[Parley-devel] Consistency of "comparison forms, " "conjugations, " and "declensions" panels

[Michael Liddle]

Hi there,

Firstly, apologies for posting to this list as a non-member. It seems
more appropriate here than in a bug report though. Anyway...

I'm wondering about the relative consistency of the three "word type
specific" special panels in parley. Specifically how each of them
behaves when a word _isn't_ of the type to which they apply.

I.e.

Comparison forms: displays the absolute form (set to the selected word),
and the comparative and superlative text fields (both disabled). Also
has two buttons labelled "Adjective" and "Adverb". Clicking on one of
those buttons sets the word to be of the corresponding type, and enables
the two above text fields for entry.

Conjugations: displays a button labelled "<word> is a verb", and below
that the tense-selection combo-box and "Next" button (both enabled).
Clicking on the top button displays the conjugation text fields for entry.

Declensions: behaviour seems erratic. I've seen a disabled button
labelled "Turn the selected word into a noun", an enabled button
labelled "'' is a noun" (when an empty cell is selected), as well as all
the declension text boxes displayed and enabled (in this final case a
crash occurs when trying to enter a declension form for a non-noun, I've
filed a report http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=181498).

I've found these inconsistencies in the least uncomfortable, and at
times confusing. I would suggest having them all behave in the same way.

I'm not sure which is the consensus preferred "model" to be followed by
all of them, but my feeling is that the way the conjugations are handled
is the most natural.

I.e.

If a word of a different type to that which the panel applies, display
an enabled button labelled "<word> is a <type>" (or two such buttons for
the comparison forms panel), and hide _all_ other UI (i.e. in the
conjugation panel this would mean hiding the tense combo box too).

Regards,
Mike.