Gtk?Scale feature request

[Leif Johnson <leif ambient 2y net>]

Hi -

I've never posted to this list, I hope I'm not completely in the wrong
place here. Also, I'd appreciate being CC'd on responses, as I'm not a
subscriber.

I wanted to post a quick question about a potential new feature for
GtkHScale and GtkVScale widgets. What about adding a double click response
that pops up a spin button or text entry widget under the pointer to allow
for precise value entries ? When the popup widget loses focus it would
disappear. In some apps that I've seen, particularly in apps like audio
mixers, where there are a lot of slider widgets, many GUI authors create a
spin box widget (or suchlike) and tie it to the scale widget. I think
having a popup would reduce UI clutter and make it easier to design GTK+
GUIs for such apps.

I'm mostly wondering if people think this would be feasible and useful.
Certainly a disadvantage could be increased user confusion because other
GUI toolkits (in my knowledge) don't provide this behavior. In particular,
it might be distressing for, eg, audio mixer users who don't immediately
see any spin button widgets for precise value entry. But it might be
interesting to try this out : If it's a good idea, I don't think it should
be dumped just because other toolkits don't do it.

Finally, just as a disclaimer, this idea actually comes from seeing another
program : I saw this behavior in EMagic's Logic[1] sound software and
thought it (a) was really cool, and (b) could be pretty useful for many
apps. Ugh, I hope it's not patented. Anyway, just wanted to see what you
all thought. Thanks, and cheers !

leif

[1] http://www.emagic.de/products/ls/platinum/index.php?lang=EN

--
Leif Morgan Johnson . http://ambient.2y.net/leif/
IAESTE trainee      . http://www.iaeste.org/
Salomon Automation  . http://www.salomon.at/