Re: Flipping for scrolled windows

[Pablo Saratxaga <pablo mandrakesoft com>]

Kaixo!

On Mon, Sep 24, 2001 at 10:38:49PM +0200, Tzafrir Cohen wrote:

> I'm not sure that flippping everything is a good idea.
> 
> This thing is that the user may be exposed to both flipped and unflipped
> windows, and this means that the user iinterface is inconsistent.
> 
> Windows98 was the first version of windows to be released in which the
> Hebrew support included a flipping of the user interface. Many people
> (including me) avoided installing the "localized" version (and installed
> the "enabled" version,m which has the original user interface) because the
> user interface was unfamiliar:

But with Gtk+ 2 you can configure that; either a special configuration
option or variable will be provided (I don't know), or, at worst, you
can create a simple *.po file with just:

msgid "LTR"
msgstr "LTR"

(instead of RTL for the msgstr). install it under some name; eg:

/usr/share/locale/ltr/LC_MESSAGES/gtk2.mo

then change your LANGUAGEvariable to have it first, eg:

LANGUAGE=ltr:he

that way you will have the global directionality as left to right, and still
have hebrew language for program interface.

> When I wanted to close a window, I was used to clicking the button in the
> top-left corner, not necesarily the button above the top of the first menu
> item.

So, the reason was just because you got accostumed to an interface not
made for your language.

> Considering the user's habits, the geometry should change as least as
> possible, unless there is a good reason. In the case of everything that
> involves text, there is a good reason for flipping. But I don't think that
> this applies to scroll-bars and title-bar buttons.

Well, I think having text in RTL and widgets in LTR *IS* perturbing.
What about the fact of the buttongs "next" and "previous" labeled in
a RTL language, but placed in an order opposed to the reading order,
and with the pictograms being opposed to what is natural for next and
previous in the reading order ? It would be like having in English:

  +--------+  +------------+
  | < Next |  | Previous > |
  +--------+  +------------+

As soon as there is only *one word* displayed, or even *one letter* displayed
on screen, then you have text, and you have a reading direction, either
LTR or RTL, and I think the whole interface should follows that direction;
doing otherwise will be mixing and confusing.
Of course, users should be able to configure their sistem to use unnatural
and confusing layouts, if they are accostumed to :) 

-- 
Ki ça vos våye bén,
Pablo Saratxaga

http://www.srtxg.easynet.be/		PGP Key available, key ID: 0x8F0E4975