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List:       kde-look
Subject:    Re: DialogBoxes (was: Cookie window popup)
From:       "Steven D'Aprano" <dippy () mikka ! net ! au>
Date:       2000-09-13 1:32:55
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dhennig@altavista.de wrote:
> 
> on Sun, 10 September 2000, "Steven D'Aprano" wrote:
> 
> > Modal dialogs and modeless dialogs *should* look different.
> Agree!!!
> 
> > As things stand now, KDE modal dialogs look exactly like KDE document
> > windows (except for the content :-). The user has to use trial and error
> > and rote memorization to determine which dialogs are modal and which are
> > not.
> That can't be the intuitive gui we are trying to rise with KDE!
> 
> > to take > an example from KEdit - why should the Goto Line dialog be modal?
> He really should not be modal. It might be very helpful to have that dialog 
> displayed all the time, so you can just click it an enter a new goto line-number.
> This is what I meant with dialogs of the normal workflow, which should not be modal.

One UI widget I miss from the Mac is the floating palette. This is a
small window which is always floating in front of the main document
window(s), but without blocking the main window like a modal dialog
does. Typically floating palettes on the Mac are used for toolbars and
similar. It would be useful for something like KDE's mini-CLI, except it
wouldn't go away after you've evoked it once.

Commands like Go To and Find are just crying out for a non-blocking
dialog that doesn't go away after you used it. Floating palettes would
be ideal for this.

If you used Gimp (and who hasn't :-) imagine if the many and various
Gimp dialogs *stayed in front* of the main window while you worked on
the main window. Now obviously with dozens of palettes visible at once,
they will obscure the main window. This can be solved by allowing the
user to windowshade and minimize just like ordinary windows (as well as
closing them of course).

The nice thing about the floating palettes is that visually they were
very distinct from ordinary dialogs (modal or modeless). They had a
lighter, more delicate feel. Possibly they might have been more
difficult for the visually impaired to work with, but that is an issue
that could be addressed.

I'm not sure whether such behaviour is possible under KDE, but it might
be nice to look at it.


-- 
Steven D'Aprano

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