Re: Questions regarding Control-Center.

[Tim Moore <tmoore tembel org>]

On Mon, 28 Sep 1998 Daniel_Burrows@brown.edu wrote:

>   Ok, I'm kind of late in this discussion since I just got the Control
> Center, it didn't work on my computer until this morning. :-)  Sorry if
> what I say has been said (or decided against) before.
> 
>   I think that whoever said the current method is counterintuitive was
> right.  The best way to do it (imo) would be like the options dialog for
> Borland's Windows compiler.  In that, you have a tree on the left to
> choose what you're configuring and a sub-dialog on the right which shows
> the current 'capplet', but the way it works (externally) is
> different--the whole thing is one dialog box.  Choosing a new item from
> the tree just shows another capplet with its current (tentative)
> settings.  Settings are only applied when Ok is clicked.
> 
>   There's no reason the Gnome panel can't work like this.  When a
> capplet is selected from the tree (single-click, not double-click) it
> can be started if it's not running yet or else just displayed.  The
> notebook tabs seem redundant to me.  Each capplet could have "Try",
> "Apply", and "Revert" but there could also be a panel-wide "Cancel" and
> "Ok".  I _really_ don't like the way that "Ok" and "Cancel" keep the
> panel open with the current system, this is too strange.
> 
>   Maybe the current system would make more sense if the
> newly-opened capplets were opened as top-level windows?

I have to agree *strongly* with this! OK and Cancel should close the
*whole* window. I was annoyed by this behavior in the KDE control panel,
and I'm annoyed by it in GNOME's, too! If the control center isn't going
to act like a normal dialog box, it really shouldn't look like one.

Tim