Re: Status of configurable global options (double-click timeout, etc.)?

[Vlad Harchev <hvv hippo ru>]

On Sat, 9 Sep 2000, Guy Harris wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 08, 2000 at 11:42:27PM +0500, Vlad Harchev wrote:
> >  Hmm, probably I didn't describe my idea in full in previous message. I was
> > thinking about dynamic exchange of information about widget's arguments and 
> > their meaning and values between already running program and editres-like app.
> > User activates special editres-like app, clicks on some widget in the 
> > target app's window, and widget returns info about all arguments it accepts
> > (type, description, value). From this information, glade-like "properties"
> > window is created, in which user can set the options he wish, and applies (and 
> > possible saves to rc file) changes. Of course, the "properties" window 
> > shouldn't list all basic properties like button's border width, but ones like 
> > "default font size for font selection dialog" etc - i.e. default values for 
> > parameters that are changeable by user (so, GtkContainer::border_width 
> > doesn't fall into this category).
> 
> Did Owen correctly infer that you're talking about this mechanism being
> for use by the developer of an application, rather than by most users?
> 
> If not, my first comment here would be "I rarely configure applications
> on Windows by firing up the Registry Editor". :-)
> 
> I.e., that might be a nice general mechanism, but I suspect most users
> of applications (and, if I'm not either
> 
> 	1) developing an application
> 
> or
> 
> 	2) trying to beat a particularly stupid and stubborn application
> 	   into submission
> 
> I probably fall into the "most users of applications" category, i.e.
> even major-league nerds can fall into that category) would find
> configuring applications with some mechanisms such as that about as
> appealing as they'd find doing it to an Xt-based application with
> editres or doing it to a Windows application by firing up the Registry
> Editor.
> 
> (I've also found the Earth-Shattering Power that the Xt resource
> mechanism provides to be overkill, for most purposes other than the
> aforementioned "trying to beat a particularly stupid and stubborn
> application into submission" (my ".Xdefaults" file's comments are,
> shall we say, rather grumpy).  I have 8 lines in my ".Xdefaults" file
> just to force Motif to use Helvetica rather than "fixed" as the font for
> various purposes, as I find "fixed" as a "system font" to be rather
> butt-ugly.)
> 

 I think mentioning Windows registry is not suitable here. There is no a
standard nice gui tool to edit some properties using the registry, and it
won't exist IMO.

 It seems you don't use stubborn apps - I think that will change in the
future (at least not for you, but for other people). Also, if there was a 
nice tool with interface like glade for editing properties of already running 
widgets, even a newbie wouldn't have difficulty using it (compare to the ease 
of Xt appres' ease of use). And setting properties to widgets should be 
pattern based like Xt's resources to allow customization the values of 
parameters for specific app or dialog.
 Owen told that there were plans to provide some aid for setting widget's
arguments using patters, and in general I proposed to use the same technology
for setting global properties by creating one-instance object, whose
arguments will be global options like double-click timeout - i.e. not to
introduce new API (that was the main idea of my letter, all other words was
to prove that it can be done). 
 
 As for usefulness - I think that extra flexibility won't hurt usual users and
can be enjoyed by power users or sysadmins. As for me, here is a list of
things I would configured using this mechanism, in order of priority:
* enlarged all file selector and font selector dialogs
* provided default value for charset in font selector filter (currently filter
	allows all charsets)
* enabled popups for all notebooks (that doesn't hurt at all)
* configured properties of GtkCalendar (like whether week starts on monday,
	whether to show day names)
  I would like to set options listed above for all widgets of the same
type.

 Also, there are a lot of app-specific setting I wished to tune, like
assigning window classes and window sizes for dialogs of various apps.
 I think everybody would love to tune options listed above - even a newbie.
 
 
 Best regards,
  -Vlad