Re: Dia's user interface

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On Tue, 23 Apr 2002, Adrien Beau wrote:
> On Tuesday 23 April 2002 10:11, Lars Clausen wrote:
>>
>> I agree with you on this.  I have considered removing the !,
> 
> I've read the Interface Hall of Shame, as pointed to by
> Alan Horkan (http://www.iarchitect.com/shame.htm), and
> this is one of the things you can learn on this big page.
> 
>> (...)
>>
>> whereas Gimp prepends a *.  I think we should go with the *.
>> Since we warn before closing a modified diagram anyway, the
>> information is not that important.
> 
> I've also seen the '*' used in Windows programs. It's a sort
> of "minor standard".

Good.  Let's do that, then.

>> Now's the question:  Is there some more relevant information
>> to put there? Currently selected tool?  Number of objects
>> selected (after a select operation)?  Something?
> 
> The currently selected tool is indicated in the toolbox, so
> there no point in duplicating the information. 

This is not quite true:  If you select a tool from one sheet, then change
to another, the indication is wrong.
Actually, I'm thinking if anything, the selected tool should be indicated
by the pointer.  The non-object tools already do this, and we could have a
ghostly icon next to the pointer when another tool is selected.

> I don't know if anybody is interested in the number of objects selected;
> I'm not.

If you have a large diagram and select things by kind, connection or the
like, you may be.  Note how many file managers will display the number of
items selected.

> I usually use this area to report error messages
> that don't deserve a window popup, which is the case most
> of the times ("The blabla field is not a number." in red
> ink in the status bar has proved to be enough).

That's a possibility, though how often does that happen?  And if it happens
inside a dialog, shouldn't it be shown inside the dialog?

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| Hårdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
will defend to the death your right to say it."   | Where are we going, and
    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?