Compact (PDA) Browser UI

Noel J. Bergman noel at devtech.com
Tue Jul 10 16:37:08 UTC 2001


Lex Spoon's views (pun intended) on browsers got me thinking ... What about
replacing the selection panes with drop-down "combo box" selectors?  A
single combo box, a group of radio buttons, and a text edit could provide a
compact browser view.

       Compact Browser                 Alternative

[--- Text Selection --- | V ]	[--- Pane Selection --- | V ]
 O Class O Category O Method	[--- Item Selection --- | V ]
[ ] Instance
|---------------------------| |---------------------------|
|                           |	|                           |
|                           |	|                           |
|                           |	|                           |
|                           |	|                           |
|                           |	|                           |
|                           |	|                           |
|                           |	|                           |
|                           |	|                           |
|                           |	|                           |
|                           |	|                           |
|---------------------------| |---------------------------|

(pardon the ASCII graphics)

The text selection would reflect the currently selected logical browser
pane.  The edit area would contain the appropriate text (class comment,
method text).  Rather than dropping down a list, clicking the down-arrow
could populate the text area with selectable options for that combobox.

In the alternative on the right the radio buttons are replaced by a combo
box describing the logical panes.  One of the choices would allow selection
of instance, ?, class.

The lists can be sorted alphabetically, by most recent use, or by some user
provided sort.

	--- Noel






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