On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 10:09:56PM +1030, David Kettler wrote:
> Hi John,
> 
> >> >> > * Approach #2
> >> >> >
> >> >> >  - Instead of having a separate xul element for the info label, add 
> >> >> > the
> >> >> >    info text directly to the minibuffer input.
> >...
> >> The other thing that looks awkward is dealing with the initial fixed
> >> width of the input part of the textbox, before it starts expanding.
> >> Inserting spaces between the input and info portions would achieve this,
> >> but the width will vary according to the widths of the other characters,
> >> so a specific pixel width can't be set, leading to the info position
> >> wobbling.  Perhaps there's some unicode space character for which we
> >> could set the width.
> >
> > What do you mean about the widths of spaces varying depending on the
> > widths of other characters?  Surely not..
> 
> No; I'm referring to the width of the input portion of the textbox, not
> that of the individual characters.
> 
> (Probably superfluous detail follows.)
> 
> We want to provide some initial space in the input field, say 5ems, to
> display the input text, with the info displayed to the right (after some
> separation, say 1em).  This initial width is needed to make it clear
> that this is an input text box; otherwise the info text appearing at the
> left of the box is confusing.  It also looks better; in the usual short
> input case the info position is fixed.  Only once this initial space is
> full does the input area start growing and the info moves to the right.
> 
> To accomplish this with a single textbox implies inserting space
> characters between the input and info parts of the text.  Because the
> individual characters have different fixed widths and the various space
> characters have fixed widths, there is no general solution to the
> problem of how many spaces to insert to give a certain pixel width.  One
> can get within a half space width of the desired width, but the exact
> position will vary according to the characters in the input; i.e. to the
> left of the inserted spaces.
> 

By this method, the info text would always appear at a fixed offset to the
right of the input text.  Sorry, thought that was obvious.

-- 
John Foerch
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