9:56 a.m.
Dear fellow gretl users and contributors:
First of all, I'd like to thank and congratulate Allin and other
contributors for a successfull new release and their endless efforts
making gretl keep getting better and better. I do appreciate the new
window management functionality in the CVS and would like to offer my
two cents on this issue:
I welcome the new windows menu and I also agree that it is not as
useful and intuitive even as a sub menu. Moreover, I think we are
getting close to a point where we have too many menus and menu items.
If I am not mistaken, about three years ago we've had a discussion
regarding a reorganization of the gretl menus, which resulted in a
much improved user interface. Since gretl keeps getting more and more
functionality and new menu items, this may be a good time to do this
again. As a result:
1)- I support Allin's proposal to merge "Data", "View" and
"Sample" to
2 headings.
2)- I humbly suggest that we
a)- move the "Seed for random numbers" and the "Set missing
value code" menu items to the preferences window,
b)- remove the second "Define new variable..." item in the
Variable menu. We already have this in the Add menu and it fits there
quite well.
3)- One problem I am having while working with multiple windows is
that various gretl windows have the same title, which results in
ANOVA, confidence ellipse, normality test etc. windows from different
models getting mixed up. IMHO it would be much better if the different
windows originating from different models had the name of the original
model in their respective titles. That is, instead of having "gretl:
ANOVA" for all ANOVA windows, we would have something like "gretl:
ANOVA (Model 8)."
4)- Recently I had personally complained to Allin regarding how
various error message windows could get lost below other open windows
and freeze everything else. Allin was kind enough to fix this so that
now we have such windows remain at the top at all times. I strongly
belive that it would be better still if the various dialog boxes (such
as model specification or choosing variables to plot something etc.)
were to stay at the top also. These do not freeze gretl but they can
sometimes get lost under other windows. Making them stay on top would
ensure that the user is aware of them and do someting with them, that
is either use them or close them, preventing window clutter and
promoting a more organized work environment.
Best regards
A. Talha Yalta
On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 3:49 AM, Allin Cottrell <cottrell(a)wfu.edu> wrote:
On Sat, 28 Nov 2009, Sven Schreiber wrote:
> Allin Cottrell schrieb:
> > * The main window now has a menu item named "Windows" which
> > presents a list of open gretl windows, with icons in some cases to
> > provide an easy visual fix on what's open. I'm not sure whether
> > this should be a sub-item of the "View" menu, or a top-level menu
> > in its own right. For now I've made it the latter. Any thoughts?
>
> Given that "View" is the shortest of all menus and that there
> are already nine top-level menus I would tend to favor the View
> menu. But to be honest I'm not sure if that's the best
> approach...
I'm thinking that if this new feature is to be really useful, it
should be immediately apparent, not one layer down.
However, I take your point about the proliferation of top-level
menu headings. I wonder if we could do some consolidation,
perhaps reducing "Data", "View" and "Sample" to 2
headings.
> on many systems you have a list of the open gretl windows
> already in some taskbar (don't know about windows 7 that
> Patricio mentioned). So having another such list inside gretl
> may be redundant in many situations.
A gretl window list is less essential if the desktop has its own
(good) task-listing mechanism, yes. But for people who have lots
of windows open I think we can probably do better. For one thing,
we can drop the leading "gretl: " from the listed window titles so
it's easier to scan the relevant part. And we can origanize
things to some extent, with model-related windows listed under the
model window to which they pertain.
> I don't have the perfect solution, so I proposed a partial
> reform that would reduce the overall number of windows.
Frankly, I don't like the idea of sticking together windows that
are currently separate. It reduces flexibility and, IMO, destroys
the design coherence of existing windows. I tried a test of
combining the existing main window with the icon view (this was
some months ago), and I didn't like the result at all.
> Another possibility in principle might be to have a "gretl
> workspace window" that holds all other gretl windows (apart from
> dialog windows).
MDI? Sorry, I don't like it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_document_interface
> -- BTW, that just inspired an idea: I think it would be helpful if with
> some command you could "conjure" all gretl windows to the front at the
> same time. Actually, if that were possible, I would tend to think that
> it's actually not necessary to reduce the number of windows! So, is it
> possible?
Hmm, tessellating the plane with gretl windows? I don't know how
easy that would be.
> thanks, especially for your open-mindedness about this issue,
As you see, I'm open-minded only up to a point! But we'll see
what we can do.
Allin.
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