Re: [lmi] Improved XRC layout

[Vadim Zeitlin]

On Thu, 16 Jul 2015 11:28:54 +0000 Greg Chicares <address@hidden> wrote:

GC> The ZIP code field should be widened to accommodate a ZIP+4 code such
GC> as FSF's "02110-1301" above. At 192 DPI, it's two characters too short.
GC> The city field can be shortened slightly to provide the extra room.

 I'll make these changes as part of the final patch.

GC> This hint:
GC>   <hint>Insured full name</hint>
GC> seems to have no effect for me.

 I think it must be because you're not using themes: "cue banners", as MSW
calls them, are only available in the new, themeable controls library but
not in the classic one.

GC> AIUI, it's grayed-out text that should vanish as soon as anything is
GC> entered in the field, but I see nothing. If we were to
GC> s/help/hint/ globally, how would a really long string such as this:
GC>   <object class="wxCheckBox" name="UseDOB">
GC>     <help>Calculate issue age based on date of birth and effective date, 
automatically reflecting changes in effective date</help>
GC> be displayed? Or, if <hint> is only for text controls,

 Yes, hints are only for text-like controls, i.e. wxTextCtrl, wxComboBox
and wxSearchCtrl only currently.

GC> then here:
GC>   <object class="InputSequenceEntry" name="Inforce7702AAmountsPaidHistory">
GC>     <title>7702A(e)(1) 'amounts paid' history for current seven-pay 
period</title>
GC>     <help>7702A(e)(1) 'amounts paid' by 7702A(e)(2) 'contract year' since 
beginning of last seven-pay period--zero if not in a seven-pay period</help>
GC> I wouldn't want to lengthen the <title> or shorten the <help>, yet there's
GC> no string of intermediate length suitable for a <hint>.

 I think a tooltip, preferably multi line one, should be used for anything
too long to fit into a hint. Modern UIs typically tend to have some kind of
discoverable elements, e.g. those small "(i)" buttons near the controls
that show the help text in a popup when clicked, but I guess tooltips are
fine if they're used consistently and so users discover them quickly.

GC> Or, then again, is
GC> <hint> even available for a string whose default is not of length zero?

 A hint can always be set, but as it won't be shown until the control is
cleared, its usefulness is rather limited in this case.

GC> At any rate, I'd like to make sure we handle this consistently across
GC> tabs.

 Yes, sure, the use of hint here was meant to only show you how it worked
-- and so was a complete failure as I hadn't realized that you wouldn't
see it at all without themes. I'll just leave the hints out of the final
patch, unless you decide to enable themes to check how they look, fall in
love with them and tell me to use them.

GC> I won't apply this patch as it stands today because changing only the
GC> "Insured" group box makes the other two look really ugly. But I would
GC> apply a patch that handles all three, and especially one that addresses
GC> similar layout concerns in all 'skin*.xrc' files at once.

 I'll make one after finishing with the in-progress stuff.

 Thanks for the review,
VZ