> > If we were to use the hourglass, the "appropriate" place for it to be
> > would be in center of the viewport, not the upper-right corner.
> I agree; that is a good thought. There is an advantage ithough in that
> you can read the current screen display uninterrupted without the icon
> obscuring the window (in contrast to a desktop OS environment where you
> can just move the mouse;s wait cursor out of the way of what you are
> reading and continue, while you wait for the render to finish).
The icon is what, 20 pixels high? If I have a page loading, and the
viewer is thinking (the _MOST_ complicated page I've viewed, has taken 20
seconds to render. I've honestly tried to break it by shoving a huge
complicated page at it =). Let's say it's 4-5 seconds, which is about
average for a good sized database. Do you honestly read the full 160 high
page in 4 seconds, or have so much obscured by a 20-pixel element that it
makes the application unusable?
> OTOH, one loses any feedback once the toolbar is switched off: click
> open a long page with no toolbar and try to scroll up and down and there
> is no response to scrolling; the device seems frozen.
Another reason for an in-the-middle indicator, or.. those who decide
to switch it off should realize that there will be no notification of their
content loading, wait periods, etc. I haven't yet seen a user who has
launched Plucker, and IMMEDIATELY turned off the toolbar before even loading
one single database into the viewer.
> However, I can spend some more time and see what the best possible 3D
> shaded menu icon can be made and can then kick the tires.
My suggestion to add a 3D capability to it was to add depth, not to
make it look like the other icons. In fact, it should _NOT_ resemble the
other icons in color or style. If you add a "dropshadow" (ala under-mouse
cursor on Win2000 and XP), the menu can then look like a real menu in the
limited space we have available there.
/d
