are some
> tabs or windows (not just one), I think it is not surprising that
> mozilla does not rerender them in less than about a second.
> 
> The section of the HIG I was referring to is Chapter 3.3.1 (not 3.1),
> available at
> http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/1.0/windows.html#instant-apply
> It states (among other things):
> 
> > Do not make the user press an OK or Apply button to make the changes
> > happen, unless either:
> > 
> > the change will take more than about one second to apply, in which case
> > applying the change immediately could make the system feel slow or
> > unresponsive, or
> 
> It also states that:
> 
> > If either these conditions affect only a few of the controls in your
> > window, arrange those controls together into one or more groups, each
> > with its own Apply button. Leave the rest of the controls as instant
> > apply.
> 
> I understand this to mean that we CAN mix instant apply and explicit
> apply in the same window. The font preferences are already in their own
> group in their own tab. So I think that the Apply button can be placed
> inside this tab.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Trevor Spiteri
> 
> PS. I am posting on the list because I do not think it is useful to
> comment on a closed bug, and because the issue does not seem to be as
> clear-cut as I first thought.

My opinion is that we should consider windows with many tabs opened a corner case and that
it's not worth to confuse the user with a mixed dialog for this.
In the future we are prolly going to simplify the font settings, solving one of the
usability problem with slow apply (it's annoying to have to wait to set more than one fonts
prefs at a time, for example the 3 fonts families).
But I guess Dave has something more sensible to say then me :)

Marco