Lex Spoon wrote:
> 
> Jesse Welton <jwelton at pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu> wrote:
> > Suggestions for which preferences to include?
> > 
> > 	inboardScrollBars
> 
> Yuck.  All I can figure is that everyone who likes this has been
> assimilated.

I'm sure there are some people who still prefer this.  Certainly, it
is likely that some new users will like it better.

> > 	scrollBarsOnRight
> 
> This is so clearly inferior, I don't even know why it's allowed at all!

I can only assume this is a joke.  Just in case it is not, the very
fact that you have such a strong preference is evidence enough that
people have strong preferences as to which side the scroll bar should
go on.  Hence - er - Preferences.

> > 	noviceMode?
> 
> Err....  This is probably not the *first* thing someone should be
> thinking about, is it?

If not first, then when?  Who is noviceMode for, if not novices?

Actually, I didn't end up putting anything about it into my draft
PreferencesIntroduction (see SuperSwiki), because it didn't strike me
as having noticeable or particularly useful effects.  So my answer
might even be "no one"; but your response implies that it's something
to think about later on.  What am I missing?

> Overall, I don't think we should cater too strongly to people who insist
> on things looking familiar.  Squeak *isn't* the same old thing, and we
> shouldn't be falling over ourselves to make it *look* like the same old
> thing.  Anyone who can't accept a little bit of change, really is not
> ready for Squeak.

I agree, but as long as there are options available that ease the
change (even just psychologically), we may as well make new users
aware of them.  (Not to mention that having the options available will
make the development of interfaces that will satisfy non-developer end
users of Squeak applications easier - but that's another subject for
another time.)

> Let's pick reasonable settings for basic manipulation, and then let
> eager users change them later on.  If inboard scrollbars make *that* big
> of a difference, then let's just use inboard scrollbars.  But, they
> don't seem that important.  This isn't like right-handed scissors being
> forced on lefties.  This is more like picking a knob for a door instead
> of a latch -- everybody has a preference, but either solution is
> reasonable for everyone.
> 
> (How's that for religious?)
> 
> 
> Here's a solution I think everyone will be happy: make a desktop
> configuration Play With Me.  It would include scroll bar settings along
> with many other things like how to set up a background image.

Perhaps you misunderstood the intent of my message.  I was not
proposing settings to have on by default.  I was mentioning a starting
point for what preferences to mention in just this sort of
introduction.  Look at what I've done (PreferencesIntroduction on the
SuperSwiki), and see if that's the sort of thing you want.  If you
think it should have more information about setting up a background
image, or anything like that, feel free to add it.

-Jesse


P.S. A technical note: To get live morphs embedded in a Workspace,
they must be added as submorphs of the pane's TransformMorph.  For
them to be positioned appropriately in the text, they must be anchored
to the text with TextAnchors (see class comment).  For them to respond
to input, they must appear in front of the TextMorph; this requires a
one-line fix to PluggableTextMorph>>scrollDeltaHeight, which should
read

	^ textMorph defaultLineHeight

rather than making assumptions about the submorph structure.  (Fix is
included in the project.)

Getting the morph embedded in the TransformMorph requires a little bit
of hackery, but certainly nothing extraordinary.  (I temporarily
stored the TransformMorph in a global variable, which I referred to
from inspectors on the morphs I wanted to imbed.)  This could
doubtless be made easier.