Re: [Usability] Primary window decorated as a dialog in an utility application?

[Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com>]

I see no problem with the main window being a dialog. The preferences
capplets in control-center are like this for example. However, it really
bothers me when applications try to mix the two concepts into the
applications main window.

-- dobey


On Fri, 2006-04-07 at 11:16 +0700, Артём Попов wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I just wanted to know if GUP people consider okay to decorate an
> application primary window as a dialog with some small utilities, like
> a calculator, a volume control, etc. as seen in gfloppy: it does not
> have a menu or statusbar, but has some dialog-like buttons in the
> bottom.
> 
> This also raises another question: should such an app mimic the
> GtkDialog appearance (the separator, spacings, etc.) or not? If yes,
> than is it okay to use GtkDialog class directly (note, that GtkDialogs
> do not have a minimize button)? If not, then what spacings and
> decorations are considerer "standard"? I ask this, because it seems to
> me that most GNOME apps have non-HIG spacings in their dialogs (e. g.
> 6-px window border instead of the HIG-recommented value - 12)
> 
> And finally, how "Help" and "About" info could be made available in
> such an app? I was thinking about a help button in the "action-area"
> and a "--about" command-line option like in Zenity.
> 
> Thanks everyone for your answers. --Artem