[Gtranslator-devel] proposed changes

[Gediminas Paulauskas <menesis delfi lt>]

I have looked into gtranslator and tried to summarize what's wrong with
it, IMHO. Here is the list what I wanted to change:

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Remove View menu and views sidebar.

Remove "Remove all translations" functionality.

Don't check if "file is already opened in another instance of gtranslator"

Remove the following options:
	* Don't save unchanged files
	* Warn me if I'm trying to save an unchanged file
	* Enable the functionality to update/remove.... (nonsense)
	* Load all backends on startup (they should be loaded only when
	a sgml or other file is opened
	* Show the views sidebar (there's no such thing)
	* Check recent files before showing... (should do that always)

Merge the following options:
	* "Use special dictionary" and "Dictionary to use"
	* "Save po files automatically..." and "Autosave timeout..."
	* "Append a special suffix..." and "Autosave suffix"

Remove the following items from toolbar:
	* Save as, Update, Preferences, Exit, (Find, Replace,) Query

Drop most of GtrPreferences and preferences.h stuff in favor of plain GConf
with notification.
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Almost everything here is "remove" of things, which are not useful. There
are clearly too much options and some of them don't make sense.

I never understood the purpose of Views sidebar -- the checks should be
done on the fly, only with c-format options, and reported to user with special
highlighting or a dialog. Who switches all views on every message to visually
check if everything is OK?

Why removing items from toolbar? Read the HIG -- toolbars are for often-used
actions. Exit clearly should not be there -- you use it only once on every
run of the app. Preferences even more so -- you usually want to change
your preferences only when first installed.

GConf stuff is much of work. But currently there is no point in using GConf,
because nothing else changed from gnome_config times. There's no need to read
most of the preferences on startup -- they are rarely used, so instead of a
variable or field in GtrPreferences you should read only when needed
directly from GConf (e.g. "Save geometry on exit and load on startup",
"Show comment pane" or "Use special dictionary").

Comments welcome, I can do most of the changes if no objections
(Removing is easy).

-- 
Gediminas Paulauskas
Kaunas, Lithuania