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

[Inge Wallin]

On Wednesday, August 29, 2012 11:02:26 C. Boemann wrote:
> On Tuesday 28 August 2012 20:53:11 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> > On Thursday 23 August 2012 15:05:04 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> > > On 23.08.2012 14:53, C. Boemann wrote:
> > > > On Thursday 23 August 2012 14:31:18 Thomas Pfeiffer 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?
> > > >> Cheers,
> > > >> Thomas
> > > > 
> > > > I think the main problem I see is that dockers have titlebars that
> > > > take up vertical space.
> > > > 
> > > > Sure it can be removed but then the user looses the configurability.
> > > > We can
> > > > then do like Amarok does, but then what dockers should have their
> > > > titlebars
> > > > hidden
> > > 
> > > True. I think this should not depend on the docker, but on its
> > > position. How about hiding the title bar when the docker is placed at
> > > the bottom? Having a title bar would probably look weird then, anyway.
> > > But if a docker containing status info is placed somewhere else, it
> > > should have a title just lie any other ones.
> > 
> > Would it be technically possible to show/hide the status bar depending on
> > the docker's position? If so, I could think about how to ideally
> > implement it form a usability perspective, but I don't want to waste
> > time designing something which was not technically possible in the first
> > place.
> 
> Yes it would be possible.
> 
> But keep in mind that you cannot move  docker without a title bar, so once
> at the bottom the user will have no way of moving it away again
> _______________________________________________
> calligra-devel mailing list
> calligra-devel at kde.org
> https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/calligra-devel

I think that people would mostly put stuff there anyway that is very like what 
we presentin the current status bar. So we could perhaps call the lower dock 
widget position the "status bar" and have a status bar configuration mode a 
bit like Plasma has its configuration for the bar (can't remember now exactly 
what it's called). That way it wouldn't matter that they couldn't move it and 
we would get rid of the main problem with dockers, namely that people tend to 
click on them by mistake and rip them out.