[bt-devel] Eliminate KFontChooser from Configuration Dialog

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

Gary Holmlund wrote:
> I worked on the layout of all the configuration dialog pages taking
> space out and reducing the size of the text rendering areas on the
> language and display pages. It is basically all that can be done
> without restructuring. The size is now about 600x400. I think it
> looks pretty good but the rendered text for the font chooser might
> be a little small. Please send your thoughts about it.
>   

To be honest, the visual experience is now worse. This is not to say 
that it was good to start with or that your changes are bad; it just 
proves that the dialog really needs restructuring.

The rule of thumb with extra space is that we shouldn't add any to or 
remove any from the default space set by the style. Space is needed to 
give pleasant visual appearance and clarity and enhanced user 
experience. Only if adding or removing space is aesthetically pleasing 
it should be done. Now the dialog is so dense it looks bad and is hard 
to read.

BTW, a good technique to get nice spacing is to use QLayouts. They 
follow the style guidelines which are usually designed by experienced 
people. Sometimes setting margins to 0 is good if nested layouts are 
used. I have also tried to remove extra space e.g. from the key chooser 
where we need all available space for widgets. Also in many old widgets 
there's some extra or reduced space which haven't been changed while 
porting.

I don't know if you have experience with user interfaces. I'm not a 
professional myself but I have studied it a bit in the University and 
just for fun. I can recommend the links in 
http://devel.bibletime.info/wiki/Programming_Guidelines#User-visible_text. 
They point to the text specific areas of those documents but for example 
the larger Mac documentation includes some nice guidelines for designing 
layouts. (When you are there, read also the Title Case/Sentence case 
guidelines from the wiki page - you wrote the font chooser headers with 
Title Case.)


But back to the real thing. I tried to write a new structure but it's 
very hard. Here's one proposition:

Text view
    - Display templates (tab)
    - Text filters (tab)
    - Fonts (tab)
Default works
General
    - Bible book names (group)
    - Startup logo (group)

But I don't think it's perfect. "General" is never a good name. This 
structure doesn't necessarily reflect the way a user would think about it.

A good temporary solution could be to split the Languages page to two 
tabs: "Bible book names" and "Fonts". Another help is to set the minimum 
size of the font chooser selector boxes from 5 to 4 or even 3 lines. 
Also the preview window minimum size can be about 3 lines or even 2 - 
people can scroll the text if needed.

The header widget (the short header and explaining text in a box) is 
also ugly and needs redesign. I have thought about it for long time. 
First, the solid black line is ugly and breaks the styles. Second, the 
first line takes space. It could be in the same line than the rest of 
the text, though it should be visually well separated from the rest. I 
don't mean this should be done right now, but this is a reminder that it 
must be done some day.

The Bookshelf Manager needs resizing, too. I'd rather do it myself.

Now I have two routes to suggest:

1. Let the dialog be as it is now. Let's hear opinions from Martin and 
hopefully from other people, too (including yours). The issue matures in 
our brains with time and we can come back to it later with fresh views.

2. Change the dialog quickly: revert the sizing changes, split the 
Languages page into two tabs as suggested. Then the font selector may 
remain larger, as it's now. The minimum hight of the dialog may be over 
480px (ATM BT can't even be compiled for the EeePC Xandros Linux!) but 
should stay well under 600.

Choose the one you feel more comfortable.


--Eeli Kaikkonen