Re: [Usability] Resizability of windows

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

(Studiously avoiding Mr Horkan's trolling...)

On May 3, 2006, at 1:53 AM, Elijah Newren wrote:
> On 5/2/06, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com> wrote:
> <snip>
> > Having said all that, I don't understand why the Theme Preferences
> > window is not a dialog and is resizable, but doesn't become  
> > maximizable automatically. That looks like too much flexibility in  
> > Metacity.
>
> There's code in metacity that turns off the maximization ability for
> any window not of META_WINDOW_NORMAL type (e.g. dialogs).

According to the HIG, the Theme Preferences window is not a dialog,  
it's a utility window, and I agree wholeheartedly.
<http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/windows-utility.html>
<http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/windows-dialog.html>

> I don't know why the code does that; is it in the HIG?

No. The HIG tells you to "See the description of each particular window  
type for a list of appropriate window commands", but then forgets to do  
so for either instant-apply *or* explicit-apply windows.
<http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/windows.html#window- 
props-borders>
<http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/windows- 
utility.html#windows-instant-apply>

Relatedly, I disagree strongly with the HIG (and Metacity) on which  
buttons should be in the title bar for each type of window. It is  
broken for an alert to have a close button in its title bar, because  
that misleads people into thinking they can opt out of the alert. (The  
HIG's screenshot of an alert with title bar correctly omits the close  
button, but the text contradicts the screenshot.) It is broken for a  
dialog *or* an alert to have a close button in its title bar, because  
that means the window has two buttons that do exactly the same thing  
(and it's often not clear which two). It is broken for a progress  
window to have a close button in its title bar, because that invites  
people to confuse "cancel or stop this" with "keep going, but hide the  
feedback". And as I alluded to in bug 338660, the uniformity of title  
bar buttons between window types wastes a valuable visual clue to how a  
window will behave.  
<http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=338660#c3> I would love to  
help find a way out of these holes.

Cheers
--
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/