PlasMate ~ UI and other stuff

[Diego Casella ([Po]lentino)]

>
> ---------- Messaggio inoltrato ----------
> From: Yuen Hoe Lim <yuenhoe86 at gmail.com>
> To: plasma-devel <plasma-devel at kde.org>
> Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:49:52 +0800
> Subject: PlasMate ~ UI and other stuff
> Hi,
>
> Haven't heard from you (plasmate) guys for awhile, guess you guys are busy
> :) Anyway, just like some input here. As per the quick discussion the other
> day, I recently had the editor component tree widget separated out into a
> new dock widget, so it no longer gets replaced by the katepart that gets
> loaded when you click a file. I've been toying around with the layout and
> dockwidget positionings since - and I can't help thinking that, with the
> addition of this new dockwidget, the whole UI has become awfully cluttered.
> This is about the best layout I can come up with atm:
>
> http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn91/yuenhoe/plasmateclutter.jpg
>
> I think the main problem now is that there are too many 'vertical'
> dockwidgets - the timeline, the sidebar, and now the editor tree. Vertical
> dockwidgets only fit naturally on the left/right dockareas, but having three
> of them there, plus the mainwidget in the center, really makes the thing
> so... layered, and crowded. Not to mention virtually unusable on a small
> screen.
>
> Some possible ways around it:
>
>    - Make one (or more) of the 'vertical' dockwidgets 'horizontal' so that
>    we can fit it snugly on the top dockarea instead. I think the editor tree
>    has to stay vertical, so it'd have to be either the sidebar actions menu or
>    the timeline widget, both of which I'm loathe to touch without first
>    consulting with you all :) Those two are now QListWidget derivatives, and it
>    doesn't look like there's an easy way to 'horizontalize' them without
>    rewriting quite abit of code.
>
> Yup, I'm currently working on it in order to replace QListWidget with a
more flexible QTableModel ( and the same for the Workflow sidebar );
currently I'm busy because I'm writing a presentation for the LinxDay, so be
patient =)
As regarding the directory tree dock widget, what about setting a
QTableWidget as PlasMate central widget and inserting it as first widget?
We could also insert a new tab for each file the user wants to edit, so we
can have multiple files editing for free :)


>    - The old mockups:
>
>    http://skitch.com/michaelrudolph/ba3j9/plasmate-editor2
>    http://skitch.com/michaelrudolph/ba3cg/plasmate-editor-timeline
>
>    suggested an interesting 'overlay' effect for the timeline - and also
>    that the timeline be hidden all the time until a button at the bottom is
>    clicked.
>
>
Yeah, I love this concept because describes perfectly how should work:
hidden when its not needed, and displayed with a fancy graphics when we need
to provide information/perform new actions ;)

>
>    - I dunno... ideas?
>
> Also, it seems like alot of stuff with PlasMate is currently 'hanging'. The
> timeline seems to work nicely, but what's gonna happen with the missing
> publish widget and documentation widget? I've been spending my free time
> hacking away at the editor and previewer and there are certainly plenty more
> work needed with those two but I was just wondering about the larger view of
> the project, since no one seems to be paying much attention to it at the
> moment :)
>
> ----
> Jason "moofang" Lim Yuen Hoe
> http://yuenhoe.co.cc/
>
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