[Qgis-developer] Better options dialogs

Fri Sep 7 04:09:55 PDT 2012

 Hi,

 Probably, some day in the future, it would be great if we can have a 
 search function. Users could search for a function, menu entry, 
 setting/option or maybe even plugins from the central repository that 
 hadn't been installed in the system.

 As more and more options appear it is hard to find them, but usually 
 one knows what to search for (e.g. merge shapes or snap options) - of 
 course such a search function would have to be a bit "tolerant".

 The idea is a bit similar to the HUD of the new Ubuntu unity version, 
 see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/HUD

 Maybe something for next Google summer of code?

 Just an idea for the medium to long-term future.

 Andreas

 On Fri, 7 Sep 2012 12:30:48 +0200, Tim Sutton wrote:
> Hi
>
> +1 from me to go back to the left if you can manage the issues as
> mentioned by Alex. On a more general note, we need to make an effort
> to compartmentalise advanced options away from simple ones and I 
> would
> really like to see a new QgsPropertyList widget which behaves
> similarly to QtDesigners property lists, especially for places where
> we have reams of options. If we implement QgsPropertyList it should
> make these kind of refactorings 'DRY*' in the future.
>
> * DRY == dont repeat yourself
>
> Tim
>
> On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 2:47 PM, Etienne Tourigny
> <etourigny.dev at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Larry.
>>
>> I think it's a great improvement. In addition, I wonder if it would
>> make sense to have the text below the icons (perhaps as an option), 
>> in
>> order to save some horizontal space.
>>
>> Have you tried that?
>>
>> Etienne
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 6:36 AM, Larry Shaffer 
>> <larrys at dakotacarto.com> wrote:
>>> Hi Alexander,
>>>
>>> On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 1:02 AM, Alexander Bruy 
>>> <alexander.bruy at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Hi Larry,
>>>>
>>>> as already was mentioned in this thread similar design of options 
>>>> dialog
>>>> was used several versions ago but then we switched to tabs. List 
>>>> widget
>>>> only with icons IMHO not user friendly, especially for newcomers.
>>>>
>>>> If icons will be with captions we again come to initial problem 
>>>> for translators:
>>>> translating some text when listbox is used is a real pain in some 
>>>> languages.
>>>> I think Jean-Roc Morreale can explain all problems for translators 
>>>> better.
>>>
>>> Thanks for the input. Might you be referring to
>>> http://hub.qgis.org/issues/2202 ?
>>>
>>> My proposed layout does not have that issue. The one for 1.6 used
>>> large icons with text that was center-justified and wrapped
>>> underneath, but had no means of increasing the overall width of the
>>> widget by the user. It appears the larger icons were to aid in that
>>> problem, but weren't enough for longer translations.
>>>
>>> In my layout, the use of a splitter, whose state can easily be 
>>> saved
>>> to QSettings, allows for the width of the list widget to customized
>>> (and stay that way) for users of different locales. I have 3 more
>>> mockups to illustrate this [0]:
>>>
>>> app-options_nowrap.png - Shows how the splitter can be moved to 
>>> view
>>> the whole option set label (note French substitution for Map 
>>> Tools).
>>> Expanding the left column like this, while possible, uses more
>>> horizontal space than necessary. Horizontal scroll bar is still
>>> available.
>>>
>>> app-options_wrap.png - Shows the QListWidget's word wrap helping 
>>> save
>>> some horizontal space. This is with 32x32 icons, which I would
>>> consider the largest for desktop (as with QGIS tool bars). Even 
>>> larger
>>> icons could be user-/config-set for touch screens.
>>>
>>> Given the improved layout over v. 1.6's, I foresee no issues for 
>>> translators.
>>>
>>>> ... List widget
>>>> only with icons IMHO not user friendly, especially for newcomers.
>>>
>>> app-options_tooltip.png - Shows the collapsed splitter, with only
>>> icons and tool tips. This is an optional user-adjusted (or possibly
>>> button-enacted) view where the list widget's minimum width is set 
>>> to
>>> the width of the chosen icon size + some padding (with scroll bar
>>> taken into account, if shown). This is not a default, which would 
>>> not
>>> be so nice for new users, as you noted. However, also note that 
>>> with
>>> this icon-only, space-saving view a user is not being presented 
>>> with
>>> anything less user-friendly than the many tool bar icons in the 
>>> main
>>> interface, which do not have any labels at all, only tool tips.
>>>
>>> [0] 
>>> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/options-dlgs/app-options_nowrap.png
>>> 
>>> https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/options-dlgs/app-options_wrap.png
>>> 
>>> https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4058089/qgis/options-dlgs/app-options_tooltip.png
>>>
>>> Larry
>>>
>>>> 2012/9/5 Larry Shaffer <larrys at dakotacarto.com>:
>>>>> Possible solution: Move 'tabs' to simple list widget on left side 
>>>>> of a
>>>>> splitter and have option sections loaded on right.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have done mockups for the app and vector layer options [0], 
>>>>> which
>>>>> show the following advantages:
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Alexander Bruy
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
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>
>
>
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> Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release  
> Manager)
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