Re: [Pan-devel] Feedback: New prefs dialog layout

[Petr Kovar]

Hi again,

On Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:18:33 +0000 (UTC)
Duncan <address@hidden> wrote:

> After deciding to try a bit different workaround to the gnome-doc-
> utils.make issue, I built and installed an updated pan for the first time 
> in some days, and got to see the new prefs dialog for the first time.  
> Here's some feedback.

Regarding the gnome-doc-utils, my plan was to work on the Pan manual as we
agreed with Heinrich that it definitely needs more work and possibly rewrite
it from scratch during the GNOME Docs Project Sprint that is taking place
in my city next month and where a couple of docs writers will meet to work
on GNOME docs.

I'll probably use the new docs format Mallard XML instead of DocBook and
will convert the docs build dependency from gnome-doc-utils to the new
package that is used by GNOME 3 (don't recall the name now). The new
package should solve some of the build issues that happen with
the gnome-doc-utils that is going to be deprecated at some point anyway, so
we will see.

> I like the tabstrip ribbon at the top, with the arrows at each end.  That 
> should definitely help with the small resolution over-sized width problem.
> 
> But of course I've some ideas for improvements.  See the last paragraph 
> below for IMO the most critical one.
> 
> The best improvement I could suggest for the tabribbon would be adding 
> icons, as it looks a bit plain and the many tabs undistinctive and hard 
> to pick out at a glance, as it is.  An option for icons-only, no text, 
> would be nice, but I'm not sure how it fits in with the gnome/gtk 
> guidelines.  But icons and text would at least break up the long string 
> of instinctive tab labels a bit.

Even the tab ribbon with text labels and icons next to them doesn't fit in
with the GNOME HIG guidelines that Pan has been trying to follow.

FWIW, for the GNOME 3 / GTK+ 3 apps, the menu item icons were removed and
are no longer used by default. So in order for Pan to fit nicely in a
GNOME / GTK+ environment, I'd suggest not to use the icons even though I
can understand the concern with picking up the right Pref dialog tab. :-)

Of course, this is not to say that Pan shouldn't care about non-GNOME
environments.

Cheers,
Petr Kovar