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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: QuickPrint implementation (RFC)
From:       David Faure <david () mandrakesoft ! com>
Date:       2001-03-31 15:19:35
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On Saturday 31 March 2001 16:07, Michael Goffioul wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Somebody pointed me out that it could be very useful to have some kind of quickprint
> button because most users won't need the complete print dialog everytime. So I thought
> a little bit about it, and here are some considerations about the implementation I have so
> far. I'd like to have external opinions.
> 
> - Should be implemented as an action (maybe a standard action), but will probably
>    only be used in toolbars.
> - The action would be named, the name corresponding to the printer where to send
>     print job. By default, the name would be empty, meaning to use user default printer.

You can't have a variable name for an action. It would prevent using this
action in the XMLUI (where actions are defined by name).
The printer could be stored in the app's config file (or desktop-global) instead,
no ?
Or did you simply mean the text of the action (for instance, for those using
text under or besides icons, in toolbars, and in the tooltip ?
(All that's handled by KAction of course, you only need to setText()).

> - From a visual point of view, it would look like a tool button with a delayed popup
>     menu. Simple click would print on the printer whose name corresponds to the "name"
>     of the button (here "name" is of course not the QObject name, but something else).
>     Maintaining the button pressed would show a popup menu with available printers.
Sounds good.

> - The action itself would fire a signal "void print(KPrinter*)", giving a KPrinter object
>     configured as if the print dialog would have been used, so the application should
>     use it as it would do after a "printer->setup(this)" call.
Ok.

> - From a performance point of view, everything should be created on demand: the
>     KPrinter object should be created only when the button is first clicked, the printer
>     list should only be retrieved when the popup menu is shown, ...to not slow down
>     the application start-up.

And all that being handled internally by the action, I suppose ?
In that case, it's fine IMHO.

OTOH from the user point of view, I personnally hate such buttons. 
I often click on the wrong button by mistake, and since it starts printing
immediately it's too late already. IMHO there should at least be a confirmation
dialog box [maybe with a don't-show-again], or the full dialog with everything
already set up... which is the case by default, isn't it ? :}

-- 
David FAURE, david@mandrakesoft.com, faure@kde.org
http://perso.mandrakesoft.com/~david/, http://www.konqueror.org/
KDE, Making The Future of Computing Available Today
 
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