Re: [Usability] Dialogs and Maximize button

[Sebastian Heinlein <sebi glatzor de>]

Am Donnerstag, den 21.09.2006, 00:54 +1200 schrieb Matthew Paul Thomas:
> On Sep 18, 2006, at 9:28 AM, Sebastian Heinlein wrote:
> >
> > Am Sonntag, den 10.09.2006, 17:21 +1200 schrieb Matthew Paul Thomas:
> >>
> >>> Some of the content useful for more advanced users it outside the
> >>> default visible area, and can be scrolled to.
> >>
> >> I don't think I've ever seen a window like that. Can you give an
> >> example?
> >
> > The synaptic download window and all of its error dialogs, which also
> > display the terminal output of apt.
> > ...
> 
> Wow, you're right. The listbox in the download window probably should 
> be replaced by text for the currently downloading file:
>      __
>      \/ Time remaining: about 7 hours
> 
>            Downloading: linux-image-2.6.15-27-386
>                   From: security.ubuntu.com
>                   Rate: 2897 B/s

Technically it's a treeview and not a listbox. Seems like a good idea.

> The error alerts could similarly be made more useful by parsing the 
> terminal output and replacing the listboxes with text, something like:
> 
>      3 of the 27 files (including
>      “linux-image-2.6.15-27-386_2.6.15-27.48_i386.deb” from
>      security.ubuntu.com) could not be downloaded. Do you want to
>      install the 4 packages that all files were downloaded for?
> 
>      ( Open Full Log )          ( Cancel ) (( Install 4 Anyway ))
> 
> (The button wording sucks, I know.) Anyway, these are quite unusual 
> cases, so I don't think they warrant making alerts maximizable. The 
> lack of a maximize button is one of the visual cues that "this is an 
> alert".

An expander could be the right way here too. The open full log action
would result in two open dialogs. By the way should the open full dialog
have a maximize button? :)

Furthermore it could be hard to find the most important package. This
would require a hard coded list for every distribution.

Cheers,

Sebastian