[Cuis-dev] [IMPROV] Preferences Menu With Better Feedback

[Gerald Klix]

Hi Juan, Hi list,

Thanks for your feedback. Please see below.


On 9/5/21 7:33 PM, Juan Vuletich via Cuis-dev wrote:
> Hi Gerald, Folks,
> 
> While I like the enhanced behavior, I think the menu got too large. I'd 
> prefer if we could reduce the main Preferences menu like this:
> 
> Preferences
> ------------------
> Size of GUI elements...
> Set System Font
> [] Show taskbar
> [] Full Screen
> Appareance
> UI feel
> Changes
> Debugging
> Programming
> Browsing
> Shout
> Events
> Meta
Any idea about a better name for "Meta"?
> Sound
> 
> Then, submenus:
Actually secondary menus, sub-menu do not work well,
when pinned; I tried ...
> 
> Appareance
> ------------------
> Menus show icons
> Menus show section titles
> BrightColorTheme
> DarkTheme
> Extension themes...
> 
> 
> UI feel
> ----------
> Focus follows mouse
> Click grabs morph
> ... Selected options from UI...
> 
> 
> Changes
"Changes"?, isn't that confusing?
> --------------
> Set code Author...
> [] Numbered user changes files
> [] Version numbered change set files
I wonder whether these items make sense to newbies.
As explained below, the are contained in
the 'Programming" secondary menu, which is
generated automatically.

> 
> Menus... menu should be merged in other menus?
That's funny: Here I used the fact that preferences
could be member of more than one category.
Every item in the 'Menu" category, is also
in some other category, therefore it can be deleted
without effort (and harm).
> 
> Move "Send mouse wheel events" to Events... submenu.
It already is there, albeit with an all uppercase spelling.
> 
> Do NOT show at all "taskbar height / scale options" in menu, as it is 
> already in the taskbar right click menu.
Actually this is the same code, that displays both menus, the one
in the taskbar and this part of the the preferences menu.
I would like to keep it that way:
Not being a (Smalltalk) newbie, it nevertheless
took me some month to discover that there is a popup menu
at the taskbar. I like to have *all* taskbar settings in one menu.
However I would like to move it to a secondary/tertiary
preferences menu and collapse the Hide/Show Taskbar to one
item with a checkbox. I left it as it was, because
it resembled the look and feel of the fullscreen-item.
> 
> And there are many options in submenus that shouldn't be at all.
> 
> My idea is to have:
> 1) Main options, that are most often needed, or newbies need to find 
> easily in the main menu.
That's hard to implement, because I only know what I need and I know
about two options Ken wanted (at the top-level?).
The term "most often needed" needs clarification.
> 2) Important options in submenus like Appareance, UI feel, Changes, 
> Debugging
Again can you define "Important"? If have some ideas about
importance that are obviously not the same as yours.
> 3) Maybe a Programming submenu, that includes further submenus for 
> programming / shout / meta
Well, currently Cuis is almost exclusively used by
programmers -- this may change with the advent of Dr. Geo --
therefore: Does it really make sense to hide programmer menus
in tertiary menus in the context of Cuis' current audience?
> 4) Maybe an 'Other preferences' or 'All preferences' automatically 
> generated.
All the stuff at the end of the preferences menu
is automatically generated, I only added
a method that finally categorizes all boolean
preferences according to my taste.
(See Preference class>>#preferenceDescriptions)
However it is easy to move these long list
into a secondary menu and it is probably
the better solution.
The menu item texts are mostly generated by
String>>#displayStringFromUnarySelector:

If I come to think about it #preferenceDescriptions
should probably mark the "important" items that should
be displayed at the secondary menus you proposed.
> 
> This way, the main menu won't be too cluttered, the most imporant 
> options will be easy to find, and further detail is available for those 
> who want to dig in.
Again: I am lost when it comes to "important",
I need precise definitions which items should go into
the second and third level menus.
I am tempted to make this levels configurable. That would
enable you to play around with the preferences menu
until is OK for you. See this story about a well-known guy:
https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Calculator_Construction_Set.txt

It may take some time until there will be another trial
of this package, I have to think some things over.


Best Regards,

Gerald


> 
> Thanks,
> 
> On 9/4/2021 12:55 PM, Gerald Klix via Cuis-dev wrote:
>> On 9/1/21 1:55 PM, Hernan Wilkinson wrote:
>>> a little bit late, but it looks very nice!
>> Your are welcome! And you aren't late:
>>
>> I now have a final version ready,
>> that properly -- according to Gerald :} --categorizes
>> all boolean preferences and has a submenu for each of these
>> categories. I also added some stuff that Ken missed
>> directly to the preference menu.
>>
>> If you all agree with the current design,
>> I will convert it to change-set and submit it
>> for integration.
>>
>>
>> Have fun,
>>
>> Gerald
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 5:03 PM Gerald Klix via Cuis-dev <
>>> cuis-dev at lists.cuis.st> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 8/31/21 6:03 PM, Juan Vuletich wrote:
>>>>> On 8/30/2021 9:54 AM, Gerald Klix via Cuis-dev wrote:
>>>>>> Hi all, Hi Juan,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Please find attached a (rather big) package that reworks
>>>>>> the preferences menu. My main objective was to provide
>>>>>> better user feedback by showing the currently
>>>>>> active setting where feasible.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am looking forward toyour feedback.
>>>>>> If the changes are acceptable,
>>>>>> I will convert the package to change-set
>>>>>> and resubmit it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> HTH and Best Regards,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Gerald
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Gerald,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks! I really like it.
>>>> You are welcome.
>>>>
>>>> Tomorrow, while building the VMs, I will clean up the code a bit,
>>>> change the font/ui sizes and font selection menus,
>>>> and add an extended preferences menu for
>>>> code preferences and the like.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Best Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Gerald
>>>> -- 
>>>> Cuis-dev mailing list
>>>> Cuis-dev at lists.cuis.st
>>>> https://lists.cuis.st/mailman/listinfo/cuis-dev
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
> 
>