Re: Stuff I want to do with a combobox

[Hudson Lee <spam nilmail com>]

>>Hudson Lee wrote in summary:
>>There is one thing about gtk combo boxes I can't stand! If your combobox is 
>>near the top or bottom of the screen it doesn't position itself so you can 
>>see all the items, it makes you scroll. Is there anyway for an app programmer
>>to change this behavior? What are some gtk developers thoughts on changing 
>>the way comboboxes are drawn so they work like every other pulldown menu in 
>>this regard?

>Maciej Katafiasz wrote:
>AFAIK this is entirely deliberate, to ensure that when you click on
>combobox to see list and then click again without moving mouse, selected
>item will not change. One implication is that in edge-cases combobox
>will be drawn with most items hidden behind scroll-arrows, but also
>ensures interface stability, which is of prime importance. That's
>probably good trade-off, interface that changes without user's action is
>Really Bad Thing(TM)

I think the way gtk does things detracts from interface stability.
 
Every other pulldown menu (try one in a web browser for example) draws the menu
below the widget (or above if the menu is near the bottom of the screen) so 
clicking twice will open the menu, than close it with no risk of changing 
anything.

Good interface design is of prime importance. Not using the available screen
space and forcing the user to move the mouse up to see the choices is a 
UI crime! The only advantage I can see to the gtk way is it looks nicer when 
the currently selected item shows up where you click. That tradeoff is not 
worth the downside which not only looks crappy but hurts usability. Those edge 
cases aren't so edge when you have a pulldown menu with 3 items in it a toolbar
near the top of the screen. Want an example of a gtk program that does this? 
I'll provide the option menu in the upper left corner of the layers, channels 
and paths window in Gimp 2.0. If that window resides at the top of the screen 
(like normal) try the following:

Create two new documents or three for better effect. Click on the document
selection pulldown menu in the layers window.

Notice how since the currently focused document window is on top you see all 
the choices in the pulldown menu.

Now select a different document window. Click the option menu again.

Oh look now I have to scroll up to see all the choices.
Boy changing the interface behind the users back sure does wonders for 
interface stability :)

This behavior is extra annoying in this example because the option menu is so
long. If you clicked on the arrows on the right (instead of the text) you can't
just move the mouse up. To see all the choices you must move the mouse to the
left than up in a L like motion.

It should be very easy to understand exactly how much this sucks. Are there
any good reasons why it was done this way or why it shouldn't be changed?

								-Hudson Lee