r19733 - gnucash/trunk/src - Preferences window improvements:

[Herbert Thoma]

On 01.11.2010 10:43, Geert Janssens wrote:
> On Monday 1 November 2010, Mike Evans wrote:
>> On Sunday October 31 2010 20:29:01 Mike Alexander wrote:
>>> --On October 30, 2010 10:55:24 AM -0400 Geert Janssens
>>>
>>> <gjanssens at code.gnucash.org>  wrote:
>>>> * General: remove "Show splash screen" option
>>>
>>> I'm disappointed you removed this.  I find splash screens annoying
>>> after the first 50 or so times I see them and generally turn them off
>>> if possible.  Perhaps it's just me, but I suspect others might agree.
>>>
>>>            Mike
>>
>> I tend to agree, I turned off the splash screen many moons ago.
>> Mike E
>>
> That's interesting, thanks for your feedback.
>
> I like a splash screen for slow loading applications as it is a fast feedback
> that the application is effectively loading. I've seen many users click twice
> or three times on for example firefox because there was no immediate response.
> Particularly with GnuCash the time "nothing seems to happen" is very long
> without the splash screen.

IMHO the splash screen is quite useful, especially because the status line
and progress indicator of the splash screen tell my what is going on (and
that there is something happening at all).

I have some reports open at startup and it takes about 2 min 15 sec from
hitting enter after gnucash in the shell until the main window shows up
(by the way, the reports could use some speed improvements). So I like
the splash screen.

Even from starting to finishing of loading data it takes about 8 sec, so I
agree with Geert that some feedback for the user is useful.

On the other hand, if an experienced user does not like the splash screen for
whatever reason, he should be able to turn it off. Disclaimer: I am an
engineer, not an UI designer, and I am quite fond of options. I usually
prefer configurability (is that an english word?) over simplicity.

  Herbert.

> What is it you guys dislike about the splash screen ? I'm curious to
> understand.
>
> I have been looking at other applications with splash screens.
> * Gimp has no GUI option to disable it, but you can start it with gimp -s to
> disable the splash screen.
> * OpenOffice doesn't have an option to disable the splash screen
> * Scribus does have a GUI option to disable the splash screen.
>
> So apparently all variants exist.
>
> My main motivation to remove the option was simplification. Many applications
> suffer from "optionitis". With that in mind I figured an application either
> has a splash screen or it has not, but adding an option for it only clutters
> the GUI.
>
> After your feedback and looking at the other applications, I realize my train
> of thought may have been a little too.. well, simple...
>
>
> Geert
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-- 
Herbert Thoma
Dipl.-Ing., MBA
Head of Video Group
Multimedia Realtime Systems Department
Fraunhofer IIS
Am Wolfsmantel 33, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Phone: +49-9131-776-6130
Fax:   +49-9131-776-6099
email: tma at iis.fhg.de
www: http://www.iis.fhg.de/