Re: HIG and Escape

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On Tue, 11 Mar 2003, James K. Lowden wrote:
> On Sun, 09 Mar 2003 21:01:01 -0600, Lars Clausen <lrclause@cs.uiuc.edu>
> wrote:
>> On Sun, 9 Mar 2003, James K. Lowden wrote:
>> > I hear tell 0.94 will be partly about HIG compliance.  I noticed (who
>> 
>> You mean 0.92, and yes.
> 
> Oh, well, I thought I meant 0.94.  I assumed a pre-release implies
> bugfixes only, not UI changes.  

We're at 0.91-pre7.  If nothing turns up before Thursday (cross fingers,
spit over shoulder etc), it will be 0.91.  Then some amount of UI work will
turn it into 0.92 (though I'm minded to send out a release when the most
important UI changes are done, so as to not wait forever).

>> Look in app/preferences.c you'll see an array of prefs.
> 
> Right, thanks.  A lot of that information would wind up in the glade
>  file.  Then it's just a smp to map glade's data structure onto Dia's.
>  Not very interesting work, but not hard or inflexible, either.  At
>  least, that's the view from 30,000 feet.

I had a fly-by view when the Sheets & Objects dialog was made.  There was a
fair amount of work involved in getting rid of the Glade dependencies, but
then that was Gtk1.

>> > How do we distinguish between defaults for new diagrams and properties
>> > of a particular diagram?  
>> 
>> Properties of a particular diagram are changed from the diagram.
> 
> Ah, I see.  If you want to know whence my confusion, try this for
> late-night GUI entertainment: Open File->Preferences->"Diagram Defaults".
> Then, right-click on the diagram and choose View->"Diagram Properties".
> Compare.

Yes.  Confusing.

> Very often, a user sets a current property and knows then and there that
> should be the default for future diagrams.  Example: paper size.  It
> would be good to work at this from that direction, making the
> current-properties capable of affecting default values, and using the
> same or similar dialogs for both purposes.
>
> How does that strike you?  

A dialog for the diagram that has buttons [Apply] and [Set as Defaults]?
Probably a good idea.  I consider redundancy in setting options a good
thing, as long as they agree on style and settings.

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| HĂ„rdgrim 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?