[KDE Usability] Re: Fluid layouts and widgets

[Aurélien Gâteau]

On 19/12/2010 14:30, Mark Kretschmann wrote:
> 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
[snip]

If you are interested, Gwenview uses a fluid layout to organize filters.
If you add a bunch of filters in browse mode (look for the "Add Filter"
button in the statusbar) they align themselves horizontally until they
fill the whole width. At this point another row is created.

This is not my code, I copied a class called FlowLayout from Qt examples:

http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.7/layouts-flowlayout.html

I think it could be a nice addition to kdelibs or to Qt itself.

>> == Fluid widgets
[snip]

Sounds good to me.

>> == 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;)

While I don't think fluid layouts and widgets are the definitive answer
to fit traditional user interfaces on space-constrained devices (I think
at some point one can't escape re-designing interface to accommodate the
constraints), it sure can help a lot.

As a resident nerd from kde-usability ML :), I like this idea.

Aurélien