FontInstaller (Was: Gnome Article on UI Design on /.)

[Thomas Zander]

On Tue, Apr 23, 2002 at 02:54:23PM -0700, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> On Monday 22 April 2002 11:28 pm, Thomas Diehl wrote:
> > > But I'll agree that the "Basic" mode is pretty useless - I myselft never
> > > really use it
> >
> > Same here.
> 
> There are clearly two kinds of users, those who need professional 
> font-management and those who just want to be able to add a font they just 
> downloaded. I think it is important to address the needs of both groups and 
> at the same time making the transition from one to the other as smooth as 
> possible.
> 
> You wrote:
> > While I can imagine a lot of users who will always be confused 
> > when confronted with dir listings in any form this is definitely not true 
> > for a lot of others who find this the clearest approach.
> 
> Why do you prefer to have the "install from" section in the dialog itself? We 
> have a very sophisticated file-selection dialog which seems to me to be much 
> easier to use to select files with than a home-grown method. What is the 
> compelling reason for not using a standard file-selection dialog in this 
> case?

The font preview?

Anyway; I think you put your finger on one issue that bothered me in this 
kcm. It couples maintainance and installation into one dialog. 
For a main program with menubars that is all ok and stuff; but for one
dialog the two tasks just seem to pose trouble.

I suggest some way of splitting the installation of fonts and the removing/
enable/disabling of fonts.

My first thought would go to a preview mode for our beloved file-dialog which
is capable of showing a preview of the font, so an add-font button is enough.
A multi-select file-selection dialog is a must there.

-- 
Thomas Zander                                            zander at earthling.net
The only thing worse than failure is the fear of trying something new
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