[Valentina-studio] [DISCUSSION] Improving column view

[Eric Forget]

Hi Jochen,

> Please let me know what you think would be better or how we can further
> improve it.

Sorry to came late on the discussion. Here is the opinion of someone who's
specialty has been to design GUI for the last 10 years.

The GUI layout
--------------

1) Do not try to imitate the Finder. The Finder allows you to browse
homogeneous items: files, folder, disk, etc. It never allows you to edit the
content of a file.

2) Looking at Address Book will be better. Although it is very simple, since
there is just 1 table.

3) There is no reason to have the database browser and the table browser in
the same window. There is 2 possibilities here:

    a) Separate windows for each database.

        Pro:    Allows comparison between databases
        Con:    Clutter the screen if there is a lot of databases opened

    b) Unique window for all the database. However, only 1 database is
visible at a time. You may allow to open multiple window like that one, to
keep the "pro" of a). I believe this is the best solution.

4) To browse the database, use a drawer on the Mac. It should look like Mail
mailboxes. On Windows, use collapsible dockable utility window. If you want
an example on Windows, looks at Visual Studio .Net Solution (project)
window. That way you don't use real-estate place for something use less
often.

5) Use 16x16 icons for your list. This is big enough. The current size is
way too big.


The framework
-------------

This is also from my experience...

1) Do not use wxWindows (or any other cross-platform framework), except if
you want either: spend a lot more in the development or never have
professional looking application. You do not believe me? Stop adding new
features and try to remove all the current glitches on all platform: refresh
problems, bad OS behavior, etc. Do not wait at the end this is the part that
will take you about 90-95% time of the whole project. This has been true for
all the places where I worked that tried cross-platform frameworks.

2) Use Cocoa on the Mac. Even if you do not know either it or Objective-C.
You should be running after only 2-4 weeks.

3) Use either MFC or .Net on Windows. MFC is the past and .Net the future.
However, MFC will be supported long time from now.

Cheers,

Éric

___________________________________________________________________

 Eric Forget                       Cafederic
 ForgetE at cafederic.com             <http://www.cafederic.com/>

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