Re: GnomePropertyBox

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs noisehavoc org>]

On 29Jun2001 01:25PM (+0200), Dietmar Maurer wrote:
> Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
> 
> >
> > I think a nice way to do things is to apply changes instantly as you
> > manipulate the controls, and provide a way to undo changes (either
> > undo one at a time, or revert them all). So the two buttons I'd
> > suggets are "Revert" or "Undo" and "OK" or "Close".
> >
> > Changes that apply instantly are definitely the best for tweaking
> > things and trying out different preferences.
> 
> I think it is not always good to apply changes immediately. 

I think the case where it's not good to do so is very rare, if it
exists at all. Nautilus applies all settings live as you change the
controls. Mac OS X does it for all System Preferences (their new name
for control panels) and for the preference dialogs of all the core
desktop apps. In both cases it works really well and is much nicer
than our five button control center.

I would have thought it was crazy before I tried it, but once you use
it enough, it's clear it's better.

> I would prefer an configurable approach, where we show OK/Cancel for
> normal users, and some additional buttons for advanced users
> (OK/Apply/Revert/Close or something like that).

Even if there might be a very few settings that you don't want to
apply instantly, shouldn't we design something for the 99% case rather
than the 1% case?

Regards,

Maciej