[ptx] Re: thoughts for hugin UI, post 0.5

[Carl von Einem]

Hi!

Thanks for posting all those screenshots. Makes it easier to get an idea 
how things are organized on different platforms than Mac.

The GIMP's dialog indeed reminds me of the Mac look&feel in times of 
System 7: very clean and straightforward. Nice. The items shown in that 
dialog are clearly a copy of Photoshop (there the 'Cancel' button 
changes to 'Reset' when the option key is pressed, saves some space).

Are you aware of Aqua's print dialog? I guess this is a very good 
example for how to group a whole lot of things to choose from which 
differ extremely depending on the chosen printer (can be also a PDF or 
PostScript file or even a Fax message). I can post a few screenshots if 
there is interest.

I did the layout and print files for several CD packages that had 
language versions in english, french, german, spanish, italian and 
portuguese. Text length is indeed an important issue: french buttons and 
headlines tend to use the most space whereas text masses (explanations, 
help texts) in german often need more space. Look at multilingual 
'System Requirements' to get an idea.

Carl

ps.
the Venice meeting in August might be a very good place to discuss user 
interfaces.

From: douglas wilkins <dgswilkins at yahoo.co.uk>
> 
> --- Rob Park <rbpark at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> > We should strive to make it so that no matter what stitching engine is
>>>> > chosen, the UI of the Stitcher tab shouldn't change like it does now
>>>> > (oh god, and I thought it was bad before, with PTStitcher chosen it's
>>>> > even worse). Consistency is paramount.
>>
>>> Ok, in an attempt to simplify and get things aligned properly, I threw
>>> out the GtkFrames I was using and made the whole thing one big table:
>>> 
>>> http://artography.ath.cx/hugin-test.png
> 
> Also, have you tried it with different languages, where the widths of the
> Labels and input areas may well be different?
>>> 
>>> I still can't figure out how GIMP did that thing with the "lock aspect
>>> ratio" button* and the little lines drawn around it to indicate it
>>> affects both entry boxes (been pouring over gimp's sourcecode, and
>>> holy crap C an ugly language to be coding in).
>>> 
>>> * See http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Lite_Quickies/scale-dialog.png
>>> (look at the little chain icon next to the "Ratio X/Y" entry fields)
> 
[...]
>>> All I know is that there has to be a better way to organize this GUI.
>>> Using one big table is just an absolute mess of crap, but without it I
>>> can't get stuff lined up properly. I hate this.
> 
> Me too. It seems so easy on the surface, but the devil is in the details.