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List:       kde-pim
Subject:    Re: [Kde-pim] Printing Code in kaddressbook
From:       Anders Lund <anders () alweb ! dk>
Date:       2002-05-20 1:52:33
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On Monday 20 May 2002 02:14, Mirko Boehm wrote:
> On Sunday 19 May 2002 18:00, Anders Lund wrote:
> > Having had a closer look at the code, I have to disagree with the design.
> > At the very least a setStyle() should be added, along with code to set
> > the style provided by the current view.
>
> Now where is the problem? Right now, not every style provides a printing
> style, too.

Well, that may be the root of the problem as far as this discussion. 
view->print() should be the starting point imo.

> Remember that the printing code is not finished, it is a first design. We
> needed a structure for different printing styles, and I made one.

Which is good.

> A method
> to have the current view preselected as the print style is not a problem.

No, I don't think so:)

> > However, having all views implementing printing and using views for
> > deciding what to print is the better way i think. Views does allready
> > provide most of the information on how to print: the layout and the
> > filtering.
>
> So they interact perfectly in the wizard. Remember that the print styles
> add their own pages to it after the first general one. Have your peview
> there if you want to.

I still believe that this should be a part of the view interface. I would like 
to see my defined views in a list to select from in the print dialog, rather 
than it introcusing yet another concept to digest. Even understanding the use 
of different views is complex, even to folks at this list. If a view provides 
a well designed printing method that takes care to correctly display it's 
data, that will be optimal.

> The other option is to have three different dialogs coming up one after the
> other - the printer configuration, the print style selection and the print
> style options.
>
> I am looking for a way to integrate the printer configuration into the
> wizard to have only one.

The idear of kdeprinter is to add application specific dialog pages to the 
print dialog. So using that standard, you would have only one.

The obvious option is to put the printer properties page as the first page of 
the wizard. It is there to use, iirc.

> > I'm pretty sure the most common print would be phone or address lists,
> > for which the table and card views provide really good designs. And
> > having the view define the printing lets the user work with the design
> > prior to printing, instead of having to use the preview and canceling the
> > print to get back and change properties.
>
> Not true. Your print style can provide a preview in the wizard. That is the
> idea of having PrintStyle objects that know their wizard parent.

Again, I define a view with a set of data that I want to see. I have a table 
with the phone numbers of members of the tennis club, for example. Now if 
that was easily printable, I'd probably print it and hang it up next to the 
phone. Etc... I don't WANT to have to deal with a new thing called "printing 
style" and messing with reselecting the data to print, and watching a preview 
to make sure the display reflects my wishes: I allready did that by defining 
that view.

> > I do know that none of the views actually do implement a print() method
> > yet, but they eventually will. And I think - true for me at least - that
> > the common expectation would be that if oyu choose a view and hit the
> > print button, the application would attempt to print that display.
>
> I do not agree. In fact, I think this is at least trying to know exactly
> what users may think, what is usually to much to ask :-)

No, it is the way things commonly works. Most computer programs that has a 
print button prints what is currently displayed in the main contents display. 
Hence the expectation. Now, providing other options is not bad at all, but 
having them as default is going to be confusing.

> I think, for example, that it might be - due to the different media and
> their special  possibilities - that one might prefer a list view for the
> address book program, but prefers to print business card style on paper as
> it is easier to read. Quite logical, I think.
>
> So my opinion is that the last selected print style should be remembered,
> no matter what display style is selected.

Now it looks like we are not going to completely agree on this. My suggestion 
at this point would be to add a printStyle() method to the view interface, 
and make activating the style for the current view, including filters, the 
default. For advanced users a "use last printing style" option could be 
provided. And there would be room for more specialized styles, I guess an 
option to print address labels would be appreciated by buissness users.

-anders


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