One of the delights of Gretl is the speed at which it loads. Even on
an old
400 Mh PC loading is instantaneous. A splash screen may tell one that
something is happening for a program that takes time to load (e.g. Texmacs
or Jabref). For a splash screen to be effective one would have to slow down
loading Gretl and I do not think this is a good idea.
I agree that the speed in initializing the program should not be
compromised. What I had in my mind is a nice, little and informative
welcome screen which will stay for 2-3 seconds and disappear even
sooner with the first mouse click. So it will be gone by the time
someone reaches the file menu. It can also be disabled from the
preferences menu. A nice looking splash screen give a friendly touch
to a technical program and can also help improve the first impressions
of new users if it looks professional enough.
Well, these are my humble opinions. it doesn't have to be implemented
if or nobody wants it or it doesn't work as intended.
Why don't you use the "About" box (Help/About gretl) as
a starting point? I'd
quite like that as a splash screen already, with some extra work it could make
for a very nice one.
I will be trying a few new things today and see what I can
come up with.
--
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort. - Herm Allbright
(1876-1944)
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