Hi! On Sun, 6 Dec 2015 15:00:09 +0100 jan <d_...@ymail.com> wrote: > A while ago we improved the import dialog for CSV. Though it had > become much better, I suppose that a preview could really help > beginners and advanced users alike
[snip]
For what it's worth, a very first take on the problem can be seen in
branch work/generalized_preview . Activate the "Plugins under
development" (Settings->Manage R packages and Plugins->Manage RKWard
Plugins), start up Analysis->Preview test.
Obviously, neither the example is useful, nor is it a good idea
usability wise, so far. The central question I'd like to hear
feedback/brainstorming on is: Where should the preview window go?
- Right now it is "attached" in the main window. That does not seem any
good, it's just the choice that did not need any extra code, so far.
- Another possiblity would be a "detached" / floating window
(including menubar, etc.), as we use for plots / plot previews.
- The "usual" placement would be at the bottom of the dialog, I think.
But:
- Our data preview may be a bit taller than usual due to the
"header" (Name, Label, Type, ...). That may need adjustments in
dialog layouts, or the header could be squeezed for previews,
initially.
- The bottom area of dialogs is already occupied by the "Code"
preview. Arguably, it seems unlikely that a user would
desperately want to see both at the same time. Is there an
intuitive way, the two could "share" the bottom area of the dialog?
- Keep in mind that we are going to support several different types of
previews:
1. Plot previews (as already established)
2. Data previews (as in the example)
3. File previews (HTML files and / or text files)
4. Possibly we might also want to offer a kind of "minimal" preview,
which would simply display a few numbers inside the plugin dialog
(example use case: power analysis plugin).
4) May be a different beast, but for 1-3), it may or may not be a
good idea to offer a consistent placement.
--
As a side-note, one "collateral feature" in work/generalized_preview is
that you can now view a data.frame inside package:datasets (or any other
environment) in an editor window (read-only).
Regards
Thomas
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