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OpenOffice.org |
Weekly Meeting common User Interface (CUI)
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Date |
July 11th 2002 |
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Time |
10:00h, MEST |
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Location |
Cupertino, eham-02 |
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Attendees |
Daniel Rentz (DR) |
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Minute Taker |
FS (next: PB, GT, MMP, CL, OS, DR) |
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Distribution List |
http://ui.openoffice.org/protocols |
Table of Contents
1 Action Items
2 Roundtable
1 Action Items
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Item |
Responsible |
Status |
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previous items |
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Create a concept of Common UI factory design |
FS |
stalled (due July 2002) |
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Proposal for Accessibility (focus, keyboard) of automatic Help Agent (the window with the bulb) |
CJ |
stalled |
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Replace black color in border format control in HC Black mode |
FS |
open |
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coordinate with GSL team for support of PNG images in toolboxes |
CJ/MMP |
in progress |
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new items |
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break down the PDF export spec to single issues, assign to responsible developers (2.1) |
MMP/FS |
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write bug to harmonize the different "don't mind me again" texts |
DR |
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collect requirements for resource-level support of HC images/bitmaps |
CL |
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collect information about behaviour when scrolling over non-focused windows |
CJ |
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2 Roundtable
2.1 PDF Export
2.1.1 Specification
The proposal for the PDF expoert feature is in a final state, and has been published on openoffice.org (announced in the mailing lists of the UI component). The next step is to break down the spec into single issues, which can be assigned to developers to implement.
2.1.2 PDF Quick Print
MMP reported that there is an open issue whether or not we want to have a icon to "quick-print" a document to PDF. Normally, we would like to have an icon in the function bar. The problem is that Adobe owns the rights for the well-known PDF icon, so we would be forced to use an icon which in no way can be associated with PDF, which obviously would not make any sense then. Investigations about how to solve this are underway, but an outcome like "we don't want to have this functionality in the toolbar at all" is quite likely.
2.2 "Mensch und Computer"
MMP again reminded the attendees that in beginning of September, there is a conference called "Mensch und Computer" (hmm – "human and computer"?) in Hamburg, and whoever is interested in this should consider attending.
2.3 Notifications via Message Boxes
2.3.1 suppressable warnings
DR told that currently, there are at least 3 different texts in situations where the user is warned for some reason, and the warning box contains a text like "don't remind me again". DR will care that a bug for this is beeing filed, and extend the interface of the respective VCL classes so that clients can use a common text for this.
2.3.2 Escalation of Notifications
According to MMP and CJ, there are 4 escalation levels for notifying the user:
- Hint/Info: This is just a simple message box with a text and an OK button. No decision is required from the user, this is only an info
- Question: A question, which requires to chose between at least 2 alternatives (mostly "yes" and "no")
- Warning: A warning that a process could result in some maybe unexpected behaviour. Here, the user also has the chance to make a decision (usually confirm that the consequenses are really intended or at least accepted)
- Error: Such a notification reports a serious error to the user – here something already went wrong
All 4 levels are currently reflected in respective classes in VCL (InfoBox, QueryBox, WarningBox, and ErrorBox), and every developer should carefully decide what is the appropriate escalation level for his/her special scenario.
2.3 High Contrast Images in VCL classes
CL urged to further pursue the idea of extending our resource format to support high contrast (HC) images and bitmaps. According to CL, the effort to add HC support to existing UI elements purely on the code level is quite high. An example for this are toolbars which do not use one large image list as source, but single icons for every item (for instance because the toolboxes are composed from already existent images, which, for various reasons, have different naming schemes such as "sc*", "sx*", "<whatever>*"). Currently, making such toolboxes HC-capable is expensive. CL suggested to reconsider the idea to add resource-level support for this, which would ease the whole process a lot.
CL will collect the requirements for this, so that we can discuss them with the VCL team (namely Stefan Schaefer), who would have to implement the resource-level support.
2.4 Scroll Mouse support
There was a discussion about the expected behaviour of windows which are not focused, but scrolled using a scroll mouse. There are at least three possible behaviours when the user uses the scroll wheel, while the mouse points to a window which is not focused:
- focus the window, then scroll it
- don't focus the window, but scroll it
- scroll the window which is currently focused, no matter where the mouse points to
Looking at some real world programs, at least 1. and 3. can be encountered. The attendees agreed that 2. would be the best behaviour.
OOo itself currently relies on what the system provides - it is not clear whether we should address this, and if there is a reasonable demand.
CJ will try to collect some more info about the behaviour of other programs.
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