[UI] UI (was RE: A couple of simple ergonomic adjustments onsqueak-dev)

[Gary Chambers]

Thanks for the support. Not just the look with this. The "expected"
tab/(shift tab) behaviour (between keyboard responsive morphs) is supported
also, without any particular programmer intervention. Down to morphs and
submorphs really, and the order in which they are added.

Of course, a multiline text editor only responds to shift-tabs, ordinary
tabs are a tab! Likewise for the return key in a dialog.

Although there are quite a few changes to the base classes (because I like
the development environment to take advantage of these changes) I have tried
to minimise the impact. It will be a case of "either you like it or not",
though for end-user deployment the package can be loaded then if you prefer
the standard development environment.

Though there is a task-switcher, duee to the esoteric key combination  used
to avoid OS/editor conflicts I find I forget to use it. The Taskbar is quite
handy though. These "enhancements" started off by being inspired by John
Pierce's LookEnhancements package and C .David Shaffer's WindowList. Looks
like I got a bit carried away with the idea :-) so there's nothing left. 

As for the general widget stuff, the report builder I was tasked to create
led me to the creation of the "standard widgets", if you like. As an end
user would expect there to be for a modern business application.

Finanlly, I decided to factor these things out into a framework for creating
"standard" widgets which naturally lead to being indirectly themed... Though
without going the full "you, other object, render me" kind of way.

As you can see from the screenshots that include code samples, reasonably
complex UIs can be created with a relatively modest amount of coding.

... Just the packaging to do. We have a few MC packages, split amongst
"fixes", "extensions" and the main meat.
I am undecided as to whether the fixes and extensions are palletable to the
community in general, think "may break existing code" category... So, will
discuss next week as to what people think is appropriate.

I haven't tested with 3.10xxx, works fine with 3.9. We used to maintain a
3.8 version but have moved on....
We will support 3.10 when finalised.

I understand many people are eager to try this, for us it is a way forward
(we will use the framework methods that can be adapted to the underlying ui,
Morphic or otherwise). Think of it as a lower-level ToolBuilder...

As for ToolBuilder, there is a custom subclass which leverages the nice
look-and-feel and will be part of the release (which highlights some of the
tools that don't use the ToolBuilder protocol).

There is also some window event sound support - you'll need to provide your
own AbstractSound subclass instances for that!

Lastly, some of the icons used are taken from Gnome. There may be a
licensing problem with that so will be getting busy with Inkscape myself!


If anyone want's to deal with having to install a few packages for the
moment, send me an email and I'll email the files.

(doing a Jerome), yours with respect, GazzaGuru.


-----Original Message-----
From: ui-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org
[mailto:ui-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On Behalf Of Travis Kay
Sent: 23 August 2007 7:05 pm
To: Squeak's User Interface
Subject: Re: [UI] UI (was RE: A couple of simple ergonomic adjustments
onsqueak-dev)


Excellent work!

Every time I demo Squeak its UI turns many away. I am sure your 
improvements will be welcomed by all.

Travis

Gary Chambers wrote:
> Just an update... Although business work is busy I am managing to get 
> closer to a release :-)
>
> I'll be asking some questions next week as to how people want to see 
> things packaged up and hosted.
>
> In the mean time, some extra screenshots with code examples...
>
>  http://flickr.com/photos/65338133@N00/1213406097/
>  http://flickr.com/photos/65338133@N00/1214268406/
>  http://flickr.com/photos/65338133@N00/1213402171/
>  http://flickr.com/photos/65338133@N00/1213400147/
>
> Gary at pinesoft.co.uk.
>
> _______________________________________________
> UI mailing list
> UI at lists.squeakfoundation.org 
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ui
>
>   

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