On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 2:31 AM, Slava Pestov<[email protected]> wrote:
> ...snip...Another
> thing that needs to be fixed is the fixed-margin word wrap. In
> general, the layout engine in pane gadgets needs some work. Fixing
> this has been on my todo list for a while, but it would be nice if
> someone else got around to it first.

I'd love to help with this, but I just don't have enough Factor
experience to tackle the job. I've looked at the pane/pane-stream
code, and it is over my head.

> The idea to put the article title as well as the navigation links in
> the toolbar is interesting. I'm pretty set on keeping the prev/next
> links, though; do you think if they were there, the toolbar would
> become too big?

I'll try some ideas that include keeping the prev/next links. The more
that I think about it, the more that I like having this functionality
available. Factor is clearly designed to be used by smart people, so
allowing some complexity in the UI is not necessarily a bad thing.

> I agree that keyboard shortcuts should probably be moved out of
> toolbar buttons and only shown when you mouse-over the button. As for
> having toolbar icons, I prefer using icons for 'nouns' only, as in the
> old-school Mac OS user interface guidelines.

It seems like the back/forward button pair in the upper-left corner is
such a well-established UI paradigm that they should use icons rather
than text. But if you definitely want to use text for back and
forward, then maybe an alternative would be to make the button shape
mimic a left and right arrow (just like the iPhone's navigation bar,
except they don't have a forward button).

> Along with the error list, browser, and listener, these tools will
> mean that there now needs to be some kind of 'launch pad' tool that's
> always visible, or an intuitive way to start one tool from any other
> one.

One idea would be to put the launch pad on the Browser's Home "page."
When the user launches the Factor UI, both the Listener and the
Browser would appear. Perhaps the embedded launch pad could have a
pop-out button to display the launch pad in a separate window? The
only problem here is that if the user closes the Browser, he needs to
know the keyboard shortcut to open the Browser, so maybe that isn't
such a great idea. I guess the only reason you would take this
approach is if you wanted to make Browser Home central to the Factor
development environment.

Another option would be to display the launch pad in a separate,
persistent window as a collapsible shelf or pile. In its normal state,
it would be collapsed down into a single square. Clicking the square
would expand the shelf to display a button for each UI Tool. By making
the window persistent (unable to be closed), you avoid the
"reachability" issue. And by allowing it to be collapsed into a small
square, you don't force the user to sacrifice too much screen space
(although they could leave it expanded if they wish).

-keith

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