I generally agree, but I think that there's no great benefit to listing the available options in most cases. The user can easily enough click the revealer to see them. I also don't think that we want dissertation-length tooltips. If that much verbiage is required then it should be in the help document,but that presents other issues that I'll address in a new thread.
We should relabel sort selectors from the overly geeky "primary key" and "secondary key" to something like "Sort first by:" and "Then sort by:". That's sufficiently descriptive that a tool tip isn't necessary. Regards, John Ralls > On Feb 16, 2021, at 7:11 AM, Geert Janssens <geert.gnuc...@kobaltwit.be> > wrote: > > Hi Bob, > > I did some experiments and I agree with you it would be hard to implement > this > in Gtk3 because the tooltips should be added to the internal GtkMenu. The > GtkCombobox interface does not provide access to that widget. > > So there is a trade-off to make here between maintenance burden and added > value. > > Personally I'm clearly in favor of restrict our specialized widgets to only > where absolutely necessary. > > In this case my suggestion would be to rethink our tooltip strategy in the > context of the GtkComboBoxes. Clearly Gtk didn't intend for each entry in the > menu to have a separate tooltip. I don't know their motivation (lack of time, > UX considerations,...) > > What we can do with the GtkComboBox as is could be to use the single tooltip > it currently supports and be smarter on what we put in there. > > For the remainder of this text, I'll focus on the comboboxes in report > options, but I think the reasoning remains the same for other locations. > > Currently the comboboxes in report options will always show the tooltip that > relates to the selected combo menu item. For example for the Stylesheet > option, with "Default" being selected, the tooltip for the combobox will be > "Default stylesheet". Again, I'm talking about the situation where the popup > menu is hidden. > > A few things to note: > * This tooltip doesn't really explain what the Stylesheet option is for. It > explains what the selected value is. That's already inconsistent with other > options - the tooltip on a text entry field will explain you what input is > expected from you. This information is not given for combobox tooltips. That > only gives a tip on what's currently selected. > > * The tooltip "Default stylesheet" adds very little extra useful information > compared to the option name being "Stylesheet" and the option value being > "Default". > > So there's little reason to add tooltips in this case to start with. > > Next, given the limitations of a normal GtkComboBox, we could also build > tooltips for such combos as follows: > > * Begin with an explanation of what the option is for (not what each value > represents) > * Then add a list of possible values, and for each value an explanation of > what it represents. I actually think if the explanation of the option is well > done, it's unlikely each value itself still needs an explanation, just > listing > the possible options may be enough. > > The advantage of this way of working is that a user gets a complete overview > by hovering the combobox even before clicking and navigating through the > popup > menu. And there's an overarching overall tooltip to add context to the > possible choices. Something we currently are lacking. > > This can still be done in code, though we need to add sensible explaining > tooltips for the options that are using a combobox widget. I don't think we > currently have those. > > Note you can still do smart things like highlight the selected value in the > big tooltip using markup so more attention is drawn to the currently selected > value (and its possible explanation). > > As an exercise I went through all the comboboxes in the transaction report's > options. From my estimate with a decent description of what the option does, > the actual option values are self-explanatory in 99% of the cases. Only in > very few situations a per value tooltip can add some additional information. > And even there it's usually only for one of two values in the whole value > list. > > For example, there's the "Primary Key" option. That in itself is a very > technical and unfortunate option name, but that's what we have now. If a > general tooltip was added to explain this sets the column to sort on first, > there's no need for any of the tooltips on the possible values. It's pretty > clear those are column names. > > Another example: Void Transactions. > If a tooltip explains this option allows to filter transactions based on > their > voided status, that would already explain all the possible values. One could > add a note/warning in that tooltip that if void transactions are selected, > their values will be added to the totals as well. With that everything that's > currently presented via the per-value tooltips is available in the general > tooltip and more. > > The same worked for me for each and every of the other options. > > So while you are free to fix this as you see fit, I'm a strong proponent of > revisiting our decision to continue to use per value tooltips. > > Regards, > > Geert > > Op dinsdag 16 februari 2021 12:10:56 CET schreef Robert Fewell: >> Hi, >> >> In bug 798109 it was highlighted that the widget I wrote back in 2012 does >> not respond to keyboard use well which I think would be relatively easy to >> fix and maybe a couple of tweaks. >> >> Geert suggested that it could be dropped in favour of a traditional >> GtkComboBox. >> >> The reason I wrote it was to match the GTK2 version at that time which >> allowed you to have tooltips on the popped up menu items as well as when >> the item was selected and the popup removed. This can not be done in the >> GTK3 version as I can see no way of getting to the used GtkMenu. The GTK3 >> version only supports a tooltip when there is no popup displayed. This >> tooltip can still be specific to the selected item with the use of a >> 'query-tooltip' call back. >> >> I think the widget is mainly used in dialog options for reports. >> >> I am fine with fixing the widget or replacing it, just asking if there is a >> preference. >> >> Regards, >> Bob >> _______________________________________________ >> gnucash-devel mailing list >> gnucash-devel@gnucash.org >> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel > > > > > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-devel mailing list > gnucash-devel@gnucash.org > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
