On Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 2:15:56 AM UTC-5, vitalije wrote: > I have tried docks once and gave up them shortly. This morning I decided to look at them again and try to help with this issue (if I can).
Thank you! I would appreciate your help. I've been trying to get by with small patches. Clearly, that approach has failed. > Initial look was awful. Then it was too easy to mess up docks so much that the layout become totally unusable. I very much dislike clearing my cache...[big snip] I think the present unsatisfactory state of affairs allows us to consider a thorough redesign. We could also abandon docks entirely. > I would be really surprised if a newbie had enough patience and commitment to adjust the initial layout to something usable. Yes, we are all agreed on this point. > Then I compared docks and no-docks Leo window. The only difference is that in docks all three panes (outline, body and tabs) have small label above. In effect it reduces useful screen space. So, I wander what are the reasons that one would prefer docks over no-docks layout. Docks can be floated, which might be useful when using multiple monitors. Perhaps this is dock's major advantage. Docks are also necessary for the pyzo_in_leo plugin, but I *would *be willing to abandon that plugin. > Anyway, I think that it isn't enough to have just single hard-coded value in app.defaultWindowState. Good point. Another option would be to use the outline dock as the only possible central widget. > It might be useful to have a command which would add current layout to the list of predefined layouts (that can be selected from the dialog) and a setting which one should be used for new outlines. I would prefer not to rely on yet another command that everyone, including newbies, must be aware of. That said, your suggestion is a possibility. > Unless I learn about some feature of the docks interface that makes it superior over the no-docks interface, I will stick to the no-docks interface. Thank you for these comments. They are most helpful. I am beginning to think that qt docks and the pyzo_in_leo plugin were a dead end. There have been other dead ends in Leo's past. I've never regretted killing failed projects and moving on. *Options* Here are the possible actions we could take. Not all these are mutually exclusive: - Abandon support for Qt docks, and retire the pyzo_in_leo plugin. - Use a single QMainWindow when using docks. - Always use the outline as the central widget. - Provide default layouts for all possible central widgets. *Summary* Some people apparently would benefit from using Qt docks, but at present Qt docks are unusable except in those use cases where qt docks and Leo's legacy gui are virtually the same. The simplest thing that could possibly work would be to abandon support for Qt docks entirely. I am leaning in that direction. The pyzo_in_leo plugin would be abandoned. Imo, if we do retain Qt docks, a thorough design review will be essential. Imo, the *design *of pyzo's layout would likely be a good starting point. Very likely, we should abandon docks if that design won't work. Your comments are very important. Please let us all know what you think. Edward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/leo-editor/27f0fe97-575d-4dff-aafb-139b7772610eo%40googlegroups.com.
