[Gnucash-changes] Spruce up the delete window dialog to make it more HIG compliant.

[Neil Williams]

On Tuesday 19 July 2005 9:04 pm, David Hampton wrote:
> +  /*
> +   * *** THIS DIALOG IS NOT HIG COMPLIANT. ***
> +   *
> +   * According to the HIG, the secondary context should include
> +   * context about the number of changes that will be lost (either in
> +   * time or a count).  While it is possible to simply provide the
> +   * time since the last save, that doesn't appear too usefule.  If
> +   * the user has had Gnucash open for hours in the background, but
> +   * only made a change in the last few minutes, then telling them
> +   * they will lose hours work of work is wring.  The QOF code needs
> +   * to be modified to provide better timing information.  The best
> +   * case scenario would be if QOF could provide a timestamp of the
> +   * oldest unsaved change.
> +   */

The SQL backend uses qof_instance_get_last_update but this dialog would 
require iterating over every instance in the book, one type at a time prior 
to displaying the dialog, then sorting the timespecs (and this when the user 
is waiting for the app to close!)

The alternative method would involve keeping tabs on all instances and sorting 
the various update times but then that structure would need to be stored 
outside the library anyway (couldn't be a static).

Do other applications interpret "Time Period" in the above manner?

The HIG only specifies:
"The secondary text provides the user with some context about the number of 
changes that might be unsaved."

IMHO, "some context" does not mean "number of seconds since the last change, 
anywhere in a 2Mb book". The iterations themselves could delay the display of 
the dialog. I don't see how this is a job for the QOF library.

How many people really do leave GnuCash running in the background?

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/1.0/windows.html#alerts-confirmation

The example itself only shows a simple time period, no hint that this has to 
be the time period since the last modification or the last save.

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
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