HELP! (was: Re: layout->Paragraph and stippled lines)
Jean-Marc Lasgouttes writes: > > "Juergen" == Juergen Spitzmueller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > writes: > Juergen> Hm..., I do not like too many popups. And I'm not shure if > we Juergen> avoid much duplication (we do of course concerning the > GUI Juergen> elements and settings, though). > > Yes, the GUI was a main concern actually. I do not like what I saw of > the qt2 GUI, with all those textfields to enter glue. They are > distracting, and probably encourage people to use them. Probably. But then you have to change other things, too. Especially page margin settings (which can destroy the layout more than a VSpace IMHO). BTW: the attached screenshot shows the new XForms paragraph dialog I've made (with Stretch/ Shrink). Everything is working (it even compiles!) except the most important thing: the connection of the Stretch/ Shrink GUI to the VSpace params. I really have to admit that I have reached my limit (again) and don't know how to read and write these values (I had a look at the KDE and QT2 versions, but that gave me no real clue). I would be very thankful if someone could help me and add the things necessary. I would send you a patch with all I've done and I could tell you exactly the 4 parts where some work has to be done. You don't even have to mention me in the Changelog . Thanks, Juergen. > JMarc paragraph.png Description: PNG image
Re: layout->Paragraph and stippled lines
> "Juergen" == Juergen Spitzmueller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> Or, on a similar line, when the user selects Length, have an >> 'edit...' button which opens a popup where the user can set length >> and glue. THis way you (1) make things more complicated and (2) >> avoid to duplicate everywhere the code to set units and such. Juergen> Hm..., I do not like too many popups. And I'm not shure if we Juergen> avoid much duplication (we do of course concerning the GUI Juergen> elements and settings, though). Yes, the GUI was a main concern actually. I do not like what I saw of the qt2 GUI, with all those textfields to enter glue. They are distracting, and probably encourage people to use them. Juergen> (and exclude some values if necessary). I'm really not shure Juergen> if we should try to force the user too much by making things Juergen> hard. We shouldn't make ugly things too easy, but IMHO the Juergen> better way is to *explain* the user why he should handle Juergen> explicit VSpace lenghts with care. So it is more a Juergen> documentation issue. My idea was (1) to make the bad things less easy to do but also (2) simplify the layouts of the popups. I want the most obvious way of doig spacing to be the predefined skips. >> How difficult would that be? Juergen> I don't know. We'd need a new popup which is accessable from Juergen> various other popus (like FileDialog or MessageBox). So this Juergen> would be something like AskForText (no?). It would probably not be modal... Hmm, I do not know, actually. Juergen> Apart from that I do not really like it, is this not too much Juergen> change for 1.2.0 (or are you talking about the bright Juergen> future)? I do not know, I am just talking. JMarc
Re: layout->Paragraph and stippled lines
Jean-Marc Lasgouttes wrote: > > "Juergen" == Juergen Spitzmueller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > writes: > > Juergen> How about a Paper Clip (TM) which pops up asking: "It seems > Juergen> you want to insert a VSpace! May I help you?" A good and > Juergen> approved method to prevent users from doing something ;-) > > Or, on a similar line, when the user selects Length, have an > 'edit...' button which opens a popup where the user can set length > and glue. THis way you (1) make things more complicated and (2) avoid > to duplicate everywhere the code to set units and such. Hm..., I do not like too many popups. And I'm not shure if we avoid much duplication (we do of course concerning the GUI elements and settings, though). We need to define the setEnable things anyway (for the buttons then) and we don't have to set the units for every choice explicitely, but we load a unit list with fl_addto_choice(dialog_->choice_value_minus_above, units.c_str()); (and exclude some values if necessary). I'm really not shure if we should try to force the user too much by making things hard. We shouldn't make ugly things too easy, but IMHO the better way is to *explain* the user why he should handle explicit VSpace lenghts with care. So it is more a documentation issue. > How difficult would that be? I don't know. We'd need a new popup which is accessable from various other popus (like FileDialog or MessageBox). So this would be something like AskForText (no?). Apart from that I do not really like it, is this not too much change for 1.2.0 (or are you talking about the bright future)? Other objections? Juergen. > JMarc
Re: layout->Paragraph and stippled lines
> "Juergen" == Juergen Spitzmueller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Juergen> How about a Paper Clip (TM) which pops up asking: "It seems Juergen> you want to insert a VSpace! May I help you?" A good and Juergen> approved method to prevent users from doing something ;-) Or, on a similar line, when the user selects Length, have an 'edit...' button which opens a popup where the user can set length and glue. THis way you (1) make things more complicated and (2) avoid to duplicate everywhere the code to set units and such. How difficult would that be? JMarc
Re: layout->Paragraph and stippled lines
Jean-Marc Lasgouttes wrote: > > "Juergen" == Juergen Spitzmueller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > writes: > > Juergen> Propose a good (i.e. ugly) name and I will change it in the > Juergen> Paragraph dialog (on which I am still breeding, i.e. on the > Juergen> Implementation of VSpace Stretch and Shrink in the GUI). > > It seems to be dissicult to find an ugly enough name in the dialog. > That's why having an ugly display in the document would be nice :) How about a Paper Clip (TM) which pops up asking: "It seems you want to insert a VSpace! May I help you?" A good and approved method to prevent users from doing something ;-) Juergen. > JMarc
Re: layout->Paragraph and stippled lines
> "Juergen" == Juergen Spitzmueller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Juergen> Propose a good (i.e. ugly) name and I will change it in the Juergen> Paragraph dialog (on which I am still breeding, i.e. on the Juergen> Implementation of VSpace Stretch and Shrink in the GUI). It seems to be dissicult to find an ugly enough name in the dialog. That's why having an ugly display in the document would be nice :) JMarc
Re: layout->Paragraph and stippled lines
Jean-Marc Lasgouttes wrote: > > "Lars" == Lars Gullik Bjønnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Lars> besides that I really thing that almost all of the space > Lars> below/above in UserGuide.lyx should be removed (or exchanged > Lars> with symbolic lengths like smallskip (which also need a visual > Lars> clue)) > > A good choice would be to make the symbolic lengths nice (these are > the ones we want people to use) and the explicit ones wordy and ugly > (having a fixed length without glue is a real pain for TeX > typesetting algorithm). Ideally, people should only need > (small|med|big)skip, unless they have a _very_ good reason (like you > really know you need 3cm there). Propose a good (i.e. ugly) name and I will change it in the Paragraph dialog (on which I am still breeding, i.e. on the Implementation of VSpace Stretch and Shrink in the GUI). Juergen > JMarc
Re: layout->Paragraph and stippled lines
> "Lars" == Lars Gullik Bjønnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Lars> besides that I really thing that almost all of the space Lars> below/above in UserGuide.lyx should be removed (or exchanged Lars> with symbolic lengths like smallskip (which also need a visual Lars> clue)) A good choice would be to make the symbolic lengths nice (these are the ones we want people to use) and the explicit ones wordy and ugly (having a fixed length without glue is a real pain for TeX typesetting algorithm). Ideally, people should only need (small|med|big)skip, unless they have a _very_ good reason (like you really know you need 3cm there). JMarc
Re: layout->Paragraph and stippled lines
On Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 08:32:08PM +0100, Lars Gullik Bjønnes wrote: > I see from a paragraph with stippled lines in UserGuide.lyx that it > writes the lines even if the space type is NONE and the lenght is set. What does it mean for this to happen ? How can length be set when the type is none ? Also, look at text.C - I check explicitly against ::LENGTH so I'm not sure how this happens. john -- "Faced with the prospect of rereading this book, I would rather have my brains ripped out by a plastic fork." - Charles Cooper on "Business at the Speed of Thought"
