Re: [Gretl-devel] GUI problem with "save as"
On Sun, 2 Oct 2011, Sven Schreiber wrote:
Am 10/02/2011 01:51 AM, schrieb Allin Cottrell:
>
> What we're discussing may not be a bug, exactly, but as Sven said at
> the outset it's an "interface problem", and I'd like to have this
> fixed in the 1.9.6 release. I have therefore implemented my last
> suggestion above in CVS (and snapshots). Please let me know if you
> reckon that what I've done is not right, or is not implemented
> correctly.
>
> What you should see: an item "/File/Export data...", which produces
> a dialog with (a) a mechanism for selecting series, (b) a pull-down
> thingy for selecting the export format (including .gdt) and (c) a
> Help button that gives a certain amount of help. (The help item is
> currently better in CVS than in the snapshots.)
I think the "all" button is missing in the variable selection dialog!
Given that export-to also serves to save in different formats, you don't
always want to save just a subset.
You're right, the "All" button should appear; I'll fix that.
Apart from that, while checking and partially translating that stuff,
a
thing about the terminology occurred to me: The first five menu entries
talk about "data". To highlight the sharpened difference between save-as
and export-to I suggest to say:
* "Save datafile" (changed from Save data)
* "Save datafile as" (changed from Save as)
Hmm, there may be some per-language differences here, and I can only
speak for English, but what you're suggesting would seem odd in
English.
Most programs simply have "Save" and "Save as..." menu items: the
first meaning, save what's currently in working memory to the file
that was opened in the first place; and the second meaning, save
what's currently in memory to a file to be named by the user.
In gretl I've put "Save data" and "Save data as...", since in
gretl
there may be more things than data (series) in working memory, that
could be saved somehow (for example models and matrices), and these
menu items only pertain to saving series.
But "Save datafile as" would definitely read oddly in English.
And a related question. Why does it say "Close dataset" and
not "Close
datafile"?
In fact it says "Clear data set". (Maybe should be "dataset".) But
"Close datafile" just doesn't work. The file (if there was one) was
closed as soon as gretl finished reading its content from disk. This
menu item is about clearing the current dataset out of memory. No
file operation is involved. The current dataset may contain more or
fewer series than the file that was opened initially. If indeed any
file was opened initially, that cannot be assumed; perhaps the user
typed values using the GUI series editor, created artificial series
using "nulldata" and the RNG, or imported series from a database.
Allin