10:45 a.m.
Often, I find myself thinking that it'd be nice to have the working
directory displayed somewhere in the main window of the GUI client.
For example, a suitable place could be an extra line underneath (or
possibly above) the currently open dataset. Or maybe, on the same line, to
the right. Or alternatively, as a second status line at the bottom.
Opinions?
-------------------------------------------------------
Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali (DiSES)
Università Politecnica delle Marche
(formerly known as Università di Ancona)
r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it
http://www2.econ.univpm.it/servizi/hpp/lucchetti
-------------------------------------------------------
1:13 p.m.
Am 12.07.2017 um 12:45 schrieb Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti:
Often, I find myself thinking that it'd be nice to have the working
directory displayed somewhere in the main window of the GUI client.
For example, a suitable place could be an extra line underneath (or
possibly above) the currently open dataset. Or maybe, on the same line,
to the right. Or alternatively, as a second status line at the bottom.
Opinions?
I agree it would be useful. Plus, allow me to repeat that the text field
(drop-down list) where you set the working directory in the GUI is very
narrow and it's not easy to check what the entry there is at the right
tail end of the path.
cheers,
sven
1:16 p.m.
On Wed, 12 Jul 2017, Sven Schreiber wrote:
Am 12.07.2017 um 12:45 schrieb Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti:
>
> Often, I find myself thinking that it'd be nice to have the working
> directory displayed somewhere in the main window of the GUI client.
>
> For example, a suitable place could be an extra line underneath (or
> possibly above) the currently open dataset. Or maybe, on the same line, to
> the right. Or alternatively, as a second status line at the bottom.
>
> Opinions?
I agree it would be useful. Plus, allow me to repeat that the text field
(drop-down list) where you set the working directory in the GUI is very
narrow and it's not easy to check what the entry there is at the right tail
end of the path.
You are free to resize the dialog.
Allin
1:18 p.m.
Am 12.07.2017 um 15:16 schrieb Allin Cottrell:
On Wed, 12 Jul 2017, Sven Schreiber wrote:
Plus, allow me to repeat that the text
> field (drop-down list) where you set the working directory in the
GUI
> is very narrow and it's not easy to check what the entry there is at
> the right tail end of the path.
You are free to resize the dialog.
Duh! I always believed that at least under Windows that window wasn't
resizable, but it certainly is!
sorry,
sven
6:20 p.m.
On Wed, 12 Jul 2017, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote:
Often, I find myself thinking that it'd be nice to have the working directory
displayed somewhere in the main window of the GUI client.
For example, a suitable place could be an extra line underneath (or possibly
above) the currently open dataset. Or maybe, on the same line, to the right.
See what you think of the current experiment in git. Working dir to
the right on the same line as the current dataset label, hot-linked to
the working directory dialog.
Allin
8:58 p.m.
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 2:20 PM, Allin Cottrell <cottrell(a)wfu.edu> wrote:
On Wed, 12 Jul 2017, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote:
>
> Often, I find myself thinking that it'd be nice to have the working
> directory displayed somewhere in the main window of the GUI client.
See what you think of the current experiment in git. Working dir to the
right on the same line as the current dataset label, hot-linked to the
working directory dialog.
In git (not yet in snapshots) I've made this configurable, via the new
item "Display working directory" under Preferences/General.
Personally I don't want this, since I always know what the working
directory is. Not that I'm specially clever, it's just that I always launch
gretl from an xterm (and I know where I am) or from a desktop menu
(so I know workdir is $HOME). And I never use "set workdir".
Right now (git) displaying the working directory is off by default. But
if I hear people saying it should be on by default I'll reconsider.
However, since the majority of gretl users are on Windows, opinions
of Windows users will carry most weight. I really don't know: on
Windows would this be useful, or just TMI?
Allin
7:11 a.m.
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 2:20 PM, Allin Cottrell
<cottrell(a)wfu.edu> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 12 Jul 2017, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote:
>>
>> Often, I find myself thinking that it'd be nice to have the working
>> directory displayed somewhere in the main window of the GUI client.
>
> See what you think of the current experiment in git. Working dir to
> the right on the same line as the current dataset label, hot-linked to
> the working directory dialog.
In git (not yet in snapshots) I've made this configurable, via the new item
"Display working directory" under Preferences/General.
Personally I don't want this, since I always know what the working directory
is. Not that I'm specially clever, it's just that I always launch gretl from an
xterm (and I know where I am) or from a desktop menu (so I know workdir is
$HOME). And I never use "set workdir".
Right now (git) displaying the working directory is off by default. But if I hear
people saying it should be on by default I'll reconsider.
However, since the majority of gretl users are on Windows, opinions of
Windows users will carry most weight. I really don't know: on Windows
would this be useful, or just TMI?
Allin
Hi there,
I (being a windows user) think this would be useful, e.g. when one wants to access the
gnuplot files created automatically, but also to use export, etc., without providing dirs.
The directory position(s) are not self-explaining (e.g.: C:\Users\Frederik\Documents\gretl
is relatively fine, but the temp working dir, which sometimes needs to be accessed, too,
is more obscure: C:\Users\Frederik\AppData\Roaming\gretl)
So I'd vote for showing it somewhere and also both working dirs.
Best
Frederik
2:42 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Schaff, Frederik wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 2:20 PM, Allin Cottrell
<cottrell(a)wfu.edu> wrote:
>>
> Right now (git) displaying the working directory is off by
> default. But if I hear people saying it should be on by default
> I'll reconsider. However, since the majority of gretl users are
> on Windows, opinions of Windows users will carry most weight. I
> really don't know: on Windows would this be useful, or just TMI?
Hi there,
I (being a windows user) think this would be useful, e.g. when one
wants to access the gnuplot files created automatically, but also
to use export, etc., without providing dirs. The directory
position(s) are not self-explaining (e.g.:
C:\Users\Frederik\Documents\gretl is relatively fine, but the temp
working dir, which sometimes needs to be accessed, too, is more
obscure: C:\Users\Frederik\AppData\Roaming\gretl)
So I'd vote for showing it somewhere and also both working dirs.
Hmm, the "dotdir", as we call it, (the one under AppData) is
supposed to be hidden. Ordinary users shouldn't have to know where
it is, and in fact we don't want people to mess around in there --
too much risk of breaking things! But if for whatever reason a user
really needs to know, the formula is
eval $dotdir
in the gretl console.
The new GUI display is for $workdir only: that's the default
location for user-instigated file writes and reads, when a full path
is not given.
Allin
2:47 p.m.
Am 12.07.2017 um 22:58 schrieb Cottrell, Allin:
Right now (git) displaying the working directory is off by default.
But
if I hear people saying it should be on by default I'll reconsider.
However, since the majority of gretl users are on Windows, opinions
of Windows users will carry most weight. I really don't know: on
Windows would this be useful, or just TMI?
I'm not sure it has to be on by default, but on Windows you typically
"just start" gretl and it's not clear what the workdir is. In fact it
often happens to me that I save or export stuff too quickly and later I
have to go search for it, because the workdir is yesterday's setting. So
yes, I think it would be a useful reminder if it's more visible.
thanks,
sven
3:01 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Sven Schreiber wrote:
Am 12.07.2017 um 22:58 schrieb Cottrell, Allin:
> Right now (git) displaying the working directory is off by default. But
> if I hear people saying it should be on by default I'll reconsider.
> However, since the majority of gretl users are on Windows, opinions
> of Windows users will carry most weight. I really don't know: on
> Windows would this be useful, or just TMI?
I'm not sure it has to be on by default, but on Windows you typically "just
start" gretl and it's not clear what the workdir is. In fact it often happens
to me that I save or export stuff too quickly and later I have to go search
for it, because the workdir is yesterday's setting. So yes, I think it would
be a useful reminder if it's more visible.
Thanks, Sven. I've now made it a little easier to turn this off (a
new check box in the workdir dialog), so I'm more comfortable with
making it on by default if people think that's useful.
One other design question: at present there's a tooltip for the
workdir display, "Working directory". I'm thinking of making this
more explicit: "Working directory: click to configure". Helpful or
redundant? Also: should there be a check-box to turn off the tooltip
once the user has got the idea? (I imagine it could get annoying.)
Allin
3:11 p.m.
Am 13.07.2017 um 17:01 schrieb Allin Cottrell:
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Sven Schreiber wrote:
One other design question: at present there's a tooltip for the workdir
display, "Working directory". I'm thinking of making this more explicit:
"Working directory: click to configure". Helpful or redundant? Also:
should there be a check-box to turn off the tooltip once the user has
got the idea? (I imagine it could get annoying.)
Sorry, I think I'd have to see it.
-s
4:24 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Sven Schreiber wrote:
Am 13.07.2017 um 17:01 schrieb Allin Cottrell:
> On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Sven Schreiber wrote:
>
> One other design question: at present there's a tooltip for the workdir
> display, "Working directory". I'm thinking of making this more
explicit:
> "Working directory: click to configure". Helpful or redundant? Also: should
> there be a check-box to turn off the tooltip once the user has got the
> idea? (I imagine it could get annoying.)
Sorry, I think I'd have to see it.
Snapshots with the longer tooltip coming up. (BTW I've now updated
the translatable strings in git.)
But I think I had a better idea about the tooltip: once the user has
accessed the working dir dialog by clicking on the label in
question, automatically turn off the tooltip.
Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open
workdir in the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
Allin
4:37 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open
workdir in the
OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
Very nice. Just what I had in mind. One question: why BLUE? Is that a
tribute to OLS?
-------------------------------------------------------
Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali (DiSES)
Università Politecnica delle Marche
(formerly known as Università di Ancona)
r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it
http://www2.econ.univpm.it/servizi/hpp/lucchetti
-------------------------------------------------------
5:16 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote:
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
> Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open workdir in
> the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
Very nice. Just what I had in mind. One question: why BLUE? Is
that a tribute to OLS?
;-) I just thought that blue looked more like "click me" than black.
Allin
5:20 p.m.
Em 2017-07-13, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti escreveu:
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open workdir in
> the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
>
Very nice. Just what I had in mind. One question: why BLUE? Is that a
tribute to OLS?
:-) I think the reason is to give user a sense of clickable feature. Now
I'm testing something that may affect the look and feel: very long paths
for working dir. I think we could limit the size of the visible text using
"...". Take a look at the image attached. Gretl main window is getting
wider and wider and wider.
Um abraço,
Henrique
5:33 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Henrique Andrade wrote:
Em 2017-07-13, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti escreveu:
> On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
>
> Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open workdir in
>> the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
>>
>
> Very nice. Just what I had in mind. One question: why BLUE? Is that a
> tribute to OLS?
:-) I think the reason is to give user a sense of clickable feature.
Yes, blue text meant hyperlink back in the days of NCSA Mosaic. (For
youngsters, the first generally available web browser, circa 1994.)
Now I'm testing something that may affect the look and feel: very
long paths for working dir. I think we could limit the size of the
visible text using "...". Take a look at the image attached. Gretl
main window is getting wider and wider and wider.
Urgh, yes, that had occurred to me but I hoped we could get away
without resorting to ellipsis. Maybe not.
Allin
5:46 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Henrique Andrade wrote:
> Now I'm testing something that may affect the look and feel: very long
> paths for working dir. [...]
Urgh, yes, that had occurred to me but I hoped we could get away without
resorting to ellipsis. Maybe not.
I just put a limit of 48 characters on the length of path to display
in full. That's in git; at this point snapshots will have to wait a
few days as I'll be offline.
Allin
2:46 p.m.
Am 13.07.2017 um 19:46 schrieb Allin Cottrell:
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Henrique Andrade wrote:
>
>> Now I'm testing something that may affect the look and feel: very
>> long paths for working dir. [...]
>
> Urgh, yes, that had occurred to me but I hoped we could get away
> without resorting to ellipsis. Maybe not.
I just put a limit of 48 characters on the length of path to display in
full.
Just seeing it for the first time in the new release. First impression:
Very nice, thanks!
The 48-char limit however prevents me from seeing the most important
right-tail of the path even when I make the window very wide so that
there's ample space.
(On Windows the path will often start with
"C:\Users\<username>\Documents", so that's already more than half of
the
48 chars for typical usernames.)
So could the char limit be a function of the window width?
thanks,
sven
3 p.m.
On Wed, 19 Jul 2017, Sven Schreiber wrote:
Am 13.07.2017 um 19:46 schrieb Allin Cottrell:
> On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Henrique Andrade wrote:
>>
>>> Now I'm testing something that may affect the look and feel: very long
>>> paths for working dir. [...]
>>
>> Urgh, yes, that had occurred to me but I hoped we could get away without
>> resorting to ellipsis. Maybe not.
>
> I just put a limit of 48 characters on the length of path to display in
> full.
Just seeing it for the first time in the new release. First
impression: Very nice, thanks! The 48-char limit however prevents me
from seeing the most important right-tail of the path even when I
make the window very wide so that there's ample space.
(On Windows the path will often start with
"C:\Users\<username>\Documents",
so that's already more than half of the 48 chars for typical usernames.)
So could the char limit be a function of the window width?
Hmm, I think that would be a bit complicated. But after a little
experimentation I've increased the max length to 56 characters.
We can revisit this if need be.
Allin
6:07 a.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Henrique Andrade wrote:
> Em 2017-07-13, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti escreveu:
>
>> On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
>>
>> Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open workdir in
>>> the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
>>>
>>
>> Very nice. Just what I had in mind. One question: why BLUE? Is that a
>> tribute to OLS?
>
> :-) I think the reason is to give user a sense of clickable feature.
Yes, blue text meant hyperlink back in the days of NCSA Mosaic. (For
youngsters, the first generally available web browser, circa 1994.)
Ah, the days of yore. I just commited a small change in that direction.
Now the workdir string is blue AND underlined. Feel free to ditch the
change if you don't like it.
-------------------------------------------------------
Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti
Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali (DiSES)
Università Politecnica delle Marche
(formerly known as Università di Ancona)
r.lucchetti(a)univpm.it
http://www2.econ.univpm.it/servizi/hpp/lucchetti
-------------------------------------------------------
12:47 p.m.
Em 2017-07-13, Allin escreveu:
(...)
Snapshots with the longer tooltip coming up. (BTW I've now updated
the translatable strings in git.)
But I think I had a better idea about the tooltip: once the user has
accessed the working dir dialog by clicking on the label in question,
automatically turn off the tooltip.
Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open workdir in
the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
Tested here on my Mac OS (Sierra) and it worked just fine.
Best,
Henrique Andrade
12:13 a.m.
On Fri, 14 Jul 2017, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti wrote:
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Henrique Andrade wrote:
>
>> Em 2017-07-13, Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti escreveu:
>>
>>> On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Allin Cottrell wrote:
>>>
>>> Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open workdir in
>>>> the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Very nice. Just what I had in mind. One question: why BLUE? Is that a
>>> tribute to OLS?
>>
>> :-) I think the reason is to give user a sense of clickable feature.
>
> Yes, blue text meant hyperlink back in the days of NCSA Mosaic. (For
> youngsters, the first generally available web browser, circa 1994.)
Ah, the days of yore. I just commited a small change in that direction. Now
the workdir string is blue AND underlined. Feel free to ditch the change if
you don't like it.
True, that would be the full period treatment. But I'm not sure we
need to be quite that authentic ;-)
Allin
5:09 p.m.
Em 2017-07-13, Allin escreveu:
(...)
Snapshots with the longer tooltip coming up. (BTW I've now updated
the translatable strings in git.)
But I think I had a better idea about the tooltip: once the user has
accessed the working dir dialog by clicking on the label in question,
automatically turn off the tooltip.
Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open workdir in
the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
Tested here on my Windows 7 PC and it worked just fine.
Best,
Henrique Andrade
5:16 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Henrique Andrade wrote:
Em 2017-07-13, Allin escreveu:
(...)
>
> Snapshots with the longer tooltip coming up. (BTW I've now updated
> the translatable strings in git.)
>
> But I think I had a better idea about the tooltip: once the user has
> accessed the working dir dialog by clicking on the label in question,
> automatically turn off the tooltip.
>
> Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open workdir in
> the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
Tested here on my Windows 7 PC and it worked just fine.
Thanks, Henrique, that's good to hear.
Allin
5:31 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Jul 2017, Henrique Andrade wrote:
>> Snapshots with the longer tooltip coming up. (BTW I've
now updated
>> the translatable strings in git.)
>>
>> But I think I had a better idea about the tooltip: once the user has
>> accessed the working dir dialog by clicking on the label in question,
>> automatically turn off the tooltip.
>>
>> Another refinement in the working dir dialog: a button to open
>> workdir in the OS's file manager. Not yet tested on Windows or Mac.
>
> Tested here on my Windows 7 PC and it worked just fine.
Thanks, Henrique, that's good to hear.
Allin
Also working (and looking!) great on Windows 10.
PS
2492
days inactive
2499
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24 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
Allin Cottrell -
Cottrell, Allin
-
Henrique Andrade -
Riccardo (Jack) Lucchetti -
Schaff, Frederik -
Summers, Peter -
Sven Schreiber