[interfacekit] Re: some prefs issues

> Hi there,
> 
> after the recent and not-so recent updates of some prefs up, I have 
> several issues I'd be glad to clear:
> 1) could we join the different UI related preferences applications? 
> There is ScrollBar, there is Menu, Appearance, etc. - there is too 
> much 
> of them IMO.
I would agree. Going to a different model for accessing preferences is 
something we will need for R2.

> 2) could we not break standard UI design with our (system delivered) 
> applications? I am mostly thinking about "Appearance" here and its 
> misplaced menu bar, but also the circle that shows the currently 
> selected color as it looks "foreign" - it doesn't fit into the design 
> of the other widgets.
That would be completely (and solely) my area. I'll be the first to 
admit that the app is a kludge, but at the same time I didn't know much 
about UI design when I wrote the first incarnation, and I haven't 
really bothered with the code since. It really needs reworked. The 
color well is one I designed some time ago to get that type of task 
done. Just curious - what would need to be done to make it more Be-ish? 
Anyways, the menu needs to go, as well. I am planning on reworking the 
UI eventually.

> 3) could we please, please, pretty please not introduce fixed-size 
> knobs in scroll bars into OpenBeOS? Also I think we shouldn't allow 
> for 
> separate skinning of the scroll bars as well, because I can't see how 
> that is different from any other UI component. I wouldn't even add 
> the 
> possibility to change between single and double arrow styled scroll 
> bars; sometimes people just don't know what's good for them.
> 
> I'd be glad to hear your thoughts.
I disagree with doing away with them completely, but I do agree with 
keeping the proportional double-arrow scrollbars as the defaults. 
People don't really know what's good for them, but if they want to work 
slower because they like a single pair of arrows and want to go out of 
their way to do so, let them. Also, I know your thoughts on skinning is 
in response to yesterday's post on my site, but the "skinning" of 
scrollbars is no different from any other control - if I want to make 
elliptical BButtons that have 133t true-color gradients that light up 
and are bordered with "marching ants" on mouse-over (despite the 
concept as a whole being a dumb idea and probably ugly), it's possible. 
There's nothing in our BScrollBar implementation intended specifically 
to allow skinning - the comment on my website was made because someone 
will probably tweak the look of the entire GUI once R1 is released 
because the look is "outdated." Changing R5's scrollbar look isn't 
workable because of the server-side implementation, which the client-
side thing will probably make developers who want to do so quite happy

--DW

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