[Sodipodi-list] userinterface thoughts

[Markus H. <ma...@me...>]

after reading about fitts law at:
http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html

i remembered that putting big aplications into fullscreen mode results
in a better task and icon bar usability.
how difficult is the implementation of fullscreen mode (or MDI) in a
graphical app like sodipodi. gimp doesnt support it and i think its a
big drawback cause theoretically if you are working inside the app, you
wont need the desktop, the filemanager or terminal - with mdi or
fullscreen mode you could focus much better on your work without loosing
dialog windows behind the drawing.
i somehow configured gimp and sodipodi with sawfish so the different
window classes are layered on top of each other, but it was quite a mess
( opening each dialog box thats virtually possible, selecting it to go
in layer x etc. ). it would be quite cool if such settings where default
in sodipodi, as long as its not as big as the gimp, it wouldn't be a
hassle to implement it now. 

implementing MDI in sodipodi would also give lots of improvements in
usability:

* minimized drawings wouldnt hide in the global taskbar
* the top window menu could be longer and allways present and more    
  intuitve ( File | Edit | View | Extras | Preferences | Info )
* dialogs wouldn't disapear behind the drawing, minimized dialogs  
  wouldn't hide in global taskbar
* zoom could be made a persistent button with hotlinks to predefined
  sizes (100% 75% 50%)

and maybe more...

another question: how far is the implementation of a palette tool?
currently its pretty difficult to assign the same color to another
object...



markus hammer

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