[Usability]Re: dialog convenience API

[Ettore Perazzoli <ettore ximian com>]

On Thu, 2002-05-30 at 18:34, Gregory Merchan wrote:
> > Normally you don't want to have more than five buttons, and the meaning
> > of these buttons is already defined according to the HIG.  I.e. you want
> > an "action" button, a "cancel" button, and an "alternate action" button,
> > plus possibly "help" and "details".
> 
> I think Help or Details should be considered as the alternative if they are
> present. If four or more buttons are needed, your program probably needs to
> be redesigned.

Yeah, you are probably right about this.  This is more of a UI decision
than a programming decision though.

What do the HIG people think?  Should we add recommendations about the
"Details >>" button and its interaction with the Help button in the
HIG?  This is kind of important to be able to finalize this API in GTK.

> Alerts really shouldn't have titles. Titles on alerts provide no useful
> information that isn't in the alert text and only distract. Since alerts
> are modal and should remain above the parent window, they shouldn't
> take up space on the panel window list either.

Yeah, you are right.  I totally missed this from the HIG (sorry).  Also,
I agree with the recommendation that they shouldn't have any title; so
please consider the title args to not be there anymore.

On the other hand: if modal alert dialogs don't have to have a title,
the window manager should act accordingly.  Do Sawfish and Metacity
presently honour this?

-- Ettore