Re: [Gretl-users] Suggesting a new look for gretl.
On Sun, July 16, 2006 19:28, Talha Yalta wrote:
Hi everybody:
I have a few suggestions that I think has the potential to improve
gretl significantly. But, first of all, as a newcomer, I hope you
don't consider my continously suggesting things in a negative way. I
just do my own thinking about how the program can be better and speak
my mind about it.
All feedback is welcome. Especially from someone who has already given back to
the project like you have.
1- My first and most important suggeston is to make the gretl main
window the icon view...
I totally agree with Allin in his answer. The variable list conveys much more
information than the icon view, in both directions (ie, from the program to
the user and back), it seems natural that it has to be the main environment.
2- My second suggestion is: the "file" menu can be
modified...
Again, total agreement with Allin on this.
3- I think splash screens are important. They have some usefulness
and
also give a nice and professional touch to the program. Most programs
have them so it is something users expect to see.
Well, most programs have a splash screen because they need time to initialise
stuff (when I saw someone firing up Acrobat under Windows I couldn't believe
my eyes: I'm trying to read a pdf file, for god's sake, not to send a rocket
to Mars!). From that point of view, *not* having a splash screen looks better
to me; "lean and mean" means cool. But I agree that some eye candy can be
necessary. In this case, let's take the opportunity to make the splash screen
informative, not just pretty. For instance, it could clearly and conspicuously
display the version number, or the build date for the snapshot. Other info
that may be useful are: plugins (tramo/x-12 on/off, gnuplot version used),
total memory, CPU power in MIPS/flops and so on.
4- The new prefences screen that was proposed is a tedious task ti
implement (as I understand it) but it is also very important because
this way you are taking a good deal of functionality and make it
accessible in the GUI not just the console. This is a way to make sure
gretl not only becomes more powerful but also looks powerful and acts
powerful since GUI is the main mode of working by design.
Not necessarily. In my view, gretl is a library first and foremost. That said,
the library's functionality can be accessed either via cli or via the gui; the
gui must be as powerful and flexible as possible: it would be useless to have
working code that can't be run by the user. OTOH, I like to encourage people
to use the command-line as much as I can, because it's the only way to become
a power user IMO.
5- Related to (4), is there a way to make matrix functionality also
accessible from the menus? This is also an important and powerful
feature. I am not sure about know how to do this but as I see it, you
guys are naturals for GUI design and I am sure you would come up with
a very intuitive way for implementing this also.
Hmmm... like what? I mean, into how many mouse clicks would take to do
something like the following?
scalar T = 100
scalar k = 4
matrix X = normal(T,k)
matrix K = cholesky(inv(X' *X))
How horribly complex the menu structure for doing this would have to be? What
is there to gain (apart from a guaranteed carpal tunnel syndrome :-))?
Finally I would like to share the good news that the review of
the upcoming gretl 1.6.0 and its numerical accuracy that I coauthored
with my wife is accepted to JAE for publication in the software
section.
Ah-ha! Nice shot! Congrats!
Riccardo "Jack" Lucchetti
Dipartimento di Economia
Facoltà di Economia "G. Fuà"
Ancona