From: "Josiah Carlson" <jcarlson@uci.edu>
> From: "Christopher Barker" <Chris.Barker@noaa.gov>
> > No, but yours is to write the code cleanly. Just because your client
> > wants to see all those controls at once doesn't mean you have to put
> > them all in one Panel. that could be ten Panels: it would look the same.
> > And I think yours might be to point out usability issues as well!
>
> The client wants them all on screen at one time and that's how she's
> going to get them. For now at least.
>
> And exactly how does putting the 43 controls into 10 panels help?
> Sooner or later I still have to wrap a sizer around all 10 of them and
> get it to look and work sensibly no matter what contorted shape the
> screen may take.I believe what Christopher was trying to say was that many layouts have
some kind of a heirarchy that can be exploited to generate sectioned
layouts. Take, for example, the "content" preferences in Firefox. In
the upper part, basically each row is composed of a checkbox on the left
and a button on the right. One can. generally speaking, lay out each
row by itself, test that it works right, then add it to a listing of
rows (though I think in this case everything is in a static layout).While not all layouts are as simple, many have a structure that can be
exploited, and many have smaller pieces that can be tested independantly.It would be difficult for us to say if partitioning your 43 controls
into different sections would have helped without seeing the layout, etc.,
but at least in my experience (and seemingly in Christopher's), it
generally doesn't hurt.
Good thoughts all. But unfortunately I'm not yet able to imagine how to apply it to my situation where the dictated requirement is "to be able to see it all on one screen all at the same time".
The Firefox example is worth some thought. On that particular panel it has grouped items that are conceptually related but not inter-dependent (e.g. blocking popups has little bearing on enabling Javascript or not). In other words, it's a settings/options window.
I'm dealing with a business application where every data item must be verified and correct at the instant she commits the sale.
I'm oversimplifying in the above and it does not take into account bigger issues like division of labor and task orientation. But my goal in life at this moment is to deliver something the client finds acceptable so I can get paid and start work on v2.
Thanks for listening to my troubles...
Michael
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"Michael Hipp" <michael@hipp.com> wrote: