On 09 March 2000, Lars Clausen said:
> > * that error message dialog pops up a long way from my mouse pointer,
> > it doesn't have focus, and only Enter works to hit the "Ok" button
> > -- not space. (I presume we can blame GTK and possibly my window
> > manager [fvwm 2.2] for this, but it's still really stupid.)
>
> That's definitely a window manager issue. Dia doesn't even try to put a
> position on the window, and I'd be severely pissed if it did. Plug: Try
> SawMill. It's a really nice WM, with a decent default look&feel, a useable
> and flexible configuration program, and extendible in Lisp:)
OK, I'll buy the WM argument for positioning (but I still dislike it).
But what about focus? I gather that forcibly moving focus around is
generally frowned upon in the X world, but this is *really stupid*.
When I'm typing in a filename and make a mistake, then I should be able
to dismiss the error dialog with a quick tap of the space-bar or Enter
key -- as it is, I have to fumble for my mouse, grope around the screen
trying to get the pointer in the window, and then stumble my way to the
"Ok" button to click it (or go *back* to the keyboard, hammer on the
space-bar, remember that that's a Tk thing and not a GTK thing, and then
hit Enter -- ARGGHHH!!!)
Remember, one of the other long-established conventions in the X world
is focus-follows-mouse-down-to-the-widget-level, which is utterly,
colossally, mind-bogglingly STUPID and contributes to the worst user
interface conceivable, namely that of any Athena-based program ever
written. Anyways, I'm ranting again -- I'll shut up before I embarass
myself.
> This idea is mainly stolen from Gimp, I think. I find it a useful place to
> have the menus, as you don't have to move your mouse anywhere. But I don't
> see any reason the menus couldn't go on top of the window, too (optionally
> -- I wouldn't want to waste space there).
Sounds like the consensus is that a menubar should be optional. I would
argue that it should be the default, since 15-20 years of GUIs have
ingrained in users the notion that menus are at the top of the window.
(Well, except for Mac users. Whatever.)
> > * no visible rubber-band when dragging to select objects
>
> Huh? I see a nice dashed rubber-band.
Hmmm, seems to be a portability problem. So far I've been using Dia on
a Solaris 2.6 box. When I run it and display it on that Solaris box, I
get no rubber-band when dragging to select. When I run it on the
Solaris box and display it on the Linux machine on the other side of my
desk, it works just fine. What else could be different but the X server
involved? (I haven't yet built Dia for Linux.) How strange. If you
have any ideas about figuring this one out (X extensions to look for,
different Solaris versions or patches, ...?), I'd like to hear 'em!
> Thanks for the input. We really need to hear the things that irritate
> people and get those fixed ASAP. I would like to have all such problems
> fixed before 1.0.
I'll see what I can do. There are a lot more small-but-annoying
problems with Dia's user interface than what I was able to come up with
the other day. (I've been reading books on usability lately, so I no
longer have any patience for clunky user interfaces. I will do my best
to be a royal pain in the ass to the Dia developers, because I think in
the long run it will help.)
Greg
--
Greg Ward - software developer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
1895 Preston White Drive voice: +1-703-620-8990
Reston, Virginia, USA 20191-5434 fax: +1-703-620-0913
