Re: [libreoffice-design] Specifications for present UI and Graphics

Thanks Christoph, Bernhard,

hi all,

Sorry for the long delay, I've been on beatiful Bolívia for some two 
weeks, so I'm still catching up with the e-mails, now that vacations are 
gone (far from an excuse, with Christoph on parental leave, so I'll be 
quick).

On the specifications and documentation part, there seems to be lots to 
it. I'll try and read the most I can, and come back when doubts arise.

In the while, I believe I could make some kind of compilation of this 
information as I go by (don't expect much, though, I'm just crawling in 
this field). As for the API-something, should I try the ux-advise list, 
or someone specific in the development team?

And thank you both for the links, and Christoph for the clear 
explanation (and categorization), this will be my starting point to 
understand this whole stuff.

Cheers./

Em 10-07-2011 13:00, design+help@global.libreoffice.org escreveu:
> Hi Rafael, hi Bernhard, all!
>
> Bernhard, thanks for the CC :-)
>
> Am Samstag, den 09.07.2011, 23:05 +0200 schrieb Bernhard Dippold:
> > >  Hi Rafael, all
> > >  
> > >  just taking a very small part of your mail to reply, because this is a
> > >  different topic that shouldn't be hidden at the end of a long mail.
> > >  Rafael Rocha Daud schrieb:
> > > >  >  [...]
> > > >  >
> > > >  >  Talking of what, who do we need to talk to to get some directions on the
> > > >  >  capabilities of our current graphical libraries? Is there a
> > > >  >  specification, and someone who might be able to explain it if I get
> > > >  >  stuck? I want to continue working in the Styles and Formatting window,
> > > >  >  but I don't know what graphical elements I can throw in, explore etc.
> > >  
> > >  The best one to reply here is Christoph - but let him some time to reply
> > >  as he is in parental leave (even if he is more and more active again...)
> Starting today, our little son has some vacation some hundred kilometers
> away. So, for approx. two weeks that will lead to,
> a) missing him (already),
> b) spending some time for LibO (already) ;-)
>
> > >  As the UI is nearly unchanged from the OOo UI, you should have a look at
> > >  the OpenOffice.org specifications. I found this index:
> > >  
> > >  http://specs.openoffice.org/ui_in_general/index.html
> Hard questions - since LibO is platform neutral you'll find any kind of
> behavior within the system. Given the today's capabilities, assume that
> the "intersecting set" of the UI elements of Windows, Mac and Gnome are
> supported. So, this leads to only few elements being available per
> default. And, that led to a UI design that is a "mixture" of all the
> platforms (just have a look at grouped UI elements ...).
>
> Besides these items, there are some more elements specifically designed
> for LibreOffice - e.g. the Task Pane in Impress that was initially
> planned to be added to other LibO modules as well (already somehow
> obsolete interaction design). Or, a rather recent addition, the new
> drop-downs in Impress to change the slide layout.
>
> Unfortunately, some of these "custom elements" have been built for
> special cases only - so expect local solutions to pop up everywhere. One
> example are windows. Missing a layout manager, windows are usually not
> resizable. But, the go-OOo folks managed to add layouting capabilities
> to some windows - e.g. the Find&  Replace dialog (it seems this patch
> isn't applied to LibO). And there are hand-made solutions - e.g. the
> resizing of the Printing dialog.
>
> Please don't get me wrong - there will be specific solutions all the
> time, but we have far too many "almost identical" solutions being
> different (in terms of code).
>
> Moreover, there are some technical solutions available in the LibO
> platform being "less obvious". For example, there is a thing called
> "Drawing Layer" that is used to e.g. draw the Notes in Writer or the
> Selection Marker in all the applications. I really depends on the use
> case whether this thing can be used ... or not :-)
>
> So my proposal is to "mentally" cluster UI items in four groups (if
> anybody comes up with a better naming scheme, please go ahead*g*):
>        * Platform: Ready to use and more or less equivalent to the ones
>          used on the operating system (e.g. buttons, menu items, context
>          menus, combo boxes, ...)
>        * LibO: Ready to use and specific to LibreOffice.
>        * Local: Available in LibreOffice, but "hand-made" and thus not
>          (easily) re-usable.
>        * Unavailable: Simply missing ...
>
>
> For the "Platform" items, the most complete list might be the "UI
> Elements" list (Specification Template, Spec Project, OOo):
> http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/UI-Elements
>
> For "LibO" solutions, some specifications are available in the
> specification section (the link Bernhard provided). For example, task
> panes, menus, ...
>
> For "Local" artifacts there might be descriptions being part of selected
> specifications - but I hardly think that there is something. So we
> should expect to reverse engineer these items (UX wise).
>
> For "Unavailable" items, Bernhard (as far as I remember) started some
> list to collect proposals:
> http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/UI_Elements
>
>
> To be really sure, it'll be great if someone could ping the development
> to get e.g. a API documentation what's available and what's not. I've
> never checked that thoroughly.
>
>
> @ all: Mmh, does this collection sound reasonable? If yes, it would be
> cool if somebody could "conserve" this info in the wiki - to extend it
> bit by bit. Unfortunately, I have a huge stack of things I have been
> pushing forward for weeks ... so I won't be able to do this :-\
>
> @ Rafeael: Did that help somehow? In my point-of-view, the requirements
> for the Styles dialog are more important that what's available in terms
> of UI elements. Personally, I'd say that if the Design Team comes up
> with a good solution, there is some chance to convince some developers
> to tweak "Local" items or to add "Unavailable" ones.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Christoph

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