Re: [Gretl-users] Menu re-structuring
On Thu, 13 Jul 2006, Sven Schreiber wrote:
> On Wed, July 12, 2006 19:13, Talha Yalta wrote:
>
>> 1- How about dividing the main window vertically so that
>> icon view is available and visible by default next to the
>> vertical list of variables. This would be nice because I
>> think the icon view is one of the particularly novel and
>> useful features of the program and it is not very visible
>> with the current setting.
I like Talha's idea (if I understand it correctly, he refers
to the icons from the session window). To me it seems to be
like another toolbar. The icons could be made a little smaller
than in the current session window, if you're afraid they
would take away too much space.
Let's give this some more thought, but not for 1.6.0. The idea
of the session icon window is not fully developed, I admit. As
Sven says, it has some elements of an additional toolbar (e.g.
the generic "edit notes" and "edit dataset" icons). But it's
also a sort of arena where the user can take stock of models
estimated, and graphs created, and manipulate them in various
ways. How exactly this arena best fits with the rest of the
app, I'm not sure yet.
An alternative design which some people like (but I'm not sure I
like it, and it's not encouraged by GTK) is MDI, Multiple
Document Interface. On that model, gretl would be a bigger
window, and things like models, data spreadsheet, graphs and
what-have-you would "minimize" or "iconize" not onto the main,
background desktop but onto the "gretl desktop". The principal
element of the current gretl window -- that is, the frame
showing the variables in the dataset -- would itself be a
resizable, iconizable window within the grand gretl window.
Very Windowsish. Personally I find it quite annoying when an
app tries to play at being a desktop: I already have a perfectly
good desktop, thank you.
I raise this because (a) it's an approach that is familiar
to MS Windows users, and (b) if we were re-designing the main
gretl window substantially, we'd have to think carefully about
how it relates to this model. We don't want something which is
"sort of like MDI but confusingly different", I don't think.
More pointedly, I suspect that putting the icon view into the
main window would create an expectation on the part of Windows
users (at least) that the program has an MDI design, in which
case they'd find it broken unless it conforms to the usual MDI
conventions.
Allin.