Re: canvas notes [zoom dependent container]

[Alexander Larsson <alexl redhat com>]

On Thu, 2005-09-08 at 09:30 +0200, Øyvind Kolås wrote:
> 
> When playing around with some zoomable canvas prototypes using cairo
> earlier, I created a canvas container element that acted as a switch.
> At one zoom level it was showing one set of children, and when zoomed
> beyond a defined threshold it alternate children were shown.
> 
> This way of doing things allows a progressive revealing of the interface:
> 
>   Tiny icon ->
>   Icon ->
>   Icon with text ->
>   Tiny icon with label as title with basic controls ->
>   Tiny icon with label as title with basic controls and advanced controls ->
>   All of the above with additional debug information ;-]
> 
> One further extension to make this more usable (apart from excessive
> use) would be to allow defining transitions between the two sets of
> children.

At some level this is perfectly fine, however when you start to change
the geometry (i.e. the size, position and number of canvas items) things
get really hairy. In a design where you can have multiple views of one
canvas you suddenly get different canvas layouts depending on what view
you look at. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
                   alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
He's a one-legged native American librarian with a passion for fast cars. 
She's a warm-hearted foul-mouthed archaeologist from a family of eight older 
brothers. They fight crime!