Subject: ASSERT(modeless dialog != toolbar) (was: Re: SV: Insert Symbol dialog)
From: Paul Rohr (paul@abisource.com)
Date: Wed Jan 26 2000 - 19:57:19 CST
Gack! GUI designers and usability experts all over the world would rise up
en masse and lynch me personally if I didn't step in here. The following
three UI features are *different*:
1. Modal dialogs
2. Non-modal dialogs
3. Toolbars
They each have their own well-understood uses and abuses. Sure, in some
ways #1 is like #2, but they're not the same. Likewise, #2 and #3 have some
similarities, but they're not the same, either.
Please, let's not mix them up just because #3 hasn't been implemented yet.
Some of these experiments might make for interesting hacks, but we all know
what the Right Thing to do here is, namely some combination of:
- implement these features as dialogs, and then
- figure out how to make some dialogs modeless.
Reality check: If the framework already supported modeless dialogs, would
anyone seriously *prefer* to see this functionality as yet another toolbar
-- as if we don't have too many already -- rather than a floating dialog?
If you're using GTK and you think the answer is Yes, then try the following
experiment:
1. Open documents in four different windows.
2. Detach each of their toolbars.
3. Ask your Mom to figure out what goes with what.
(shudder) At least with decent modeless dialog support, you can implement
app-specific policies which say whether a dialog can be reused across
multiple windows, etc.
Paul,
motto -- keep AbiWord from ever appearing here:
http://www.iarchitect.com/mshame.htm
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