RE: [ Jedit-users ] Jedit 4.0pre2 side bar comments.

[Oisin M. <Ois...@tr...>]

good idea, anything that allows me to use more
screen is good.

om

-----Original Message-----
From: John Gellene [mailto:jge...@ny...]
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 4:47 PM
To: jed...@li...
Subject: RE: [ Jedit-users ] Jedit 4.0pre2 side bar comments.


> but you can't get rid of the buttons on the side! I've now
> lost 1cm of screen space which I had before. I need the
> filebrowser and other plugins so not using them isn't
> an option. Is there now way of configuring this to the
> old way. If you know please tell me.
>
> om
>
>
> I disagree with you.  The new version is very slick and looks much better.
> I really like that it's so easy to hide and show the sidebar now.  Nothing
> was wrong with the old system.  I think Slava has simply improved what he
> had.  I don't think jEdit should ever take the "if it isn't
> broke, don't fix
> it" approach.  Otherwise, it would still be version 1.0.
>
> Daniel
>
>
> > Is there anyway of removing the new "side bar" docking buttons for file
> > system and other docked apps. The old scheme worked really well for
> > me. It seems that in the new jedit edit release squanders my screen
> > real estate with pointless buttons I can't remove. What was wrong with
> > the old system? I normally have most of the bar, buttons etc turned off
> > to get the maximum amount of screen space on my WinNT 1024x768
> > desktop. From other mails to this list I see I'm not alone in my views.
> > Don't get me wrong I like jedit a lot I just don't like things taking up
> > my screen space.
> >
> > om
> >

There is currently no way to hide the buttons under 4.0.

Everyone has, and is entitled to, an opinion on whether buttons are good
because they're cool or whether tabs are good because they're conventional
(and because flat buttons drawn by direct Java graphics calls don't look as
good on some systems as Swing widgets).  The survey on this subject at jEdit
Community had a few more respondents preferring tabs over buttons, but also
had a lot of people saying "I don't know, I haven't seen it yet." One could
reasonably say this is not conclusive and that people can get used to
something different, so why rip out new code?  But the problem with the new
dockable window GUI is not the appearance of buttons over tabs.  The problem
is that you can't make the buttons go away.

A software application should be able to hide what the user doesn't want to
use at the moment.  This is done to conserve screen space and avoid
distractions, so people can work more efficiently.  It's important for
laptop owners and others lacking large or high-resolution displays. If you
use Windows and small screen fonts for your native applications, jEdit's GUI
already takes up much more space than you are used to unless you run it in
Microsoft's VM.

If the user can't hide anywhere from one to four rows of buttons
representing plugins, where the user could do that with rows of tabs, the
quality of the GUI is diminshed.  The fact that some users might like seeing
the buttons, or don't mind having them around all the time, is not relevant.
It's not a question of taste.

I think that the current docking window GUI (if it will be retained) needs
to be modified to allow all controls associated with docking windows to be
hidden by user action and as an option at startup.  If anyone thinks that is
not a good idea, I would be interested in learning his or her reasons.

John


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