Hey guys, I have a usability question, and I thought I'd discuss it here. I think we need to consistently distinguish between 'Object creation' and 'Object alteration' operations. i.e. 'Url Properties' vs 'Insert Url'.
We do distinguis between the two cases in some places (FormTabularCreate vs FormTabular). But not in others (FormIncludeFile, FormUrl). These two types of dialog represent two logically distinct operations and I think they should be completely customisable. The best implementation of this.... I've no idea. Some dialogs it would seem wasteful to implement two dialogs as they would be very similar. For example the URL properties will allow the url, the name and the html checkbox to be altered, much like the Create URL dialog. However even with such similar functionality, the UI should be different. To fit with the GNOME usability guidelines I would like the following two sets of behavior: FormUrlCreate: +-------------------+ | Insert URL | +-------------------+ | | | Name: ___________ | | URL: ___________ | | | |[x] HTML | +-------------------+ | [Cancel] [OK] | +-------------------+ - Here the document shouldn't change until until OK is clicked at which stage the URL is completely inserted and the dialog hide()s, no change should be made if cancel is clicked, the dialog should just hide(). +-------------------+ | URL Properties | +-------------------+ | | | Name: ___________ | | URL: ___________ | | | |[x] HTML | +-------------------+ | [Close] | +-------------------+ - In this case the document should be update whenever a widget's value is changed ( or focus leaves the Gtk::Entry widgets, no sense applying with every keystroke). The close button should hide() the dialog. There are naturally other possible differences between insertion and alteration for any given inset / object, Apply buttons are required for KDE dialogs etc. I think there needs to be some framework or policy to address this. Given the fact the you guys will be working a lot on GUII at the devels meeting (have fun by the way), perhaps this is something that you could think about. As I said I've no Idea what the best way to implement this is. But I do think that it's important frontends are /able/ to distinguish between these two different functions. Even if the xforms frontend doesn't do so in practice. If possible the GNOME frontend will. All comments gratefully received. -- ======================================================================== | Michael Koziarski |"Conventional wisdom is often | | Data Engineer, Linux user | long on convention and short | | & Objectivist. | on wisdom" -- | | http://www.koziarski.com | Warren E. Buffett, BRK.A | ========================================================================
