Re: [Usability] GtkEntry with units

["Robert Staudinger" <robert staudinger gmail com>]

On 1/22/07, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com> wrote:
> On Jan 22, 2007, at 8:03 PM, Robert Staudinger wrote:
> > ...
> > The option menu was my intuitive first thought as well, but I'm a bit
> > concerned it may not work out very well when the GtkEntry is stretched
> > to fit the overall dialog layout:
> > ------------------------- --------
> > |123                     | cm <> |
> > ------------------------- --------
> > vs.
> > ----------------------------------
> > |123cm                           |
> > ----------------------------------
> > where the latter would look much more natural.
>
> If the field is really that wide, there is something wrong with the
> window layout. The width of fields should be at least roughly
> proportionate to the length of the data people are likely to enter in
> them (though it's best to avoid using more than two or three lengths in
> a single window).

Unfortunately it isn't always that easy. Even the HIG's own examples
come with wide GtkEntry and combo-box/option-menu widgets:
http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/design-window.html
That should of course not be an excuse whatsoever, just some support
for the argument that widget size cannot always easily be constrained.
Displaying the unit together with the datum seems more natural to me,
so i'd prefer it over a separated solution.
Even if the GtkEntry is only 3 times as wide as the datum it looks
"torn apart" IMO.
I'd be interested in prototyping a new solution too, if one came up.

- Rob