Re: Scaffold: mime-type/context sensitive layouts

Hi John,

It looks good. I've got the same ideas in the back of my head :)

The hard part is defining a good/nice API for this though.

Regards,

Jeroen

On Thu, 2003-09-18 at 19:05, John (J5) Palmieri wrote:
> Opps, sent this from my work account.  Resending it from my registered account:
> 
> I just wanted to get an opinion on this idea.  Basicly as things stand a
> user would have to change layouts manualy or clutter up their interfaces
> needlessly to adapt to the needs of different document types.  For
> instance, glade will eventualy be integrated into Scaffold as a plugin. 
> Glade has about four windows - widget pallet, widget tree, proprerties
> and the canvas (where the widgets get assembled).  I assume all of these
> windows will be incorporated into Gdl docakble windows.  As it stands
> now one could create a glade layout and put these widgets in that
> layout.  In the future when one opens up a glade file they would be able
> to switch to the glade layout.  This is suboptimal because it requires
> the user to activly take steps to change the view. That is an extra step
> that could be avoided with configurable mime-type/context sensitive
> layout swithes.
> 
> Basicly what would happen is when a new document is activated, ether by
> being loaded or brought to the front by clicking it's tab, a signal will
> go out with the mime-type of that document.  The layout manager can then
> listen for these switches and change to the layout that is linked to
> that perticular context.  I say context because a glade document can be
> viewed as an XML document also in which case we might want to load up
> say the Conglomerate layout.  Also if someone runs the debuger the
> layout manager should then detect this and load up the debugging layout.
> 
> Of cource for all this to work we need to have the ability to turn it
> off or on, configure the layout associations and have sane default
> layouts for each of the major mime-types we support (imagine clicking on
> a .png file in the prject manager and the gimp pallet showing up on the
> left, canvas in the middle and tool dialogs on the right while hiding
> the symbol browser and code warning output).
> 
> Pros:
> *	Layouts reflect the data being edited
> *	Quick switches make the developer more productive
> *	Less clutter on screen as docks are more targeted
> 
> Cons:
> *	Switches could be confusing since the Scaffold would look different
> for each mime-type
> *	Right now during layout switches redraws happen whenever a dock is
> added or taken away. This could get annoying but could be fixed to only
> do redraws once a layout is finnished with its changes.
> *	If switches aren't instant this could fustrate the user
> 
> So what do you guys think?
> 
> --
> J5
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