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

[Derek Atkins]

Neil Williams <linux at codehelp.co.uk> writes:

> 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?

I think that iterating through all the instances in the book is way
too much overhead.  Iterating through each class would be okay, as there
are a limited number of classes.

However, I think that just saying something like "You last saved your
data at [timestamp].  If you quit now without saving then you will
lose all changes you've made in [delta]."  Obviously this is only
required if changes have been made.  This requires fixing the register
code so that opening the register does not automagically dirty the
book.

> 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?

Lots!  Don't make assumptions about how people use the app; you'll
always be wrong.  Whenever you find yourself thinking "user's wont do
that" you'll undoubtedly get hit with tons of bug reports when users
"do that".  :-/

> 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.

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available