Re: gnome-stock pixmaps

[Toshio Kuratomi <badger prtr-13 ucsc edu>]

On Tue, 05 May, 1998 at 06:18:36PM -0300, Marc Ewing set free these words:
> Toshio Kuratomi <badger@prtr-13.ucsc.edu> writes:
> > On Tue, 05 May, 1998 at 04:10:36PM -0300, Marc Ewing set free these words:
> > > 
> > > Bruce Dodson proposed this:
> > > 
> > >  <OK/Accept> <Preview/Test> <Cancel>
> > > 
> > >  * The first button applies any changes and closes the dialog.
> > >  * The second attempts to show the user what would happen if the changes
> > >    were applied. Sometimes that will not be possible, in which case this
> > >    button will not be present.
> > >  * The third button cancels any changes and closes the dialog.
> > > 
> > > I think that "Preview/Test" best describes what users want to do
> > > when they push that button (as opposed to "Apply").  It's a very
> > > clean and intuitive solution.
> > > 
> > Yeah -- I remember that.  It's very nice... except that I don't use the middl
> > e
> > button to Preview.  I use it to Commit changes (ie: Apply) so I can go on
> > experimenting without danger of losing what I've already customized.  For me,
> > 
> >  <Ok/Accept> <Apply/Commit> <Undo>
> > 
> >  * First applies changes and closes dialog
> >  * Second applies changes and saves the state onto a stack.
> >  * Third pops the last state from the stack, changes the dialog to reflect
> >    that information, and applies it to the application.
> 
> The difference between the two methods seems to boil down to
> the undo stack.  I think it would be confusing to users, and
> it would require 2 (or possibly more) clicks to "cancel".
> For example, imagine you are trying to fine-tune a color.
> Under your button scheme they'd be constantly clicking
> Undo before changing the color each time.  If they don't then
> they'd have to click Undo any number of times to revert back
> to where they started.
> 
That's true.  Your example requires a colour selection that belongs in a
preferences dialog rather than a toolbox and must be applied in order for
the user to properly judge it's effects.  I can think of one example: a
WYSIWYG html editor that needs the colour of its links changed.
Possible solutions:
 1) Add a Cancel button.  (I don't like a cancel button that cancel's previous
    apply's, so this would make me unhappy.)
 2) Ask why the user would want to revert to the previous colour -- If the
    user wants to revert to the previous colour because it may be the best
    colour they will probably press undo every time without another thought.
    (easier to press undo, then to hit the exact same spot on the color
    selection.) If they started with a blue link on a blue background, they
    won't want to revert, so they'll keep trying 'til it's right.
 3) Decide that this isn't really a preferences dialog and create a custom
    dialog for it. (I found three distinct types of dialogs in the GIMP when
    I glanced at it this morning.)  In this case we could use a toolbox dialog
    that changed the colour of the links on the page as I moved the colour
    selection or a preview dialog that displayed a sample in the dialog as I
    moved the selection (show background with a text link of changing colour.)
 4) Create a preview in the preferences dialog.  This can update automatically
    and when the user's satisfied they can press <Apply/Commit>
 5) Allow our Undo button to have a drop down menu of previous commits.  This
    might not look great with our current buttons, but netscape-4's back
    button shows that it can be done in a manner that looks okay.  And was a
    rather intelligent way for netscape to fix exactly this problem.

So solutions do exist in plenty.  I should point out that the same problem
would occur for Ok-Preview-Cancel if "Undo" functionality was added to it.
Maybe moreso -- conceptually Undo is tied to Apply in my mind (so Undo
undoes all the changes to the previous Apply.) Undo and Preview aren't so
tied, so although you could make them work in the same manner, it might be
better to tie Undo to each individual action (hence higher granularity and
more steps that can be undone.)

Without Undo and Apply, there is no way to Undo changes except by hitting
Cancel which makes it an all or nothing proposition.  Especially in a large
dialog with separate notepad entries/tabs there is no way to checkpoint
yourself after you've made a set of changes that you like before moving on
to the next set.

-Toshio
-- 
badger  \"The Difference between today and yesterday is not so much what has
@prtr-13 \ changed between then and now as what I hope to change by tomorrow."
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