WhatsThis in KDE 4: coder wanted!

[Vladimir Prus]

Philip Rodrigues wrote:

> > I've some question about this document: specifically about the best way to
> > indicate that what's this help is available when one can't use tooltips
> > (like variable view in KDevelop, where tooltips are used for some other
> > purpose).
> 
> Possibly changing the colour of the widget, or something. What do you
> currently use the tooltips for? Do you have a screenshot?

Yes, sure:

   http://zigzag.cs.msu.su/~ghost/variables2.png

When you hover mouse over each of varibles, tooltip appears, for example 
containing the type of the variable.

The variable window itself has "what's this" text. Showing "what's this" 
indicator in tooltip for variable might not be the best approach -- the 
"what's this" is not related to variable at all.

Showing "Variables window" tooltip over empty area of the widget is possible, 
but is not elegant, in my opinion.
 
Ivor Hewitt wrote:

> > I've some question about this document: specifically about the best way to
> > indicate that what's this help is available when one can't use tooltips
> > (like variable view in KDevelop, where tooltips are used for some other
> > purpose).
> >
> The document talks about "wobbling" the what's this window icon.

I got an impression that the document favours icons in tool-tip over 
"wobbling". In fact, "wobbling" can quickly become annoying, if it starts 
immediately when mouse is over widget.

So far, it looks that using "Variables window" tooltip just to show that 
what's this is present in the best solution.

BTW, speaking about icons in tool-tip: I believe that in current KDE/QT (KDE 
3.5) and in Qt4, you just can't click on anything inside tool-tip. If you 
move the mouse the tooltip either disappears or moves.

In fact, I plan to have "advanced" tooltips for variable display in KDevelop, 
which auto-appear when mouse does not move for some time, but that can 
contain arbitrary widgets, like tree views.


- Volodya