Fluid layouts and widgets

[Mark Kretschmann]

On Sat, Dec 11, 2010 at 7:47 AM, Cyrille Berger Skott
<cberger at cberger.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have been thinking about a solution to some of our UI question/problem. The
> idea I am going to propose should allow us to use the same (docker) widgets on
> screens and devices of different size, with different configuration.
>
> == Fluid layouts
>
> What I am suggesting is that we have the layout and type of widget that adjust
> to different size and orientation. We currently have two examples of fluid
> layout, the toolbox and kspread cell editor.
>
> The toolbox as you may know organize the icons by groups, and try to minimize
> the space used, in function of the size of the toolbox. I think it is working
> quiet well (at least with the new layout code in 2.3.
>
> The kspread cell editor is simply switching between a vertical and a
> horizontal layout.
>
> I had like to extend those concepts to all other dockers, for instance lets
> take the new paragraph docker (which looks really nice :) ):
> http://cyrille.diwi.org/tmp/calligra/words_paragraph_now.png
>
> Except that on a horizontal display it is losing space. It would be better if
> it looks like this:
> http://cyrille.diwi.org/tmp/calligra/words_paragraph_ideal.png
>
> But then it would fails when using on the top position. Hence the idea of
> using a fluid layout.
>
> == Fluid widgets
> Fluid widgets are widgets that change of form when their size change. For
> instance lets take the styles docker, currently it looks like this:
> http://cyrille.diwi.org/tmp/calligra/words_styles_full.png
>
> Which is rather ok if you have a lot of space on the screen, but assuming the
> size you have is smaller, then it would be better to have a combobox to select
> the style, like in the following mockup:
> http://cyrille.diwi.org/tmp/calligra/words_styles_small.png
> http://cyrille.diwi.org/tmp/calligra/words_styles_small_expanded.png
>
> Simillary I would see Krita's tools slider be reduced to a single button that
> would popup the slider. Or if we look again at the paragraph docker, the
> "allignment" buttons could merge to become a single drop down button when
> there is not enough space.
>
> == Opinion ?
> Personnaly, I think it would allow us to use the same widget on different
> configuration, and different form factor. I don't know what you think ?
>
> I won't commit myself to do this task... Especially since I tend to do that
> all too often and not have the time :) However, I would suggest that for 2.4,
> the fluid layout is implemented (I am hoping that the current toolbox layout
> code could be easilly adaptable as a widget layout, or at least for buttons),
> I should be able to take care of that. And then for the other part, either
> someone else wants to help in doing it, or I would be willing to mentor a new
> developer (for instance with gsoc) on the subject.
>
> In any case, if you like the idea, I will go and add it to our wiki.

Might work, but I would really recommend to consult our KDE Usability team.

They are the experts, and they might just have a good idea, and they
are able to judge this much better than us nerds (sorry;)

-- 
Mark Kretschmann
Amarok Developer, Software Engineer at KO GmbH
Fellow of the Free Software Foundation Europe
http://amarok.kde.org - http://fsfe.org - http://kogmbh.com