Re: meld scrollbars

[Kai Willadsen <kai willadsen gmail com>]

2009/2/15 Stephen Kennedy <stevek gnome org>:
> Hi all, if anybody has been using the svn version, you'll have noticed
> that the margin drawing has moved into the scrollbar trough. I don't
> think the change has been entirely successful and plan to revert it.
> Pros and cons:
> + All textviews now get a diff map (previously the middle pane
> wouldn't have one)
> + The textviews get a little wider
> -  Scrollbar gets very busy looking - with many changes the scroll
> handle is obscured

Chiming in a little late on this, but...

In order for the diffmap-in-scrollbar thing to work, I think that it
would be necessary to do a proper GtkScrollbar subclass, with manual
control of the handle drawing, etc. I think it could work, but it
would be a fair bit of effort, and I don't think there is any other
way to get the drawing right.

> Another option is to remove the scrollbars from the textviews entirely
> and have one master scrollbar for all panes with a combined diffmap
> beside the scrollbar.
> + Middle pane gets a diffmap
> + Saves some horizontal space
> + No scrollbars mean prettier drawing for 3 way merges
> + Does anybody use the other (non right hand side) scrollbars anyway?

I do, but admittedly not all that often.

> I only use them when a large block has been deleted and want to look
> at the contents.

I personally feel a little reticent about this, but I don't know how
much of that is just because I'm used to the current interface. What
does the new diffmap look like, and where does it go?

> I did some experiments with this option but didn't get very far as I
> couldn't find the magic to turn off the vertical scrollbar and hook it
> up to an external scrollbar. Any links to gtk scrolling docs welcome.

I suspect that using gtk.ScrolledWindow makes this difficult. However,
you should be able to do away with the ScrolledWindows, add horizontal
and vertical scrollbars and give the VScrollbar an Adjustment
representing the longest-chunk-in-range behaviour that you want, and
then negotiate changes to it with the Adjustments on all TextViews
directly. Does that sound vaguely sensible?

Kai