Re: property dialogs

[Janos Farkas <Janos.Farkas-nouce/priv-#HkOGpNFfcYv4UIphb9tKa6u0NJ4 lk9qw mail eon ml org>]

On 1998-03-17 at 14:14:24, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Mar, 1998 at 12:29:29PM -0700, Paul Hepworth set free these words:
> > > ['Apply', 'Apply+Close', and 'Close']
> > This scheme has my vote.
> > Regarding undo buttons (and defaults buttons), these should probably
> > be placed on the pages rather than on the main dialog, as it makes
> > more sense to undo or restore defaults for the single page you are
> > looking at than for all pages at once.

> For the undo button, I think there are two types with different
> meanings: "undo changes I've just made" and "UnApply changes that I've
> made" -- Changing colormap entries might be one instance where the
> latter was applicable.

Hmm, I can't really grab a good article to respond on, but a few weeks
earlier, I remember some people have come to the consensus that
(forgetting how any other system's property dialogs work) the most
intuitive for the user is that any change is instant, with a way to undo
these changes.

If this is still acceptable, this way would need the least buttons: i.e.
only per-panel Default, Revert (or Undo), and a global Ok, which
function might be served by window close.  Maybe even a global Cancel,
or rather Revert, to get rid of all changes.  The only question is that
should the state of a tab (panel) be preserved when switching tabs?
Preserving would make a local Revert work even after switching a few,
but that's not necessarily intuitive.  On the other hand, a global
revert may be better for "I don't remember what I've done, but I'd
rather undo all", after that switching..

This method is also more intuitive in some cases for non-modal dialogs
(which should be strongly supported, IMHO).

-- 
Janos - Don't worry, my address is real.  I'm just bored of spam.