UI idea: Turn the status bar into a docker (or several dockers)

[Jaroslaw Staniek]

On 23 August 2012 14:45, Thomas Pfeiffer <colomar at autistici.org> wrote:
> On 23.08.2012 14:40, Jaroslaw Staniek wrote:
>>
>> On 23 August 2012 14:31, Thomas Pfeiffer <colomar at autistici.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi everyone,
>>> while discussing the best way to implement the word count in the Author
>>> UI,
>>> I had an idea for the Calligra UI in general.
>>> Flexibility is one of the key advantages of the Calligra UI. One of the
>>> few
>>> UI parts that are currently not flexible is the status bar. That's why I
>>> asked myself:
>>> "Why not put the the things currently displayed in the status bar in one
>>> or
>>> several docker(s), put these dockers at the bottom by default (or maybe
>>> someplace else if that works better for a particular application) and
>>> remove
>>> the standard status bar?"
>>> This would allow to keep the current layout as default while preserving
>>> maximum flexibility. To me, this is the logical consequence of the
>>> "Flexible
>>> UI" paradigm of Calligra.
>>> So, what do you think about it? Did I miss any problems/downsides?
>>
>>
>> This is good idea observed in dynamically configured apps, e.g.
>> Firefox and generally XUL allows the plugins to inject ui bits in such
>> places too.
>> I plan to have view-related actions (dependent on context/plugin used)
>> in Kexi's statusbar for example.
>
>
> Well technically it wouldn't be a statusbar anymore, then ;) But if you can
> inject stuff into a standard statusbar, you can shot it in a statusbar
> docker as well, correct?

Correct. And we know that too much uncontrolled flexibility could result e.g.:
- in what we've seen in KDE 3 toolbars: buttons that cannot fit on
screen horizontally, and thus display annoying arrow button on the
very right hand,
- in misaligned UI elements (sometimes a problem with nested
QWidgets/QGroupBoxes/QLayouts).

As usual it would be ideal to forget technical limitations and make
sure with the UI and interaction is superb and by default; and take
enough care so the user cannot 'break' the UI's usability by just drag
& dropping.

PS: Example of adaptability when an UI element is dragged onto a
limited area is plasmoid - when dragged onto panel it changes its
geometry and sometimes even the way how the content is presented.

-- 
regards / pozdrawiam, Jaroslaw Staniek
 Kexi & Calligra & KDE | http://calligra.org/kexi | http://kde.org
 Qt Certified Specialist | http://qt-project.org
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/jstaniek