[Valentina-studio] [DISCUSSION] Improving column view

[Jochen Peters]

Hi Éric,

> 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.
Well - the same is true for the Schema Browser: You can't edit the 
content (data)
of the database - only it's structure - so - the same as in Finder.
And - i only have taken SOME ideas from the Finder - as you can see in 
the last (big:-))
screenshots the Schema Browser will indeed look different.

>
> 2) Looking at Address Book will be better. Although it is very simple, 
> since
> there is just 1 table.
Yes - i have copied the + and - buttons from adress book :-)

>
> 3) There is no reason to have the database browser and the table 
> browser in
> the same window. There is 2 possibilities here:
But i don't see the reason to not do that! This would be the same as 
opening a new
window for every folder in the Finder...
With our approach you can quickly see all relevant information at once. 
Imagine how
difficult it would be to only see tables - then you must mention the 
database they are belonging to in the
title of the window - ....

>     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.
Well - maybe. But even better would be a solution which does not depend 
on a special
OS feature - because we must support 3 systems in the future.

>
> 5) Use 16x16 icons for your list. This is big enough. The current size 
> is
> way too big.
I will experiment with smaller sizes. The problem with small icons is 
that they are pretty
useless - especially if you have many of them. Look at the toolbar 
buttons in Mac OS X...
But anyway - i will make them smaller...

>
>
> 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.
This is not true Eric. Have you ever worked with wxWindows? wxWindows 
is very stable
now and works great. On Windows i don't see any problems at all. (Don't 
think that
all of the redraw problems are from the framework :-) )
On Mac there are some issues because this is a very new port - and the 
way it was made was
not good. But it is very much improving now. And - wxCocoa is on the 
run! I have already tested  wxCocoa and
it looks really great - as soon as it will be ready i will use it for 
the Mac part!
(It will be ready in the first half of next year)
>
> 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.
I very like Cocoa and i have tried it. But for cross platform 
programming it is useless. I don't
want to programm the application 3 times!
>
> 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.
>
-- 
Best regards,
Jochen Peters
PIIT GmbH

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