[Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

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openBrain
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[Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by openBrain »

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.
task_dialog.gif
task_dialog.gif (953.46 KiB) Viewed 756 times
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: :P
* 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
Bance
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by Bance »

Would it be the same everywhere, inside sketcher for instance (dimensional constraints) and expressions (function editor.)
openBrain
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by openBrain »

Bance wrote: Thu Mar 30, 2023 8:54 pm Would it be the same everywhere, inside sketcher for instance (dimensional constraints) and expressions (function editor.)
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.
GeneFC
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by GeneFC »

Frankly this sort of consistency is a hallmark of professional software. 8-)

Much more important than getting the right color gradient on the window background, for example. :mrgreen:

Gene
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by drmacro »

Hmm...I recall mentioning these inconsistencies in the Task panel a good while ago. Dejavu... :mrgreen:

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."

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Shalmeneser
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by Shalmeneser »

* 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
+1
chrisb
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by chrisb »

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.
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onekk
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by onekk »

+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.
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by bleber »

+1
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Zolko
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Re: [Opinion] Alternative button box for task dialog

Post by Zolko »

openBrain wrote: Thu Mar 30, 2023 8:45 pm The video below shows the concept. Consider this as very unpolished, just to demonstrate the principle and probe community opinion about it.
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.
try the Assembly4 workbench for FreCAD — tutorials here and here
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