Re: [Usability] Rubberbanding data

[Marek Peteraj <marpet naex sk>]

On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 07:41, Gregory Merchan wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 13, 2003 at 03:37:44AM +0100, Marek Peteraj wrote:
> > Hi Gregory,
> > 
> > On Wed, 2003-11-12 at 19:40, Gregory Merchan wrote:
> > > Gnumeric allows mouse-only resizing of a selection with a handle on
> > > the bounding box of the focused selection. Dia objects have handles
> > > that allow (some of) them to be resized. Resizable windows have borders
> > > that (on Windows or with Metacity) allow them to be resized.
> > > 
> > > If GtkTreeView had a border on the selection containing focus, it could
> > > allow mouse-only resizing of the selection in a similar way.
> > 
> > A resizable bounding box that stays in its place after releasing the
> > mouse button isn't suitable for selecting in gtktrees, bacause the
> > selection refers to objects. If you drag the rectangle you're actually
> > preselecting, you confirm the selection by releasing the mouse button,
> > which means that the selection box isn't needed anymore.
> > 
> > But you raised an important issue in the current terminology. What you
> > described is exactly a *bounding box* whereas what i described should be
> > refered to as *rubberbanding*. I have also described why it was most
> > probably called rubberbanding in one of my earlier posts. The behaviour
> > is very similar to a real rubberband(stretching and releasing). 
> 
> I think this (mouse-only range selection) is an important issue and needs
> more consideration. For now, I only have some quick notes:
> 
> 1) "rubberbanding" is jargon. It's also a moot verbificative.
>    (I'm calling it "mouse-only range selection" for now.)

Disagree. :) 

A range selection doesn't necessarily have to refer to entire objects,
ditto for 'bounding'. Rubberbanding always refers to entire objects
(we're selecting entire objects only), but it doesn't have to include
entire objects( the HiG states that all objects 'within' should get
selected, it's not clear whether they should be included entirely or not
to get selected, the images indicate they should which is wrong) and the
rectangle disappears by releasing the mousebutton, which confirms
selection, so it's not possible to redefine it's boundaries/range after
buttonrelease. The word rubberbanding describes the process of selecting
multiple objects perfectly.

> 
> 2) MS OutLook does support mouse-only range selection in the list of
>    messages in a folder. (See if you can figure out how. ;-)

Can't test it right now(no winbox around here), but i can imagine it's
done via keybinding. Not sure if that's the best solution though.

> 4) You can turn off the alternating color rows in many instances by adding
> 
>      GtkTreeView:allow_rules=0
> 
>    to your gtkrc file. This does turn them off in Nautilus.

The alternating color rule fits perfectly in a RB environment imho. :)

Marek