[lmi] Improved XRC layout

[Greg Chicares]

Vadim sent me screenshots (which this mailing list forbids) of proposed changes
to 'skin.xrc', along with a patch (copy attached here) to produce them; now I'd
like to bring the discussion here.

I like this change. Bringing state and ZIP code onto the same line as city makes
it look more like a canonical US postal address, e.g.:
  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor
  Boston, MA 02110-1301  USA
and employee class really does deserve its own separate line, which may as well
span the whole dialog width.

Tabbed dialog size is unchanged (good!): 1272 x 845.

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

This hint:
  <hint>Insured full name</hint>
seems to have no effect for me. AIUI, it's grayed-out text that should vanish
as soon as anything is entered in the field, but I see nothing. If we were to
s/help/hint/ globally, how would a really long string such as this:
  <object class="wxCheckBox" name="UseDOB">
    <help>Calculate issue age based on date of birth and effective date, 
automatically reflecting changes in effective date</help>
be displayed? Or, if <hint> is only for text controls, then here:
  <object class="InputSequenceEntry" name="Inforce7702AAmountsPaidHistory">
    <title>7702A(e)(1) 'amounts paid' history for current seven-pay 
period</title>
    <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>
I wouldn't want to lengthen the <title> or shorten the <help>, yet there's
no string of intermediate length suitable for a <hint>. Or, then again, is
<hint> even available for a string whose default is not of length zero? At any
rate, I'd like to make sure we handle this consistently across tabs.

This:
  <hgap>5</hgap>
    <label>Name</label>
seems much better than writing a space as in the original:
    <label>Name </label>
which may be a pervasive idiom because I didn't know about <hgap>.

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

skin_insured.diff
Description: Text Data