tkman, teleports in scrollbars (Was: Re: [Usability] Re: Suggestion from LT)

[lukekendall optushome com au]

On  9 Feb, Bruce Ingalls wrote:
>  >  BTW, <url: http://tkman.sf.net/ > is so hip, it still beats gnome help.  

and I said:
 
>  Wish they had screenshots there.  I loved the UI when it was written in 
>  Tk3, but felt that the usability dropped when it got updated to 
>  Tk4/Tcl7, all those years ago.  I confess that I then simply stopped 
>  using it. :-( 
>   
>  I should download and try the current one, which may have been improved 
>  since then! 

I've tried it out.  It's actually quite reasonable now, IMHO.  I'm glad
Bruce pointed it out.  

Particularly interesting, as a coincidental thing, is that alongside
the normal scrollbar, it does in fact have a very narrow column with
horizontal lines in, and clicking in this area `teleports' you to the
corresponding point in the window.

Incidentally, the major criticism of tkman's UI that I'd make now, is
the non-obviousness of the fold and unfold widgets.  I would have
expected the widget to look more like a control, and/or to appear at
the point where the omitted (folded-up) sections start.  Maybe some
kind of ellipsis widget that read like "..." but which you could click
on.

In general, having invisible controls in a UI, or commands that have
no visual cue, is a serious failure in the UI design.  E.g. if you're
going to have Ctrl-Shift-G do something, then that command should also
appear in a menu, so a user can conceivably find it.  Likewise if you
have special uses for Ctrl- Mouse-click.
 
luke