kumorek@APOLLO.COM (James Kumorek) (08/21/90)
Hi,
I'm currently involved with writing a new Motif UI for our debugger. In
implementing popup dialog boxes, I've encountered a problem that I would
like to know how othershave solved.
I've based my dialog boxes on the form dialog. My problem is that I have
to explicitely specify the size of the form widgets to be the appropriate
size. However, if the font being used gets changed, all the forms widgets
will be the wrong size.
Also, with our current method of creating the form contents (a somewhat
mechanical one, in order to facilitate teh creation of the ~ 100+ popups)
we don't completely attach all the widgets in the form. It looks fine
when it first comes up, but if the user tries to resize it, the layout
does not remain asthetically pleasing.
My question is, what have other developers done in this situation, and what
do the users expect to be able to do? Is changing the fonts of the dialog
boxes required? Do users really need to be able to arbitrarily resize the
dialog boxes? Does anyone care? :->
Thanks in advance for your opinions and your help.
- Jim
Jim Kumorek
Apollo Computer, Inc. - A subsidiary of Hewlett Packard
kumorek@apollo.hp.com
-------mitch@edsvcs.osf.org (Mitch Trachtenberg) (08/23/90)
> ...However, if the font being used gets changed, all the forms widgets > will be the wrong size. Use the XmNunitType resource to obtain resolution independent sizing for the form and its children. Specify a unitType of XmN100TH_FONT_UNITS. You may need to specify your font in resource files as both "font" *and* "fontList" for this to work, or I may be remembering a bug fixed long ago. -- Mitch Trachtenberg, OSF (mitch@osf.org) (617) 621-8895
thp@westhawk.UUCP ("Timothy H Panton.") (08/28/90)
kumorek@apollo.hp.com writes: >> Do users really need to be able to arbitrarily resize the dialog boxes? ... uunet.uu.net!hpaustx!stuart writes: > If the dialog requires an input before the application continues, I dont see > the value of moving it. Unless the question posed by the dialog is trivial (" shall I explode ?") your user may need to see some part of the screen in order to answer it. Life being what it is, the info will be under your pop-up. When I'm using a debugger, I have my mind split between the spec, what is actually going on, the source, and driving the debugger. My short-term memory is already at its limits, don't make it harder. > I cant see the advantage to re-sizing it Me neither. Tim. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Tim Panton, Westhawk Ltd. "... avoiding vain and profane babblings." | |Phone: +44 92822574 -1 Timothy 6:20. | |uucp : ..!mcvax!ukc!westhawk!thp | |Paper: Westhawk Ltd. 26 Rydal Grove, Helsby, Cheshire, WA6 OET. UK. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+