[Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
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[Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
Hi all,
There has been topics about the OK/Cancel/Close buttons of the Task dialogs.
Among other reproaches are:
* They sometimes are at the bottom, sometimes at the top of the dialog
* They tend to disappear on large dialogs where you need to scroll
* They take a significant amount of space
I've been experimenting a bit and find what I think could be something worth improving the current state.
Also it appears to be quite simple to implement with Qt, which is important as meaning it should be easily maintainable.
The video below shows the concept. Consider this as very unpolished, just to demonstrate the principle and probe community opinion about it.
Is it something worth digging into and finalizing ? I would imagine having this as an optional alternative to current implementation.
If we gonna finish it, we can imagine numerous improvements, such as using icons instead of texts to limit needed space.
But as said, ATM just a testing PoC.
Advantages according to me:
* Frees space for task widgets
* Always accessible (if task dialog is scrolled, or even if hidden by tree view)
* Clearly denotes a task dialog is active
There has been topics about the OK/Cancel/Close buttons of the Task dialogs.
Among other reproaches are:
* They sometimes are at the bottom, sometimes at the top of the dialog
* They tend to disappear on large dialogs where you need to scroll
* They take a significant amount of space
I've been experimenting a bit and find what I think could be something worth improving the current state.
Also it appears to be quite simple to implement with Qt, which is important as meaning it should be easily maintainable.
The video below shows the concept. Consider this as very unpolished, just to demonstrate the principle and probe community opinion about it.
Is it something worth digging into and finalizing ? I would imagine having this as an optional alternative to current implementation.
If we gonna finish it, we can imagine numerous improvements, such as using icons instead of texts to limit needed space.
But as said, ATM just a testing PoC.
Advantages according to me:
* Frees space for task widgets
* Always accessible (if task dialog is scrolled, or even if hidden by tree view)
* Clearly denotes a task dialog is active
Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
Would it be the same everywhere, inside sketcher for instance (dimensional constraints) and expressions (function editor.)
Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
Only replaces the buttons that usually are inside Task dialog panel (that you may see have disappear).
Other boxes (datums, expressions) aren't concern so far.
Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
Frankly this sort of consistency is a hallmark of professional software.
Much more important than getting the right color gradient on the window background, for example.
Gene
Much more important than getting the right color gradient on the window background, for example.
Gene
Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
Hmm...I recall mentioning these inconsistencies in the Task panel a good while ago. Dejavu...
Seems like this would fit the UI consistency mentioned here.
https://freecad.github.io/DevelopersHandbook/roadmap/
"However, UI/UX inconsistency makes the learning process more difficult than it need be. The FreeCAD community must pursue a program of UI normalization to make learning FreeCAD easier."
Pinging @chennes pursuant to discussion from Discord thread.
Seems like this would fit the UI consistency mentioned here.
https://freecad.github.io/DevelopersHandbook/roadmap/
"However, UI/UX inconsistency makes the learning process more difficult than it need be. The FreeCAD community must pursue a program of UI normalization to make learning FreeCAD easier."
Pinging @chennes pursuant to discussion from Discord thread.
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
+1* They sometimes are at the bottom, sometimes at the top of the dialog
* They tend to disappear on large dialogs where you need to scroll
* They take a significant amount of space
Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
I like your proposal, although it looked on first sight a bit surprisingly. I sometimes have a task dialog open and have switched to the tree. To close the panel it's a switching to and fro which would be avoided like this.
Please note that there are dialogs with Apply/Ok/Cancel, e.g. in Path workbench.
Please note that there are dialogs with Apply/Ok/Cancel, e.g. in Path workbench.
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
+1
Very good idea.
It maybe expanded adding a mini toolbar dedicated to task dialogs on top of the Comboview tabbar.
Icons could be used as word could vary in lengths depending on translations.
Maybe words could be placed in a tooltip to maintain same width.
Regards
Carlo D.
Very good idea.
It maybe expanded adding a mini toolbar dedicated to task dialogs on top of the Comboview tabbar.
Icons could be used as word could vary in lengths depending on translations.
Maybe words could be placed in a tooltip to maintain same width.
Regards
Carlo D.
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- In deep articles on FreeCAD.
- Learning how to model with scripting.
- Various other stuffs.
Blog: https://okkmkblog.wordpress.com/
Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog
Did you experiment with other panel layouts ? Did you experiment with other workbenches and tasks ?
Put it simply: forget about this, please stop messing around with things that work well and have been working well for years.