Re: [Bug-gnubg] New proposed GUI layout!

[Jim Segrave]

On Mon 04 Aug 2003 (06:54 +0000), Joern Thyssen wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 03, 2003 at 11:16:45PM +0200, Øystein Johansen wrote
> > 
> > Discussion:
> > 
> > Also, the righthand part of the screen should may be paned? Or is it a 
> > better solution? At least I think the message window is too big. More 
> > space could be given to the game list and analysis.
> 
> I don't like the panes that Snowie has because it leads to much clicking
> back and forth between the panes. For users with low resolutions or for
> users who actually prefer the panes it may be useful. 
> 
> If at all possible I would like the following three options:
> 
> (*) Show in seperate windows
> ( ) Show in main window
> ( ) Show in notebook in main window
  ( ) Separate windows which can be 'docked' (see xmms for an
      example) Those who don't want a monolithic display simply don't
      dock the various side windows.
  ( ) modal - a playing mode where all extraneous windows are
      suppressed and an analysis mode organised as proposed.

People using notebooks (and I'm one) often have 1024 x 768, even on
modern machines, since notebooks have physically much smaller screens
than your average portable. Even at 1280x1024, the layout shown is OK
for analysing games, but takes up a lot of screen real estate for no
purpose when simply playing - you don't need a game list, you don't
have an analysis, and you want maximal board area.

I appreciate the reasoning for the complaints from Windows users and I
will try not to go into a rant about what I think of that OS'es
approach to displays. 

I like the floating windows, because I have a window manager which
makes raising, lowering or resizing windows trivial and which allows
me to simply move the game list and analysis to another desktop if I
want to review positions with a full sized board and a large analysis
and game record window. Looking at the proposed layout on my work
machine (which is capable of showing the full .png without having to
pan), I find the analysis and game record lists quite cramped.

If it needs to be changed, then:

Dockable windows would be pretty much OK, since I wouldn't need/want
to do that. I'm assuming non-docked windows would allow resizing.

Modal would be a second choice, although I think it's too restrictive
for the other windows.

I notice you've changed the aspect ratio of the board - it's about 
780 x 644.

On a 1280 x 1024 with the current gnubg, a full screen board has the
board itself as about 1187 * 791, which is half again as wide. For me,
when simply playing, that's what I'd prefer.


-- 
Jim Segrave           address@hidden